GATS reissue?

[Bonesy]

It remains a mystery why they left Donkeys off this album. Or why they called a good song Donkeys in the first place. Be like calling Motorcycle Emptiness ‘Shit Pipe Pope Pipe’. A waste.

Think the album could have been an amazing EP. La Tristesse, From Despair, Roses and Donkeys and you’ve almost got an Aldi Jar of Flies on your hands here.

New Gold Against the Soul tracklisting as an EP. Perhaps rename it to Voyage Around The Sun E.P.

1. From Despair To Where (great opener, see the video. game on you fascist cow! https://youtu.be/EbgDa27U-xo )
2. Roses in the Hospital
3. Donald Keys (new less ridiculous name)
4. La Tristesse (the piano at the end lends itself to being the closing music of a record.)
5. 25 minutes of silence followed by 5 minutes of JDB violently retching at the idea that they were even thinking of putting Life Becoming a Landslide out as a single. Be like an even more experimental I Remember Nothing)

[Son of Stopped]

Anyone else did the "Fuckers! They've made a pressing error!! They've placed a demo Roses In The Hospital earlier in the tracklisting... That seems to have the same lyrics as Drug Drug Drug...gy...".
It's a sunny morning so hopefully my hearing will improve!
CD1 fulfilling welded into CD tray prophecies.

[theplague]

Originally Posted by Bonesy

It remains a mystery why they left Donkeys off this album. Or why they called a good song Donkeys in the first place. Be like calling Motorcycle Emptiness ‘Shit Pipe Pope Pipe’. A waste.

Think the album could have been an amazing EP. La Tristesse, From Despair, Roses and Donkeys and you’ve almost got an Aldi Jar of Flies on your hands here.

New Gold Against the Soul tracklisting as an EP. Perhaps rename it to Voyage Around The Sun E.P.

1. From Despair To Where (great opener, see the video. game on you fascist cow! https://youtu.be/EbgDa27U-xo )
2. Roses in the Hospital
3. Donald Keys (new less ridiculous name)
4. La Tristesse (the piano at the end lends itself to being the closing music of a record.)
5. 25 minutes of silence followed by 5 minutes of JDB violently retching at the idea that they were even thinking of putting Life Becoming a Landslide out as a single. Be like an even more experimental I Remember Nothing)

Ouff what?
I love Sleepflower and Gold Against The Soul.
And I really think Drug Drug Druggy and Nostalgic Pushead have a place as decent album tracks.
But Yourself and Symphony of Tourette’s could be left out in favor of Donkeys.

[mishima]

Update: My parcel has eventually arrived minus the vinyl.

[Bonesy]

Originally Posted by theplague

Ouff what?
I love Sleepflower and Gold Against The Soul.
And I really think Drug Drug Druggy and Nostalgic Pushead have a place as decent album tracks.
But Yourself and Symphony of Tourette’s could be left out in favor of Donkeys.

4 filler tracks makes only 6 songs plus Donkeys which is not enough for an album. Better to cut the rest of the lower quality songs and make a good release.

[napnet86_]

Originally Posted by UEF

If you email them they'll send you the extra sleeve in the fullness of time. Then you'll have a collectors edition unsigned one

Haha, got an email today from them about not receiving the signed vinyl...

Please accept our apologies for this. We're currently investigating why this has happened. At the moment we do not have signed LP's available to correct this, however, we will arrange for a signed sleeve to be sent to you in the very near future.

[IrelandCalling4]

The set is a whopping 70 Euro here; 2 CDs and the book.

I love this band, and GATS was the album that made me a fan. I listened on YouTube and comparing the title track new version and 1993, the original is definitely more dynamic. Some tracks sound quite good, but louder.

2 CD reissues retail normally for 20. So I'd be essentially paying 50 beans for the book. Is the book a beauty? I do love the look of the band in that era. 120 pages sounds good, hopefully not lots of almost blank or introductory pages these things sometimes can have to pad it out.

Any thoughts? Is the book a thing of beauty? If it is I'll order now instead of wait months for a price drop. I would like tp have it but am finding the price a bit off putting.

[Lee]

Well they really seem to have ballsed up.

My CD book arrived today (with signed insert and a blank insert) but with a vinyl too (signed) which I didn’t order.

Result.

[someone, somewhere, soon]

Sean on Twitter appears to have confirmed replacement signed covers will arrive at a later date; feel a little better at least knowing the band are aware of the issue.

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by IrelandCalling4

Any thoughts? Is the book a thing of beauty? If it is I'll order now instead of wait months for a price drop. I would like tp have it but am finding the price a bit off putting.

