Distant Colours

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by raven

http://clashmusic.com/news/manic-str...istant-colours

"When you get to a certain age you can’t pretend not to be that age," James tells Clash. "Everything becomes a distant colour. Everything becomes a distant memory. You start disengaging with memory and engaging with reality, and reality is so fractured you’re left with nothing. So that’s what the song is about!"

So who's the real misery guts of the band now, James or Nicky? Yeah, this is kinda the immediate feel I got from the lyrics and think it's much sadder than it's being given credit for. Course they want to stay relevant but they've always been misfits. Thinking about Futurology, when they were talking about how they'd kinda latched onto Europe, eh this article says most of what I want to say anyway.. Manic Street Preachers: Eurostars find a new strasse

At the 1,800-capacity Ancienne Belgique, meanwhile, something quite remarkable is afoot: five musicians, on a stage bedecked with two Welsh flags, performing a song so at odds with the political moment that it sounds like a work of consummate bravery.

Its title is Europa Geht Durch Mich (translation: Europe Passes Through Me), and it was originally titled European Miracle. The pre-recorded chorus is delivered by the German film star Nina Hoss, and much of its lyric seems to be an awestruck tribute to ideas that now seem to be fragmenting as never before: "European skies/ European desires/ European roads/ European hopes/ European sons/ European love." Only one couplet sounds a slightly more troubled note: "European dreams/ European screams."

Those at odds misfits eh, find it quite sad and funny that not long after they'd been singing Europe's praises and influences, the UK voted to leave the EU. Course I know the difference between Europe and the EU (I fear many don't), but think this quote puts it quite well, an awestruck tribute to ideas that now seem to be as fragmenting as never before... They're quite a schizophrenic band really, they're underdogs, they want to be relevant but success is an ugly world, they don't know their left from right.. But most importantly for me, they're human, this shit can be so relateable.

[Dac X Lee]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

They're quite a schizophrenic band really, they're underdogs, they want to be relevant but success is an ugly world, they don't know their left from right.. But most importantly for me, they're human, this shit can be so relateable.

Heh, I think I might agree with you. I'd just add that that's one of the things that make them so charming to me. Besides their musical/poetic talent, of course...
Somehow, even though we lived different lives, at different times and different locations... They feel... So... Relatable. And that feels weirdly friendly.

Anyway, the EU thing, I think it still makes Futurology relevant. The beauty of art is also that it can take so many meanings and interpretations, and the topic (EU and Europe) is right there.

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Dac X Lee

Heh, I think I might agree with you. I'd just add that that's one of the things that make them so charming to me. Besides their musical/poetic talent, of course...
Somehow, even though we lived different lives, at different times and different locations... They feel... So... Relatable. And that feels weirdly friendly.

Anyway, the EU thing, I think it still makes Futurology relevant. The beauty of art is also that it can take so many meanings and interpretations, and the topic (EU and Europe) is right there.

Yeah, on a personal level a lot of what speaks to them speaks to me. Different parts of the world, different lives but I do see similarties between their background and my own, and the way our backgrounds help shape the way they see the world.

There was nowt about Distant Colours that made me think oh this is about the EU, Trump, Corbyn etc. It is quite a vague lyric, but maybe that's part of the point too, memories fade.

[UEF]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

Did I read somewhere about that one being a duet? Not heard owt about any album guests yet, but given how they went without guests inbetween GT and SATT and they haven't gone without guests since JFPL, it'll be a surprise if they do now.

Black Holes for the Young - the great lost single, with Sophie Ellis-Bextor - was a TIMT era song

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by UEF

Black Holes for the Young - the great lost single, with Sophie Ellis-Bextor - was a TIMT era song

Ah course, didn't think beyond the albums, one of my favourite songs from the era too. For some reason I had it in my head that Groovejet came out before Everlasting... Would've been silly to stick it out as a b-side if it had, Groovejet was massive. Mind you, I say that'd be silly, then again they got John Cale to guest on an album track that they never played live. John Cale, one of the most influential Welsh musicians ever.. He was in the Velvet Underground for fuck sake! It's like Hull City signing Lionel Messi and leaving him on the bench.

[UEF]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

Ah course, didn't think beyond the albums, one of my favourite songs from the era too. For some reason I had it in my head that Groovejet came out before Everlasting... Would've been silly to stick it out as a b-side if it had, Groovejet was massive. Mind you, I say that'd be silly, then again they got John Cale to guest on an album track that they never played live. John Cale, one of the most influential Welsh musicians ever.. He was in the Velvet Underground for fuck sake! It's like Hull City signing Lionel Messi and leaving him on the bench.

They also got Duff from fucking Guns n Roses to play an entirely 'phoned in' bass line on Don't Be Evil

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by UEF

They also got Duff from fucking Guns n Roses to play an entirely 'phoned in' bass line on Don't Be Evil

A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun wasn't it? It's been a while. Got shut of my copy of that one!

[Dancing Kirby]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

There was nowt about Distant Colours that made me think oh this is about the EU, Trump, Corbyn etc. It is quite a vague lyric, but maybe that's part of the point too, memories fade.

Oh, I totally got what it was about. James no longer knowing the left from the right, the once distant colours of Labour and the Tories now bleeding, the otherwise cringy ‘won’t you say that you love me?/tell me what I want to hear’ line being to Corbyn rather than Mrs Bradfield.

But that just makes the song more objectionable because going from Motown Junk to this desperate Westlife-sounding dross means they may as well be writing it about themselves.

