Quote:
Originally Posted by RookUK
For me, the Manics are a genuinely exceptional band and when they have an "off" album it is still as good or better than the records most other bands produce. I think Postcards is very much about ageing gracefully, and admitting to not being quite as sure about things as the band were years earlier - and I like that aspect of it.
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Yeah, this is more or less how I feel too. I have a 'least best' Manics album, but not a 'most hated'. I like everything they've done, more or less. I adore most of it. The stuff I've actively disliked could probably be counted off on one hand.
Personal taste is an odd thing, really. I thought 'Postcards' was a brill album, though it was probably my 'least best' Manics album for a long time. I absolutely adored 'Hazelton Avenue', which most people here seem to dislike. I thought the 'one last shot at mass communication' stuff was a brilliant Manics conceit, and sums up everything that makes this band so much fun. And I think SATT is absolutely fantastic too, one of my favourites. Oh well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil C
Oh, and I note people are belly-aching about the use of horns on the next album already, like they did when gospel choirs were mentioned as featuring on 'Postcards'. Frankly, a lot of the haters of 'Postcards' seemed to have decided to hate it in advance. And at the same time people are describing the band as uninspired and musically conservative - terms which seem at times to describe their fan-base more accurately that it does the band themselves.
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I think there's a lot of truth in this, yeah. I think the backlash against 'Postcards' did begin as soon as we first heard about it, and the second I read the word 'horns' in a recent interview, I
knew what the response would be like online. There's a whole lot of comments elsewhere on FD criticising the new album for it's acoustic direction and the use of horns when, really, we know bugger all about how they're used at this point (and the Manics have a track record for less-than-representative descriptions of upcoming material anyway). To a degree that's just fan passion (we
want it to be good and worry about any random element that might derail that) and I'm not sure I can justly criticise anyone else for musical conservatism anyway - there are certain genres I wouldn't touch with a bargepole - but it's still a shame.
I'm not sure if any of it really matters though, and I'm not convinced it paints an accurate picture of fan opinion anyway. There's a thing that happens on the internet (in life generally, but the internet especially) where people only really speak up when they're unhappy. When they're satisfied, they tend to be less vocal, and that can skew perceptions. I mean, there's a perception here that 'Autumnsong' is despised, and yet I've always felt the audience response when it's played live is
tremendous.
The same dozen or so FD members will rip into SATT and Postcards at
any opportunity, no matter how tangential it is to the discussion at hand. They're quite welcome to do so, but I have to wonder do their comments
really represent the feelings of the wider Manics fandom, or are they just a very vocal minority? I'm sure there are plenty who love those albums but either don't feel the need to enter the fray or are drowned out or ridiculed when they do. Though, bless, Gutless keeps on trying...
I think I've forgotten where I was going with this and I'm clearly rambling, so I'll shut up now. But yeah, that and stuff.