Quote:
Originally Posted by who's responsible?
Can't agree Andy, lyrically it's poor in comparison with GATS (which is underrated IMO, regardless of what the band think). It's "not bad" in the sense that (in my opinion) the majority of MSP material is in a different league to other bands' offerings. It isn't their best by any means, but it's still good. SKON seems to be one of the more divisive tracks, but I have to admit that I love it. It works for me (with the exception of Ian Mc's vocal, which I don't see the point in - replacing JDB with him, even partially, is a downgrade.) The massed choirs and so on, love it.
The problem seems to be that every new offering gets compared to two of the finest musical creations of our (well, my, being an old git) generation - THB and EMG. In their past they have created some wonderful pieces of dark, twisted perfection and we judge the likes of PFAYM against this. Comparing the likes of SKON (and even the skin-crawling lyrics of Autumnsong) with Faster, PCP and the EMG era stuff isn't a fair comparison.
No doubt the new one (s) will face the same allegations of "they used to be good, but they're shit now", but frankly who cares. They provided the soundtrack to my adult life, and long may they continue.
TL;DR - Postcards is ok really.
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I'm slightly confused by this post - you said you don't agree but you restated a lot of what I said! I like
GATS a lot too. I agree that the lyrics are often better on it than on
Postcards, but
Postcards has some strengths over it too - such as, it doesn't have 'Gold Against the Soul' on it (one of the weakest closing tracks the Manics have made, for me) and is a bit more varied. I've always thought the band dislike
GATS because of the way they felt making it (i.e. sold out, "under the corporate wing"), more than the actual results of the process.
I love most Manics music, and there's something genuinely incredible about every phase of their output. I certainly don't think THB or EMG are the de facto things to compare to because one is very difficult to compare anything to and the other is, in my opinion, one of less inspired Manics albums. Too samey, too straightforward.