[darkanddivine]

Hola! I don't comment much on release days, but the fact I'm here says.... something about the way this release has gone down. It does seem there's a gentle buzz about it which is nice.

As always, my sense with MSP is 15 albums in and decades of fandom - we're closer to the end than the beginning, and hopefully they've already paid out many times in joy and fun and games to make anything at this point a free hit. It's mostly nice they're still here because one day they won't be. It's a bit like a footballer late in their career who makes cameo appearances in really important games. They may not have the dominance and aggression of their youth, but one thing about the Manics that I always admire is their work ethic, regardless of what they put out.

My feeling is that this is a better record than TUVL. While I wouldn't sit it alongside some of the earlier work overall, I'm always here for records that nod strongly to Lifeblood and Truth, which this does in a few places. There are a few songs that sit in the cannon quite nicely, though my current favourite is People Ruin Paintings, closely followed by Brushstrokes of Reunion. I honestly quite like Decline & Fall, certainly over the singles from TUVL. Yeah it's Manics signature sound, but only they can pull that off - so why not I reckon. Having caught it brieflly, Johatsu is really good - sortof reminiscent of All Alone Here and ForeverDelayed. Looks like we can still leave corkers off the album proper! The chords in Being Baptised have shades of TiMT so it feels like they've delved into that indie side of the band a lot more on this one.

Overall, it carries on where TUVL began, but refines those ideas and maybe blends in a sortof warmer version of Lifeblood/Truth which gives it that something extra. Arguably some of the songs on TUVL are higher individual peaks (eg:Complicated Illusions), but the overall quality of the album seems higher throughout for me. Time will tell where it sits of course, but for now it's nice to have that buzz back around the band. Tour is sold out and people seem to be liking it from what I'm hearing, so it's just good to see and hear folks getting more enjoyment out of the band. I'll do a track by track maybe once I've had a few more listens.