What choo talkin' 'bout, Wire?

[Flint]

TLORN is just perfect in every single way outside the fact that it was the lead single, which was pretty much the worst decision you could do with the album. The atmosphere of it is fantastically ice-cold emotionless which goes great with the lyrics, the soundworld of it is immaculate (especially that high-pitch synth line in the chorus <3), and then you have that infectious groove to it. It's just such a superb song.

And yeah, Lifeblood era b-sides are some of their best. Wouldn't say they're far superior to the album itself (I think my stance on LB is pretty well established by now) but they're not far from it - and perhaps if they wanted an apocalyptic disco song on the album TLORN could have been replaced with Everyone Knows/Nobody Cares, but the former's not damaging the album in any way. The majority of them would have made brilliant album tracks. Generally the 98-05 period was pretty much their b-side golden age with nary a miss amongst all the glimmering diamonds.

Now if people would only stop talking about my two favourite Manics subjects (Lifeblood and b-sides) while I'm asleep so I don't have to go through pages of text and then desperately try to answer whichever points that were mentioned eons ago while feeling wake-up groggy .

[River Boy]

Originally Posted by Richey83

Agree, it's production is not as bad as Know Your Enemy.

Donkey: "They couldn't have used All Alone Here. It's just a few words repeated again and again. Don't get me wrong I like it but the lyric sucks...
Antarctic is one of their worst songs ever and I'm sure they also think so A fake country ballad. Any change would make it better, even Nicky's vocals"

It's far more charming than The Soulmates, anyway how can you possibly know they think it's their worse song? Also, with All Alone Here, I suspect they would have gone to the effort of writing another verse had they envisioned it as an album track.

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by Amanda

Its like how songs like You Stole the Sun always get a knocking on here but you go see they always go down amazingly, where as something like 4st7lb I've seen people on here say they would like them to play it but when they did it was just horrible, uncomfortable and a relief when it was over. So I can see it would be a struggle to get that right mix as you need to throw a couple of curios in there but you don't want the gig to be a load of intensely intense chin scratching, needs to be more visceral.

Qft.

You have to consider the image of a slightly portly 5ft nothing 40+yr old Welsh man singing "Lift up my skirt my sex is gone". James obviously feels most comfortable doing the "musical" tunes like Kevin Carter and Ocean Spray .

Originally Posted by Pasquerel

Do you think they know every song on their albums by heart (not counting the B-sides and covers)?

Dunno but there was a video up on the site a few years ago of them rehearsing a slightly rough version of Sleepflower for the tour. REM's guitarist said a few years ago that they had to go out and buy REM guitar books cause they couldn't remember how to play some songs!

Originally Posted by BradfieldsLoveChild

But surely they could mix those songs up between tours? Now, don't get me wrong, I love hearing the hits. It wouldn't be a Manics gig without Motorcycle Emptiness, A Design For Life, You Stole The Sun From My Heart and a handful of others.

I wonder how hard it would be, for a 20 song set to have, say, 10 staple hits which will always be played (which is fine by me), and then another 6 semi-regular tracks and 6 curios, four of which they drop into the set on rotation throughout the dates.

They already do tihs pretty much. Though there is more than 10 staple hits they do mix around. La Tristesse and Roses are semi-regular, Suicide is Painless, PennyRoyalty, Born to End and Slash n Burn are curios.

They also add in little covers like She Sells Sanctuary the other year which counts as a curio. They rehearse I think about 30 for a tour and substitute a few around each gig. The method's there but I'd agree the balance is a bit skewered.


It is baffling they've never done Sepia live.

Some songs even whole albums get bypassed like Lifeblood . Think it's been three years since 1985 got played live and five years since any of the other songs got an airing. Nicky posted on one of his notes last year sometime or the year before that one of his fav Manics tracks at that point was Live to Fall Asleep...

[Tetsuo]

On Lifeblood, that could've been a better album. Everything Will Be at Glasto sounded great and the final version was too sanitised like the whole album. Nicky said Nixon started out as an indie-acousticy-REM style number and it erm, ended up being a David Bowie/Pet Shop Boys via New Order at their worst kinda thing.

[Takk]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

They already do tihs pretty much. Though there is more than 10 staple hits they do mix around. La Tristesse and Roses are semi-regular, Suicide is Painless, PennyRoyalty, Born to End and Slash n Burn are curios.

