Most Under-Rated MSP Album

[Mr Richey]

Originally Posted by Industrial Symphony No.1

That's right, it was Rage Against the Machine...

No, it wasn't!

Rage Against The Machine and Green Day both had songs called "Know Your Enemy", but neither band ever had an album with that title.

[Industrial Symphony No.1]

Originally Posted by Mr Richey

No, it wasn't!

Rage Against The Machine and Green Day both had songs called "Know Your Enemy", but neither band ever had an album with that title.

I have to admit, it was a rubbish joke on my part!

[Jackie Collins]

Originally Posted by Bathtub

Five fucking great tracks, but then five fucking abysmal ones too!

Five? Five?

I counted two, which were probably two from the five you found abysmal!

GATS is seriously underrated. The vocals are amazing.

[Bryter Layter]

Definitely Lifeblood. Woefully underapreciated by the fans, the press and shamefully, by the band themselves.

Lifeblood could sound like absolute garbage (which it doesn't in the slightest) and I'd still think it's a brilliant album. Any artist that has the courage to produce something outside their traditional format deserves praise, not ridicule.

Btw, I don't really agree that JFPL was/is an underappreciated album. On the contrary, I think it's been one of the most critically acclaimed albums they've done. I guess the argument over that album stems from the fact that they didn't really do much promotion, but I think that's what was probably intended - a low-key release that would grow into a cult classic much like THB did.

Mind you, JFPL wasn't really ignored by the band if you consider what they did with it - played it live in full to those of you in the UK, released the album in N America (it's rare that any of their albums since KYE have been released in this market) and then took it there for some live gigs. They must have had a lot of confidence and/or respect for JFPL if they braved a N American tour for it.

[love made out of hate]

grrrrr. I knew deadblood would run away with this one.

[Mayhew]

Lifeblood. Immensely underrated.

[meganslastwords]

Originally Posted by Mayhew

Lifeblood. Immensely underrated.

+1

[Mr.Selfdestruct]

There isn't any under rated MSP album.

THB was highly rated but largely due to events surrounding Richey and the band changing beyond recognition in the couple of years after it, it never did as well as it should have or received the attention it deserved outside the UK.

JFPL was highly rated, but should have done better everywhere, and it probably would have with singles and more promotion.

I don't understand the Lifeblood love in on FD. None of my manics friends away from here like it. The band are correct to dismiss it as a mistake. It has 3 or 4 really good tracks, but the rest is flat and it's a rubbish album.
Many probably got into that band around that period, which might explain why people like it so much? Also, 04-05 was a great live period for the band, which is why i look back at that time with fondness

[meganslastwords]

i only really got into the manics in january so that's definitely not why i think lifeblood is underrated i just think that out of all their albums, it's the one that gets the most undeserved hate

[The Gutless Wonder]

Been a Manics fan since '98. I love Lifeblood cos it's different to their usual output and is genuinely beautiful. Shame the band seem to have quickly forgotten this.

[drugdrugdruggy]

I also really love Lifeblood, I think it has some of Nicky's best words on there and overall I think it's a really good album.

[Nature's Discontent]

Voted KYE, only because I feel it deserves more votes in comparison to Lifeblood.

[Mayhew]

Lifeblood is a beautiful album musically, lyrically and vocally. It doesn't deserve the hate it's get. Promotion was all wrong for the album and just was bound to fail (Failure Bound should I say) sadly.

[tzb]

So it's farily well accepted that exactly half of GATS is shit, right? Lifeblood is probably just over half shit. The good songs are 1985, A Song For Departure, I Live To Fall Asleep, To Repel Ghosts and Solitude Sometimes Is. The rest is basically dire... so I don't see why it's winning this thread.

[Mr Richey]

Originally Posted by tzb

So it's farily well accepted that exactly half of GATS is shit, right? Lifeblood is probably just over half shit. The good songs are 1985, A Song For Departure, I Live To Fall Asleep, To Repel Ghosts and Solitude Sometimes Is. The rest is basically dire... so I don't see why it's winning this thread.

From GATS, I'd say these are the winners: "Sleepflower", "From Despair To Where", "Scream To A Sigh", "Yourself" and "Life Becoming A Landslide". Everything else is mediocre to dreadful.

But then Lifeblood becomes the tough one. Nobody seems to be able to agree on the good tracks, everyone has a different opinion. This might be why it's winning the poll because people are choosing it based on songs THEY think are good. And it stands to reason that if everyone likes different songs on the album, overall it's going to be considered a good album.

For my money, there's only 5 songs on Lifeblood you ever need to listen to: "1985", "To Repel Ghosts", "Always/Never", "Solitude Sometimes Is" and "Fragments". There are some great b-sides from that era, of course.