Nah, this is actually confirmed. :)

Good eh?

http://www.webcitation.org/5qV9rj6no

I accidentally started listing to THB while reading this thread yesterday, and it depressed me. Not THB (obviously!), just the fact that there's so little chance of the new album being EVEN BETTER than that. Or, probably, anywhere near as good.

I'm in a weird place as my interest in the Manics had started to wane until JFPL, and then I became obsessed with them all over again. Now I'm afraid that my 'Indian Summer' of fandom might be about to end (I hate SATT) - although I'm very excited to hear the new stuff and really hope not!

</pessimism>

http://abrahamloveblog.blogspot.com/...ards-from.html

Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From a Young Man
Before you ask - no I don't have a copy and no I can't share the songs with you. I was lucky enough to hear two songs from the new Manic Street Preachers album. I was invited with a handful of people to hear a couple of songs at the Sony offices in London. I'm assuming they were rush mixes although they sounded as good as finished. I heard the title track 'Postcards from a young man' and a second song called 'The end of love'. they both sounded like potential singles. they both sounded very upbeat. Surprisingly happy in the vocal department. Postcards sounded like motown/doo wop crossed with Queen. It sounded excellent. The beat and tempo of 'Design for Life' with a piano over the intro and a bit at the end that sounded like the finale of Queen's 'Somebody to love'. It was grand and excellent and pretty catchy. 'End of love' started with some descending arpeggios on the guitar and some rim shots on the drums before crashing into a majestic song with lots of vocals and harmonies and a guitar solo. Sounded a bit like the Darkness at times. Both songs were very much Manics songs - but Postcards with its piano bits could be a different band if you couldn't hear the vocal. I'm no Manics super fan - but I quite like the big hits...these two songs I heard sound like big pop hits. They aren't listen-in-your-bedroom-hate-yourself-and-want-to-die numbers, they are grand rocking pop songs with catchy bits and stuff you could hum.

*Abandons all hope*.

Sounds promising!

I find it odd that Sony are inviting people to their offices to listen to Manics tracks nowadays. What happened to them giving the promo to any old tosser to leak on the net three months before release?

NME also said it sounds like Queen...

I'm optimistic, it all sounds good to me.

+1

+2

Oh christ... it's going to be KYE all over again, isn't it? Except the good bits will be swapped out for SATT era radio-blandness... :cry:

Well if it'd be like KYE that'd be great but to be honest it's sounding far more like SATT.

That said, if it turned out to be like SATT stylistically but with inspired songs, I could live with that.

I'm keeping my optimism intact until I get to hear something myself because I can't really trust anyone else's descriptions or opinions.

Doo-wop sounds alarmingly KYE to me, The Darkness sounds more SATT.

I'm veering here between excited optimism and blind panic.

:up: Snap. I'm excited by this because I know when the Manics want to, they can write some AWESOME radio friendly tunes. But I don't want to hear an album that's trying to be radio friendly at the expense of being true to the band itself.

I hope that makes some kind of sense! I'm 90% very chuffed with this new info, but 10% of me will have niggling doubts til I hear it.

The only thing you have to worry about the Manics going Darkness is...


http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...10277acopy.jpg

:scared: