Postcards + Postcards -

[BrianPowell]

2 Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?

2 Least Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?


2 Good Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?

2 Bad Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?


Score Out Of 10

[Dean V]

2 Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) Don't Be Evil - sounds like James can be arsed singing, and just sounds vitriolic compared to the rest of the album. 9/10 song.
2) Hazelton Avenue - amazing guitar riff, lovely build up, fantastic lyrics. Sounds much better acoustic though. 8/10 song.

2 Least Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) All We Make Is Entertainment
2) Auto Intoxication

2 Good Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) Production style is a bit different from anything they've tried before
2) The bass is excellent on nearly all the tracks

2 Bad Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) Bloated Notting Hill style production, all sounds bombastic and shite. The strings are overused and don't make the songs sound epic as the Manics intended, they are used on most seconds of every track making them meaningless.
2) The guitar tone on most tracks sounds awful and unfitting, classic rock isn't a genre, it's a set of old cliches that artists convince themselves sound fantastic when it doesn't fit them in any way shape or form.

Score Out Of 10
4.5/10 - average.

[Nature's Discontent]

2 Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) Auto Intoxication - The guitars and background noise, and the change of pace, all make for a rather nice little song.
2) Golden Platitudes - Great piano intro, decent chorus and James with one of his best vocal displays ever. Would have been 10/10 if not for the choir which slightly overdoes things.

2 Least Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) Hazelton Avenue - A rip-off at least two other songs and just generally boring, lazy lyrics.
2) Billion Balconies Facing The Sun - Dull and uninspired. Lyrics sound cringeworthy and far too grumpy-old-mannish. Imperial Bodybags without a brain.

2 Good Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) An enjoyable listen, at times utter genius and James's vocals are excellent.
2) A fairly good range of musical styles/instruments used.

2 Bad Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?
1) The choirs/over the top production. Completely unnecessary and contrived.
2) The whole 'thing' about 'one last shot mass communication' and intentionally trying to big songs up, plus the bringing in of guests (two and arguably three of which don't really add anything) just casts a bit of a shadow over the album and, to an extent, puts the music and songwriting to the back seat. In a year's time this shadow will probably have lifted, but it does make it a difficult album to listen to.

Score Out Of 10
6/10 - Not bad but in places it feels too contrived and takes away the spirit of the music.

[Dext37 Fielding]

2 Favourite Songs
Hazleton Avenue - a little Dreamy if Dramatic
Auto-Intoxication - Faster but without LSD in some parts

2 Least Favourite Songs
The Future Has Been Here 4 Eva - as Dom Joly would say, 'that, is shit!'
Postcards From A Young Man - sounds like the Manics are dying.

2 Pros
James voice is near complete
In some respects i quite like the Orchestra

2 Cons
Nick Naismith is on the Album!
The leak sounded better than the album version imo - a bit more Umph!

George Daws what are the Scores?!
7/10 - not a Send Away The Tigers or JPFL, but certainly not Lifeblood or KYE.

[franny]

In many ways, I adore your signature!

2 best songs:
Auto Intoxication, just sounds amazing, lyrics are really good, properly sounds like James is angsting about everything.
Golden Platitudes, Realy anthemic and emotional, lovely sliding guitar parts near the end

2 worst songs:
Hazelton Avenue, just very boring really.
All We Make Is Entertainment, also quite boring and makes Nicky sound a bit silly.

2 pros:
Sean playing Trumpet
Lots of great pop songs

2 cons:
Very little value beyond the tunes
Over produced

Score: 6.5/10

[Bathtub]

Good

Golden Platitudes - Most lyrically honest song they've done in years. Gorgeous and statuesque tune to match

Don't be Evil - Little Trolls Part 2. Fabulously petulant and snotty number.

Bad

All we make is Entertainment - Dull in every sense.

The Descent - Trad indie tedium.

1. Artwork for INWJTEL is really good, one of their best in years
2. No secret tracks

1. They're playing it so safe as to be terminally dull. Where's the jeopardy?
2. Choirs and strings don't turn shit to gold.

5/10 - Not good enough by half. And look at the setlists, even they don't believe in over half the songs on this album.

[The Gutless Wonder]

Fave songs

Some Kind Of Nothingness
All We Make Is Entertainment

Least fave songs

The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever
A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun (I love it, I do! But I had to pick another one. Was very hard! )

2 pluses

James' lyrics on I Think I Found It
Sean's Trumpet on Future

2 minuses

Some fans losing faith in them a bit
SKON and Found It being treated way too harshly!

Score out of 10 - 9.9

[Ken Korda]

2 Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?

1. Don't Be Evil - Fantastic melody, stonking guitar and a real gritty feel to it. Lyrics one of the best on the album, bit of a cheap shot at reality show consumerism but it's all in good fun.

2. The Descent - It doesn't sound as bad as anything else on the album. Sounds quite nice really.

2 Least Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?

1. Hazelton Avenpoo - Absolute durge. A crap imitation of Hey Jude. Sounds like the theme to a low budget breakfast show. Just awful.

2. I Think I Found It - Crap version of Soak Up The Sun by Sheryl Crow. Just boring, lame (much like the majority of the album).

2 Good Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?

1. Don't Be Evil exists because the album exists.

2. Sean trumpet playing with Nicky Wire vocals is pretty great (shame song is ruined by overly extravagant gospel choir though.)

