Yeah, watermarked promos hardly ever leak, I have a couple of them and they won't even play on my computer!

rofl, i'm sorry but you're totally wrong. i moderate like the second biggest one and despite my best efforts down the years there are albums that you will get borderline trolled for even mentioning, huge numbers of people who think the band is passe after album x or album y, and generally the usual level of interfan tension/conflicts you get on every band's forums really. they have a famously divisive discography after all. i stopped posting on the biggest one, atease, because trying to say something positive is like stepping on a minefield. with all due respect, compared to the big Radiohead messageboards this place is like a Teletubbies forum. i have seen people say pretty unashamedly 'fanboy' things here that pass without much notice but would get them mocked and trolled into oblivion and beyond on the bigger RH boards. which isn't anything to be proud of but yeah i don't know where you got that impression from.

i like how Price unashamedly puts the Richey albums over the Nicky ones, never liked that guy's taste in music. i think i agree with him about the wisdom of this direction though i'm surprised how well people here seem to be reacting to it. i think as fanbases go the Manics hardcore, beyond the many who gave up after Richey left of course, are generally really forgiving, or should i say undemanding. like Rolling Stones fans, i'm not sure that many people here are even bothered if the new album sucks or not, they just want to see them play the old songs on tour... that at least is my impression!

I'm nervous!

Waiting here for the leak... lol

Hi Richey83, such a long time. How are you?

Doesnt matter if it leaks you'll at least hear the songs by next Friday albeit live version from dodgy mobile phone recordings :P

Lol. It would be nice so but I think the songs won't have the same quality as the album... lol. ;)

Doubt that very much. They'll probably check for people waving their phones about during songs. These small gigs never really get bootlegged. I remember the AOL session in 2007 that never got recorded.

Yes, had to laugh at the various stuff you are not allowed to take into certain venues like a 'proper, professional camera' or something! :lol: Yeah, as if most of us are gonna have one of those!

don't know if anyone else has posted this track by track review. Sounds like its going to be a pretty strong album......really want to hear now having read this

http://www.the-fly.co.uk/words/featu.../-first-listen

that review has given me great confidence. i shall sleep well tonight :)

Don't think this has been posted...

Tweet from The Quietus: Starting the week with new Manic Street Preachers. Polish, massive chorus, strings, quite Bon Jovi. These are all good things.

Am terrified. No, I'm not a BJ fan (fnar fnar).

Great news that it's Polish, though. (-;

Bon Jovi? These reviews keep making me optimistic or cynical about the album each time. I need to lie in a dark room and keep saying 'it's a Manics album, of course it will be good'.

That description is made of total win if it's true. But then Nicky did say it...so it's probably bound to sound anything but.

Dudes/Dudettes, it will be fine! Trust me! :D

I've ordered the deluxe version from Townsend and CD 2 of It's Not Love. So excited!

No, that was The Quietus's reaction to hearing the album (www.thequietus.com).

Ah, I thought it came from a Nicky tweet. In that case, life is wonderful and the Manics are making like Bon Jovi! :D

Anyone else wondering where the Manics had acquired an interest in Polish music?:o

Btw, any ideas about 'Hazleton Avenue'. Google tells me it's a street in Toronto but it doesn't seem to be particularly distinctive or anything...

It's Not War (Just The End Of Love) is fun enough, I can see the intent is perhaps to bookend Journal For Plague Lovers with two more straightforward "Manic-esque" records, all pomp and deliberate self-reference. Anything overtly experimental might have lessened the still-fresh impact and beauty of Journal. That said, it's the only track so far, and therefore I can't speak for the album as a whole, I'm merely speculating.

It is a street in Toronto...a rather ritzy area of the city. Its notable here for its location in Yorkville (one of our many districts) which at one time was the centre of the great Canadian folk explosion (Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, The Band etc all came out of that scene) and later, known as the hippie capital of the country. The irony is that the area no longer resembles it's former self in any way shape or form. It went from hippie hangout to upscale yuppie central in the span of a decade. Pretty hilarious actually.

