However it's spelt, i just hope he stays in Bristol or wherever he's from, when the manics head out on tour.

Listened to it for the first time yesterday. Can't believe they even got the MANDOLA out!

I reckon I would have preferred the DVD too. DVDs are less leaky than demos though, so they put it in the more expensive version.

On First Listening:

(It's Not War) Just The End Of Love - 7/10
Postcards From A Young Man - 8/10
Some Kind Of Nothingness - 7/10
The Descent (Pages 1 & 2) - 5/10
Hazelton Avenue - 4/10
Auto - Intoxication - 8/10
Golden Platitudes - 5/10
I Think I Found It - 5/10
A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun - 5/10
All We Make is Entertainment - 6/10
The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever - 6/10 (would of got 7, but godfather 3 lyric and the ending does not fit the song)
Don't Be Evil - 5/10.

Postcards From A Young Man Overall Score - 6 out of 10 on first listen.

So everyone that held off, are you proud you came a month late to the party? :lol:

Good girl. You've finally seen the light.

We weren't late, you were early. :lol:

And yes.

It was nice to have something new to listen to upon receiving the album in the post this morning (which was the whole reason I didn't download the leak; it was never about the morals of illegal downloads for me), but I was hardly on my high horse in the first place, so pride doesn't really come into it.

Heard the album for the first time this morning. I had a pretty strong feeling it wouldn't be for me (being a THB/JFPL fan) and sadly that has been confirmed to be true. I like PFAYM, AI and AWMIE, but can pass on the rest. It's sad having to take that, but I'm not a "they've lost it" doom monger, it just wasn't the album for me this time round.

the [Demo] of Don't Be Evil is JFPLtastic!

For me it's a grower. When I first heard it I only liked half of it. I didn't get SKON and now I think it's amazing and although I shouldn't like theme from Brookie aka Hazelton Avenue, I really do! The only tracks I have issues with are Future (The obligatory Nicky vocal is so unnecessary), Platitudes (I just find it bland despite the lovely vocal on it) and Don't Be Evil as that should have been about track 5 or 6 with Postcards as the finisher.

I'm not disappointed. JDB is still the best male singer in the business today and he's still seriously value for money from where I'm standing.

Yep. It sounds corny, but there really is something special about putting the CD in and hearing it for the first time while you flick through the booklet.

I thought I was going to hate this album, but I actually think it's pretty decent. I think this is going to end up being my 7th or 8th favourite Manics album (ahead of EMG and TIMTTMY - not sure if it'll overtake SATT or not yet), which is better than the "biggest pile of shite they've ever done" opinion I thought I was going to have.

The demo disc is pretty interesting too, for once - for me, demo discs tend to just gather dust, but I might actually listen to this one. As mentioned above, Don't Be Evil [Demo] is actually a pretty excellent song! I think I prefer the more low key "ahhhh ahhh ahhh" bit of SKON as well, in comparison to the album version.

Got the demos on the CD player now and SKON just started and I was shocked to hear Nicky singing on in it. Kind of groovy in a way this version.

Billion Balconies... demo is actually a slightly reworked version of Masses Against The Classes.

Mine didnt arrive today. Gutted. Ordered from Play and was posted about 3 days ago as well. I hope everyone's enjoying theirs though