2 Bad Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?

1. It's a really shit album.

2. Sounds like it was a 'chuck everything in no matter what it sounds like' sort of album.

Score Out Of 10

2/10

[Nikolai]

Originally Posted by Dext37 Fielding

2 Favourite Songs
Hazleton Avenue - a little Dreamy if Dramatic
Auto-Intoxication - Faster but without LSD in some parts

2 Least Favourite Songs
The Future Has Been Here 4 Eva - as Dom Joly would say, 'that, is shit!'
Postcards From A Young Man - sounds like the Manics are dying.

2 Pros
James voice is near complete
In some respects i quite like the Orchestra

2 Cons
Nick Naismith is on the Album!
The leak sounded better than the album version imo - a bit more Umph!

George Daws what are the Scores?!
7/10 - not a Send Away The Tigers or JPFL, but certainly not Lifeblood or KYE.

I'm way too pooped to try and figure out how to break down the 'quote' thing on here to just show the relevant bit, but as for your 'umph' concerns...

Are you listening to it on CD or have you ripped it to iTunes or some such malarkey? If you're talking about the CD version, there's nothing I can help you with and am flummoxed. If you're talking about a ripped version it'll be because of the format you ripped it in. For example, iTunes will copy it by default in AAC, which is actually marginally lower quality than MP3. Re-rip the CD and change the import setting to Apple Lossless: you'll notice a huge difference. Obviously the file size is a lot larger, but if you've got room on your player it's worth it for the increased quality.

Hope this helps.

[thecosmictrigger]

2 Favourite Songs
1) Golden Platitudes
2) Don't Be Evil
2 Least Favourite Songs
1) Hazelton Avenue
2) The Descent
2 Good Points
1) Easy to listen to and a slightly different sound
2) Judging from interviews, it seems to have given them the confidence/a reason to go and experiment on the next album?
2 Bad Points
1) Feels as if it could have been so much better, it just doesn't quite happen... that might have something to do with the song order
2) It didn't fulfill their vision of 'mass communication'
Score Out Of 10
7 - A decent album

[Son of Stopped]

2 Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?

Golden Platitudes. It really should have been the lead single. And I love the pause and the sighing guitar note before the final gospel playout.

The Descent. It reminds me of Madness and early Oasis. The "Pages 1 & 2" bit doesn't really add anything to it though.

2 Least Favourite Songs From Postcards From A Young Man, why?

Auto-Intoxication. It just doesn't fit the rest of the album. Doesn't even work as end to side one/ opener to side two.

Billion Balconies. It gets swamped by the track before and the track after.

2 Good Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?

The gospel choirs really work and I'm amazed they haven't done anything with them before.
They've never sounded so confident.

2 Bad Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?

The singles aren't as spread out across the album.
Some Kind Of Nothingness is placed too near Postcards From A Young Man.

Score Out Of 10

TEN. Yeah.

EDIT: Ten, because if you watch NME TV or Jools Holland and see what the guitar/bass and drums bands do on there, they aren't a patch on what the Manics do on this album.

[MSPKYE]

Golden Platitudes
On a Good day SKON, otherwise PCFAYM at a push where I find it really hard to like the rest of the album

The Descent
I Think I Found It

+ Erm......
+
- Weak lead single
- too overblown and over produced,
- fell out of love with it too quickly, not many redeeming features
- the whole mass communication thing, just do what you want to do rather than pander to what you think the public want.

5-6/10

[The Descent]

2 Favourite Songs
PFAYM - loved this song from the first time I heard it on Later with Jools Holland.
The Descent - absolutely love everything about this song!

2 Least Favourite Songs
Golden Platitudes (shock horror! I think I must be the only person on here who doesn't rate the song) but it's the la la la la la la bit at the end that's the turn-off for me.
Billion Balconies - 'fraid Duff's guitar solo grates on me.

2 Good Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?
Makes me really happy when I listen to the album.
It's the album that made me a Manics fan to the level of obsession.

2 Bad Points Of Postcards From A Young Man, why?
Pity it didn't get to number one.
Didn't really achieve the aim of mass communication.

Score Out Of 10
9/10 - LOVE IT!!!!

[Red]

2 Favourite Songs
Auto Intoxication. It's the most fun to play along to, it's got some of the best lines (although a couple of clunkers too), the funnest chorus on the album, and the little guitar fill that James plays after "I am what I am, my body belongs to me" is my favourite musical moment on the album.

I can't give a second favourite song. The album's not very good.

2 Least Favourite Songs
Golden Platitudes. "And then the dreariness came. And then more dreariness ca-ay-ay-ame. Boring us all to tears. Repeating itself over". I think that's how the lyrics go, and thinking it through in my head, it seems to fit well enough to be right.

I Think I Found It. Despite knowing the meaning of the song, I still contend that it's got an entirely meaningless lyric, and the McCartney-grade gleeful blandness with which the words and guitar are conveyed just upsets me. This isn't the sort of thing I got into the Manics for. I really liked James' solo album, and it pains me to see him produce something so bad for this one.


2 Good Points
Um. It's been fun learning to play all the songs on it. It's not without gloriously fun moments, like the build on the title track and on Somekind Of Nothingness.

2 Bad Points
The band sold out. The album did not.

Score Out Of 10
Auto Intoxication is good, the rest is not. I calculate the score to work out as 0.83/10

[Dean V]

Originally Posted by The Descent

Billion Balconies - 'fraid Duff's guitar solo grates on me.

Duff plays the bass on that only, but I agree with you about the guitar solo.

Why waste guest spots and make great musicians sound like bloody session musos?