Well open book black space, obviously front cover of book. Looks like a photo of the back cover of GATS on page 3, no it's not a page it's a built in card thing. Obviously blank dark cardboard on that side. Page 5 photograph and who took the pictures.
Turn that page and it kicks off with a picture of all four in the Star Room (location appears in some GATS original CD booklet)
My top three pictures are the ones of James leaving his then home to go on a Japanese tour.
The rare (as described in the text) shot of the four of them... In the studio at their instruments.
And the shot of them backstage at their Newport Homecoming show. All four chairs around a small table with an open bag and papers being held by Nicky.

You can't even say "That page long picture should be over two pages" because it's thoughtfully designed. If it was sold separately from the CDs? It would be well thumbed in those shops we used to be able to go to.
The pictures are far larger than Death Of A Polaroid.

EDIT: And of course the double spreads of goatee Sean at the drums, and James exhausted at a roadside in Bollock, Nowhere UK.

[Tim]

I'm kinda surprised people are still surprised how awful the official manics shop continues to be, how many times have we done this over the years to come to the same conclusion that no matter who they currently have in charge of it it's still shit? I've never had a thing for signed tat anyway so i can easily avoid it, not that i was going to be paying what they're asking.

The remastering though... man oh man, that clash review was right, it's a real mess. I don't have a musician's ear but the loudness of it on spotify just drowns out any nuance in james' quiet vocals at times or certain instruments with this wall of noise. I found it particularly bad on roses where i thought my speakers might be failing but i just had the volume too high. The remastered this is my truth on the other hand sounded amazing to me.

https://clashmusic.com/features/spot...ainst-the-soul

[Routine Builder]

Did they include the Wayne Murray mix of Roses where the backing vocal are turned to 11 and pitch shifted out of tune?

[IntlDebris]

Originally Posted by Mr Richey

My friend just sent me waveform images for “Sleepflower”. Original mix vs remaster. I’ve tweeted the images here.

Holy shit. That's the worst brickwalling I've seen in quite a while. What the fuck were they thinking?

Originally Posted by Lee

Well they really seem to have ballsed up.

My CD book arrived today (with signed insert and a blank insert) but with a vinyl too (signed) which I didn’t order.

Result.

This really is a fucking farce, isn't it? How is it most bands seem to be able to work with people who don't do this, and the Manics seem to be able to pick the worst distributors year after year?

[Lee]

Originally Posted by IntlDebris

This really is a fucking farce, isn't it? How is it most bands seem to be able to work with people who don't do this, and the Manics seem to be able to pick the worst distributors year after year?

Has to be a price thing doesn’t it? So many companies manage to win contracts by having the lowest margin coupled with a shit service and I guess this lot is similar.

It’s a shame though. Between 2006 (The Great Western’s releases) and 2012 the official store was great. You’d get the releases a day or two early and at a competitive price. Was it Townsends who they used to use? Brilliant service.

These days you pay a premium (no issue if it benefits the band and you get a good service / product) and you get an inferior service and product. Shame.

I’m happy I got the additional vinyl but I would rather have had the correct order arrive yesterday. Those who have paid £60+ for the full package and missing items must be well pissed understandably.

The demos are brilliant. Polished but really good. Especially the Drug Drug Druggy and Roses in the Hospital ones.

[Lee]

Originally Posted by IrelandCalling4

The set is a whopping 70 Euro here; 2 CDs and the book.

I love this band, and GATS was the album that made me a fan. I listened on YouTube and comparing the title track new version and 1993, the original is definitely more dynamic. Some tracks sound quite good, but louder.

2 CD reissues retail normally for 20. So I'd be essentially paying 50 beans for the book. Is the book a beauty? I do love the look of the band in that era. 120 pages sounds good, hopefully not lots of almost blank or introductory pages these things sometimes can have to pad it out.

Any thoughts? Is the book a thing of beauty? If it is I'll order now instead of wait months for a price drop. I would like tp have it but am finding the price a bit off putting.

70 Euro?! Wow!

I only had a quick look earlier and it’s a really, really nice book tbh. But it’s £10-20 nice. New pics that we haven’t seen before but if you own the Forever Delayed book then that pretty much covers it.

The lyric sheets are interesting but there isn’t enough of them / isn’t enough things to read.

No issue with the signing thing given that this has been released during C19. I guess the plan was to sign the albums but with lockdown kicking in it was cheaper, easier, and made logistical sense to post and sign the inserts.