No idea what the song could be about, but I highly doubt it has anything to do with the area at all. Most likely, Wire just saw the name of the street and used it for the title as I believe he mentioned somewhere that the song was finished in Toronto when they were last here.

Interesting, thanks for all that. Yeah looks like it could be one of these New Order-type 'random' song titles, particularly as it seems to be misspelt.:P

Yeah, I'd wager it's pretty random. Doubtful a guy from Wales would have any lyrical insights on the region. ;)

How do you mean it's misspelt? You've spelt it right. How is it spelled within the track listing?

Have I? It's Hazelton according to Google.

Haha! I didn't even notice that! Yeah, you're right 'Hazelton' not 'Hazleton' is correct.

Is that how it's spelled on the track listings? LOL! That's gotta be a mistake!

Apparently, according to the publicity.

Not doubt the Wire will loftily inform us that great artists don't concern themselves with such trivia, possibly citing the precedent of 'Cemetry Gates'!:)

it is very nice to read something that makes my mind imagine "exile on main st" ran through "back to mono" and played as "kick out the jams"... BUT after hearing the single i am terrified reality will correct me to "slippery when wet" with strings ;)

I'm curious about Hazleton Avenue as well. I hope it is a lyric about the Canadian Music scene! :D

I hope so too! Cuz the Canadian music scene is fantastic at the moment!

this album will be amazing. I cannot wait. Im looking for hours and hours to listen new songs

The Fly review had some lovely descriptions.

To be fair to the band, on the sleeve of the promo itself it is spelt correctly as 'Hazelton Avenue', it's some of the subsequent press material which has spelt it wrong. Nicky's own notes about each track spell it correctly too.

Loving the Fly review. Simon Price's got me thinking about being able to do a top 10 list of MSP albums, his list is below -

MSP Top Ten: 1. THB 2. EMG 3. JFPL 4. GATS 5. GT 6. KYE 7. PFAYM 8. SATT 9. TIMTTMY 10. LB

Where do those that have heard it think Postcards sits in their Top 10?

Personally I disagree with some of Mr Price's positions - KYE can go straight to 10 for me and SATT only at no 8?? That's crazy talk!!

@Guitarist_Mag on Twitter posted on 2nd Aug:
Next up: the new Manics album.

I asked what they thought - responses I got was:
It's very different to JFPL, but JDB is still tearing up the fretboard as usual
and
it's a very optimistic sounding record

Well, I'm not going to pretend I'd have noticed the difference between Hazleton Avenue and Hazelton Avenue personally, but that misspelling has ruined the entire album for me. It's like 'Wyndam Lewis' in the SATT booklet all over again. Terrible start. And then there's the single whose punctuation overload makes it look like a mathematical equation.

Look, Google spellcheck is even telling me Hazelton is right. Who does Sony pay for its proofreading? IS IT THAT FUCKING WEK? I want Twitter confirmation from Sean Moore himself that it's been fixed IMMEDIATELY!

Ah stop complaining. Not as bad as 'Black Do On My Shoulder' which is the dreadful misspelling in the Truth booklet! :lol:

Only spelling mistake that ever annoyed me was Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart on the THB front cover, and only because it was the front cover. Otherwise, I'll let them off.

Like I said before, they haven't got this one wrong.

:lol: is there anything you won't criticize? I expect the lyric booklet to have mistakes just cos they almost always do..mistakes or missing lyrics. Any band..not just the manics

Okay fair enough.
I thought I was the only one who noticed that!:P

Um.. For one last attempt at mass communication, surely having the single playlisted on any of the major radio stations might help?

Edit: I just saw that Absolute have playlisted, but they appear to be the only ones. Doesn't seem like a very good start...

Actually, it's probably for the best. From a marketing point of view, Sony now needs to sweep this unfortunate Steps rip off under the carpet and start afresh with the second single.

Remember, Underdogs was technically the first single from SATT and they did an excellent job of making everyone forget that ever happened when Nina came along.