Send away the tigers v Postcards for a Young man

[Colinzeal]

Is the general consensus on here that Postcards is the worst of the two?

I get that impression, but to me Send away the tigers is the worst Manics album. I just find it to be a total throw-away album that they didn't spend much time on. I find the lyrics particularly annoying and the music throughout sounds like a parody of the Manics. Whilst Postcards is flawed and the whole 'mass communication' thing really grated I think the song writing is much stronger and musically it has more interesting things going on even if it was spoiled by overuse of strings and gospel choirs.

[Son of Stopped]

I preferred Send Away The Tigers.
It was a massive step back from what they were doing on Lifeblood, but at least the rock tracks sounded more focused and enjoyable than the raw thrills from Know Your Enemy.

[Suicide Aldi]

Send away the tigers is better. Its the album that got me into the manics big time. Iv never understood all the hatred for it. Its just the manics being the manics. Whats so wrong with that once in a while? Sure if every record they did sounded like it then it would soon become tiresome, but every now and then its great fun! Plus it seemed to revitalise them as a band and boost their confidence.

[Bathtub]

I much prefer SATT. The title track and Don't Be Evil are the only songs off PFAYM that I still listen to, and not especially often.

[cherrybomb]

I think it maybe depends if you are a lyrics person or a music person, I fucking loathe SATT for the Godawful 'Ah that'll do' lyrics but can forgive PFAYM for the 'everything including kitchen sink' music because at least it has something to say and says it well.

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by cherrybomb

I think it maybe depends if you are a lyrics person or a music person, I fucking loathe SATT for the Godawful 'Ah that'll do' lyrics but can forgive PFAYM for the 'everything including kitchen sink' music because at least it has something to say and says it well.

I find both albums hit and miss for lyrics. Post-90s, I've given up academically looking through Manics lyrics, looking up references, taking away personal reflections etc (with the exception of Journal for Plague Lovers) because Nicky is an infuriating mix of good and awful lyrics.

[Dac X Lee]

Originally Posted by cherrybomb

I think it maybe depends if you are a lyrics person or a music person, I fucking loathe SATT for the Godawful 'Ah that'll do' lyrics but can forgive PFAYM for the 'everything including kitchen sink' music because at least it has something to say and says it well.

Yeah, kind of. But Tigers has Underdogs.... Not too much of a wisdom but those lyrics are sweet.

[Marat Sar]

Nothing to choose between, really. The only good thing I can say about those two is that it was truly working class of them to continue making music, when they weren´t good at it. And obviously didn´t want to either. With returns diminishing and youthfulness returning as parody etc. Continuing to work in these conditions is what being a working class hero is all about. And I am not sarcastic here. If they´d done what pretty much every other 90s band did: hiatus and reform - they would have lost their form. Rewind and Futurology would not have been possible. Instead of these genuine developments, we´d have gotten Forth, Bloodsports, the Blur tracks etc. Some kind of sad "picking it up where we left it off". No one wants to hear you pick it up from were you left it off, when you left off in ruins.

[tzb]

SATT by a long, long way. PFAYM is auditory hell.

[sculptureofabloke]

Postcards From A Young Man beats Send Away The Tigers for me. I can see similarities though, wasn't surprised at how much of a hit that Send Away The Tigers was given their hit making track record and I do like bits of it.. I just find both albums kind of frustrating given that they'd followed Lifeblood and Journal For Plague Lovers - a pair of incomparable albums that I think took them far out of their comfort zones, so bold and brave for different reasons and retreated from them so sharply.

I think Postcards From A Young Man is probably the closest they've been to trying to go over familiar ground, I think all the talk of mass communication etc probably would've probably resonated a bit better if it'd come before Send Away The Tigers. Can hardly believe it's only three and half years between the two albums, obviously there'd been a massive decline from previously but people were still buying singles in 2007 and I think over that period the consumer changed more than the band did.

Postcards From A Young Man does have more strong points than Send Away The Tigers for me though, I love Some Kind Of Nothingness, Don't Be Evil, Auto-Intoxication, A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun and The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever. That said, I think The Descent is possibly my least favourite song they've recorded. I liked the inclusion of guests on the album too. Sharing a studio with a weird bastard like John Cale was bound to bring some different ideas in...

Oh and both albums have some brilliant b-sides too.

[junkymotown]

I've hardly touched PFAYM since I bought it. It just gathers dust on my shelf, cos I never really took to it.

Send Away the Tigers... has some fantastic tunes.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Going from JFPL to PFAYM is like winning the Champions League to being relegated. It's an incredible incredible fall.

[nocultureicons]

SATT is better as an era, purely for the bsides, but I prefer PFAYM as an album because the songs are varied and complete. Much of SATT is repetition and overall feels more like an idea.

[kevoutus]

Much prefer SATT. It has a fresher feel and the band/songs sound more energised. I remember being so happy and feeling like they'd returned to form after Lifeblood/God Save The Manics etc. PFAYM just sounds a bit tired and a frail version of SATT.

[dolphin]

Originally Posted by kevoutus

Much prefer SATT. It has a fresher feel and the band/songs sound more energised. I remember being so happy and feeling like they'd returned to form after Lifeblood/God Save The Manics etc. PFAYM just sounds a bit tired and a frail version of SATT.

I do agree; not much between the two but SATT has so much more energy although it might have benefitted from one or two pared down songs [i.e. acoustic-based slower ones].