They also add in little covers like She Sells Sanctuary the other year which counts as a curio. They rehearse I think about 30 for a tour and substitute a few around each gig. The method's there but I'd agree the balance is a bit skewered.

It is baffling they've never done Sepia live.

Some songs even whole albums get bypassed like Lifeblood . Think it's been three years since 1985 got played live and five years since any of the other songs got an airing. Nicky posted on one of his notes last year sometime or the year before that one of his fav Manics tracks at that point was Live to Fall Asleep...

They do mix it up a bit, and it's great they've been bringing out say one curio for a tour - but it's usually only the odd one, and the rest effectively being a greatest hits set with a sprinking of new album tracks which are dropped as soon as the tour is over. It just seems like they never have much confidence in new material.

[BrianPowell]

I wouldn't mind the Setlist looking something like this.

Peeled Apples
New Song1
From Despair To Where
La Tristesse Durera
New Song2
Faster
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Roses In The Hospital
Motorcycle Emptiness
No Surface All Feeling
New Song3
Yes
Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
New Song4
Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky
If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next
All Or Nothing-Motown Junk
Stay Beautiful
Everything Must Go
You Love Us
A Design For Life

As you can tell from my Setlist, I don't mind not being suprised too much.

[Bobafettish]

But at heart, they're a rock band.
Lifeblood was electro-pop, and comparitavely panned by reviewers.
It seems logical that, of all their albums, that it doesn't get much of a look-in
As for the setlists as a whole, the rotation on a tour isn't that important, the majority won't go to several dates. The SATT tours, combined had what, Roses, Die in the Summertime, PCP? Stay Beautiful, Sleepflower, Freedom of Speech, Born to End...
That's not exactly bad going is it?
JFPl had Sorrow 16, plus so many tracks we'll never hear again.
There are subtle differences, maybe JDB could try to incorporate more acoustically, but a gig without YSTSFMH, Tolerate, songs that get the crowd motivated, are always going to be picked over rarities and album tracks. Especially early albums, when James' voice struggles these days. I'd rather they didn't play, say, Mausoleum , than play and butcher it

[River Boy]

Originally Posted by bobafetti

But at heart, they're a rock band.
Lifeblood was electro-pop, and comparitavely panned by reviewers.
It seems logical that, of all their albums, that it doesn't get much of a look-in
As for the setlists as a whole, the rotation on a tour isn't that important, the majority won't go to several dates. The SATT tours, combined had what, Roses, Die in the Summertime, PCP? Stay Beautiful, Sleepflower, Freedom of Speech, Born to End...
That's not exactly bad going is it?
JFPl had Sorrow 16, plus so many tracks we'll never hear again.
There are subtle differences, maybe JDB could try to incorporate more acoustically, but a gig without YSTSFMH, Tolerate, songs that get the crowd motivated, are always going to be picked over rarities and album tracks. Especially early albums, when James' voice struggles these days. I'd rather they didn't play, say, Mausoleum , than play and butcher it

No they're not rock or pop, they're melodists - the only common thread that runs through every album they've done.

[hummingbird]

rock with pop sensibilities?

[Tom]

Originally Posted by River Boy

No they're not rock or pop, they're melodists - the only common thread that runs through every album they've done.

Damn good call.

[BrianPowell]

Originally Posted by River Boy

No they're not rock or pop, they're melodists - the only common thread that runs through every album they've done.

Also agree.

[love made out of hate]

Lol, Nixon - awful!

I think the best description of that song came from a user on this forum. It was something like "TLORN sounds like a pervert breathing through your letterbox armed with a mini casio keyboard." haha.

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

They already do tihs pretty much. Though there is more than 10 staple hits they do mix around. La Tristesse and Roses are semi-regular, Suicide is Painless, PennyRoyalty, Born to End and Slash n Burn are curios.

La Tristesse is a regular, not semi regular. I've seen that at far more than Roses, and I've seen that a fair few times.

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

They also add in little covers like She Sells Sanctuary the other year which counts as a curio. They rehearse I think about 30 for a tour and substitute a few around each gig. The method's there but I'd agree the balance is a bit skewered.

I wouldn't count the MJ intros as curios. Besides, I rather hear an original Manics song than the first third of a random cover. They're a nice touch, and I like that they add the different intros onto MJ, but I class it as part of the song, not a curio in it's own right.

I also hate the word curio.

[mafiamonroe]

The word curio should only be used on the Antiques Roadshow.

[comradestripe]

Originally Posted by mafiamonroe

The word curio should only be used on the Antiques Roadshow.