[raven]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

So who's the real misery guts of the band now, James or Nicky? Yeah, this is kinda the immediate feel I got from the lyrics and think it's much sadder than it's being given credit for. Course they want to stay relevant but they've always been misfits. Thinking about Futurology, when they were talking about how they'd kinda latched onto Europe, eh this article says most of what I want to say anyway.. Manic Street Preachers: Eurostars find a new strasse



Those at odds misfits eh, find it quite sad and funny that not long after they'd been singing Europe's praises and influences, the UK voted to leave the EU. Course I know the difference between Europe and the EU (I fear many don't), but think this quote puts it quite well, an awestruck tribute to ideas that now seem to be as fragmenting as never before... They're quite a schizophrenic band really, they're underdogs, they want to be relevant but success is an ugly world, they don't know their left from right.. But most importantly for me, they're human, this shit can be so relateable.

Like pinning your colours to the mast.....but the years go by and your ship's sailed and you can just about make those colours out if you squint....maybe

The clear delineations between left and right have unravelled and yeah it's happened over the years since the 80s - the Thatcher and Reagan years and in a way Trump and Brexit (& Putin!) are the results. Long before my time but after the war years people wanted something better, something fairer, something to come out of all that destruction.....the 60s/70s brought people together marching for civil rights, more liberal societies...the 80s seemed to be the start of individualism as a political ideology, the individual over the state...communism (hardly a socialist heaven) failed and from that came triumphalism and the sense that that proved a Victory for capitalism without any regulation, the individual over the community every time, free trade no barriers regardless of the inherent inequalities that feeds and perpetuates....globalisation became a single marketplace and citizens commodities.....for all the ideals of the EU it feels largely a practical means of cheap and easy labour exploitation with less and less state regulation and by the same means less protection of worker's rights.
I think a lot of people still see those distant colurs ...hold those ideals but it's harder to pin those colours to the mast of a political party now.....nothing has really changed that much deep down but we've all been discouraged from coming together, from expressing a shared ideology - 'ideology' is a dirty word you'll never hear from the Tories and yet we're living their ideology......with the brakes off
We all seem directionless now though....maybe the tories most of all. So even things we should be able to make work regardless of parties and politics - the NHS, Brexit.....they can't agree to quit using them like footballs and draw cross party bodies together recognising it's more important than anyone's 5 year power plan....

I'm not sure what my point was.....

[UEF]

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

But that just makes the song more objectionable because going from Motown Junk to this desperate Westlife-sounding dross means they may as well be writing it about themselves.

My god.... it is...

[Oldland Manic]

Originally Posted by Cyle

Never judge a Manics album by its singles. Even with International Blue and Distant Colours there's no telling what the actual album will be like and how those songs will fit into the whole. Regardless of how people might feel about those two songs out of context, there's no telling what the album itself will be like.

I'm still really excited to hear quite a few of the songs featured in the teaser, especially the one at the one minute mark.

https://youtu.be/za55bwBZJkA?t=62

I just love the 10-12 seconds of that song, whatever it's called. Hope the rest of it lives up to the teaser....

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

Oh, I totally got what it was about. James no longer knowing the left from the right, the once distant colours of Labour and the Tories now bleeding, the otherwise cringy ‘won’t you say that you love me?/tell me what I want to hear’ line being to Corbyn rather than Mrs Bradfield.

But that just makes the song more objectionable because going from Motown Junk to this desperate Westlife-sounding dross means they may as well be writing it about themselves.

Oh yeah, I completely see it not but it wasn't immediate. Westlife though, really?

Originally Posted by raven

Like pinning your colours to the mast.....but the years go by and your ship's sailed and you can just about make those colours out if you squint....maybe

The clear delineations between left and right have unravelled and yeah it's happened over the years since the 80s - the Thatcher and Reagan years and in a way Trump and Brexit (& Putin!) are the results. Long before my time but after the war years people wanted something better, something fairer, something to come out of all that destruction.....the 60s/70s brought people together marching for civil rights, more liberal societies...the 80s seemed to be the start of individualism as a political ideology, the individual over the state...communism (hardly a socialist heaven) failed and from that came triumphalism and the sense that that proved a Victory for capitalism without any regulation, the individual over the community every time, free trade no barriers regardless of the inherent inequalities that feeds and perpetuates....globalisation became a single marketplace and citizens commodities.....for all the ideals of the EU it feels largely a practical means of cheap and easy labour exploitation with less and less state regulation and by the same means less protection of worker's rights.
I think a lot of people still see those distant colurs ...hold those ideals but it's harder to pin those colours to the mast of a political party now.....nothing has really changed that much deep down but we've all been discouraged from coming together, from expressing a shared ideology - 'ideology' is a dirty word you'll never hear from the Tories and yet we're living their ideology......with the brakes off
We all seem directionless now though....maybe the tories most of all. So even things we should be able to make work regardless of parties and politics - the NHS, Brexit.....they can't agree to quit using them like footballs and draw cross party bodies together recognising it's more important than anyone's 5 year power plan....

I'm not sure what my point was.....

Had to re-read my post to see what you were replying to then Think you might've given it more thought than James did! I agree about being directionless though, what is there to believe in?

[Porco]

Originally Posted by UEF

My god.... it is...

...not!

[hummingbird]

Westlife??



I look forward to a bit of choreography at the gigs then

[Porco]

Originally Posted by hummingbird

Westlife??



I look forward to a bit of choreography at the gigs then

If they stand up off their stools on a key change I’ll admit there’s something to worry about.