I get that I became a fan in a different time but my first exposure to the Manics was live concerts. Buying albums and singles came after, so when I think of what the Manics sound like I think of how they sound playing live.

Nothing they've put out, apart from the demos for this album or live recordings, sound like the real Manics to me because despite James's recent best efforts at laziness the Manics live show is still a guitar led, rock sound. When you go to a gig the songs sound heavier and more rock and roll than the records.

These recent albums, they might start off Manics with demos but end up overproduced and moulded into 80s nostalgia soft muzak looking to work it's way into spotify playlists.

I think Routine Builder said earlier in the thread that the response here was fairly balanced, some enjoying and some not, found that fairly accurate really. Sad to say I put it on the other day and ended up skipping some tracks or thinking 'this could be improved if they did this' about others.

What I did find funny is how some fans here have said the title track is brilliant, their favourite, best on the album etc. Two friends who are Manics fans but not on here told me their opinions, one said "I can declare quite confidently that the opening title track is the worst thing I've ever heard by them" and the other one described it as "absolute AIDS". :lol:

I think i'd be quite happy and confident in my thoughts if i had an an opinion diametrically opposed to someone who would describe something as "Absolute AIDS".

I think it's my favourite album of theirs since Futurology to be honest, and a lot less conservative than I was expecting compared to recent previous (all of which I gave a couple of cursory listens that all ended in a shrug.)

It feels to me, like Futurology, an album they made with fewer compromises towards charts or 'mass communication' (Decline & Fall aside, which has a whiff of International Blue about it, and not in a bad way.)

It's also got me back into listening to them again and being excited to listen to them again. Between the new album, I've had the second part of the KYE reissue on hard repeat along with JFPL and Futurology, and I'm enjoying the fact that I am enjoying the Manics again, when there have been many periods in the past where I didn't think I could or would.

I have been on a serious JFPL splurge (one of my favourite eras). The documentaries are great. I must seek out some live videos of the songs. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

Especially nice to hear James saying that Doors Closing Slowly was one of his favourites as it is one of my favourites from the album as well.

:lol:

I've had JFPL on recently too, and I'd concur about Doors Closing Slowly, it's a wonderful and humbling little song. Considering how it was recorded, I think they got the absolute right balance in the delivery and sound here. I wish they'd play it again.

Just a great era. Loved the JFPL gig I went to. My next Manics gig was the 2011 singles thing in London and it paled in comparison (felt like a test of endurance!) Didn't enjoy that gig at all.

Same, it was fascinating to finally hear and read the lyrics Richey had been writing before his disappearance, I had always been really curious about that time (for his artistry, not his health issues). Also I'm a big fan of Albini's recording methods and the sound the band had on those songs, so it scratched a lot of itches for me, a side of the band I really loved.

I never wanted The Holy Bible II, so it wasn't specifically frenetic post-punk riffs and lots of obscure references I yearned for, but just hearing a great rock band sounding alive again. It's a shame they see the album as this kind of left-field artistic project, it's not like Journal for Plague Lovers or Marlon J.D. or Peeled Apples or This Joke Sport Severed are a load of inaccessible weirdness.

Easy for us to say - but when you're the band on stage playing to a room of people going "😐" its harder to leave the deeper cuts in.

But then again, for the majority of the people that go to manics gigs these days, anything released after TIMTMY (or being generous SATT) is going to be a deep cut anyway so it really shouldn't make a difference whether they play quality deep cuts or recent dross.

Honestly, that's 90% of their setlist. For most of the audience anything outside of the single for TIMT or EMG are deep cuts. Should Enola/Alone be considered a deep cut? The level of audience engagement has been abysmal since 2016. A band's performance and audience engagement are reciprocal and it's my opinion the band have been giving a lot more than they've received lately. Again, not sure why two or three deep cuts in a 22-24 song setlist should be considered egregious especially for the more crowd pleasing songs from JFPL. A deep cut should either be a b-side or an unloved album track, not the opening song from a highly reviewed album that reached 3 in the charts.