Album 15

[Europa Gluten Free]

It's been very interesting working out the songs on guitar.

Brushstrokes, PRP, Dear Stephen, My Brave Friend all fun to play.

The only one giving me trouble is Being Baptised as it's in an odd key and I'm convinced there is a capo involved. Hopefully get time to sit down and do it this week.

NOTE: Every song that Nicky has ever written is in D. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Ha!!!!

[Son of Stopped]

Oh wow! Deleted Scenes and Late Day Peaks have a similar electric drumming pattern. Matching almost. Only just noticing the keyboard trumpets in the background now.
Good news about learning the songs EFG!
I've written since I've heard it and the first thing involved me saying the first two lines of each verse like a high pitched vehicle reversing.
Unlike the Manics at Prizm however, I didn't get any applause just silent revulsion I was passing this off as poetry. And I stand by every word of it!

[Mumbojumbo]

In other Manics news whilst finding the new album on Spotify also discovered 'Sleep Next to Plastic' which was a pleasant surprise and somehow passed me by.

Also semi-annoyed that Automatik Teknicolour isn't on Spotify as it has CD2 of Grace of God and not CD1.

[Mr.Selfdestruct]

Originally Posted by darkanddivine

Yep. Splashed plenty of cash on this band; CDs tours and stuff, and the final physical album I bought was JFPL. That said, this is true of other bands I like also, and this makes me wonder if it's anything to do with much other than the tech than any level of fandom. Though having said that, you'd think if any generation would buy CDs it would be this one.

I first subbed to Spotify in 09. And like iTunes and iPods before it, streaming and downloading started to make more sense in the early 2010s, which hits all music sales. You don't get a CD player in your new car around this time, so you stream off your phone don't you? I reckon that shift to the phone being the dominant tech in the 10s changes everything because it's your CD player, your camera, your alarm clock etc, so most people naturally choose the easy option which is to ditch the music purchases and stick to streaming.

Funnily enough, only the other week I realised there actually is a CD player in my car. For some reason it's hidden in the glove box. Bluetooth with the phone, for Spotify and Bandcamp is all I use when on the go anyway. Bluetooth earphones have made it even easier.

The last physical manics album I bought was Futurology. But I think I will pick this new one up, the next time I'm in a record shop. I'd still buy vinyls of albums I like, or pay for it on Bandcamp. I think it's a shame to see so many brilliant young bands struggle, and basically have to do it part time, while trying to hold down jobs elsewhere. There's so many bands now who would have been on main stages at festivals 25 plus years ago, had they existed then. Who are now confined to club size venues.

The Manics are having a good time of it now, When RIF came out, I hated it so much, that I thought they needed to stop. But I'm glad they didn't. When you see the state more main stream rock music, especially in a live sense, with big festivals and gigs, it almost feels like it's starting to bottom out. 25 or so years of the big corporate side of the industries ever dwindling interest in promoting new music, is really starting to show. Most big gigs now are legacy acts. It won't be long until idiots are handing over 80 quid or more to see a holograms of dead pop/rock stars.

Not that I see the manics as a legacy act. They've never stopped recording, touring and doing their own thing. I'm happy they're still at it. Listening to the new album brought back some nice memories of days long past, when the world wasn't such a bloody awful place.

[IntlDebris]

Originally Posted by FacelessSenseOfVoid

Just like I wouldn't give up on my football team, who I've been following for 35 years, I wouldn't give up on the band I've been supporting through thick and thin for the last 25 years, even when they've churned out shite like PFAYM, which is still better than 99.999% of stuff released by other bands these days. New Manics music excites me more than live stuff, in all honesty, partly because I really can't be *that* bothered with gigs any more.

As the old terrace chant goes: "Where were you when we were shit?"

I suppose I just see it differently - I don't think spending money on music you're not interested in is a sensible thing to do. The purpose of buying an album is to enjoy listening to it, if it hasn't appealed then I don't blame people for not buying it. They're not a charity.

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by Mumbojumbo

Also semi-annoyed that Automatik Teknicolour isn't on Spotify as it has CD2 of Grace of God and not CD1.

That happens to be one of my favourite b-sides they’ve made so it is a shame it’s incomplete, along with various others from over the years.

I don’t think Ain’t Going Down, Never Want Again or Dead Yankee Drawl are on there either.

[IntlDebris]

The weirdest thing is that 'Automatik Teknicolour' is the only one of the TBTGOG b-sides not on there. If it was just one disc that'd be one thing, but skipping a single track is bizarre. It's also weird to think that there's no way any of those songs other than 'Automatik Teknicolour' would have been the single if they were recorded today.

[Nikolai]

Originally Posted by Mr.Selfdestruct

Funnily enough, only the other week I realised there actually is a CD player in my car. For some reason it's hidden in the glove box. Bluetooth with the phone, for Spotify and Bandcamp is all I use when on the go anyway. Bluetooth earphones have made it even easier.


The Manics are having a good time of it now, When RIF came out, I hated it so much, that I thought they needed to stop. But I'm glad they didn't. When you see the state more main stream rock music, especially in a live sense, with big festivals and gigs, it almost feels like it's starting to bottom out. 25 or so years of the big corporate side of the industries ever dwindling interest in promoting new music, is really starting to show. Most big gigs now are legacy acts. It won't be long until idiots are handing over 80 quid or more to see a holograms of dead pop/rock stars.

Not that I see the manics as a legacy act. They've never stopped recording, touring and doing their own thing. I'm happy they're still at it. Listening to the new album brought back some nice memories of days long past, when the world wasn't such a bloody awful place.

I hear you. When we first moved to the other side of the planet, we picked up a cheap little Japanese car and it had a frickin' MiniDisc player in it! The format that never truly took off. Having said that, I have some pretty cool Manics playlists tucked away on MiniDisc somewhere - I created those in the mid 90s, so there'll be some excellent teenage angst to be reminded of by giving them a listen one day

The way you felt about RiF sounds very similar to me with The Ultra Vivid Lament. It's the first time I ever found myself thinking that maybe the Manics well had truly run dry. It's not even that I found it particularly horrendous, it was all just so beige to listen to. The first time I blasted it out on the home set-up, my Mrs thought I was listening to the new Robbie Williams or Take That album!

Differences in perception are interesting too though. I'm reading many on here who find the newie a direct continuation of the TUVL sound, whereas to my ears it sounds so much more vital, direct, exciting and energised.

As for the hologram thing you mentioned, I agree that's increasingly likely to come true. People are more and more willing to accept the imitations of reality instead of the real thing. Crikey, the Sex Pistols are coming to Auckland in April, minus John Lydon and featuring Frank Carter on vocals - charging $150+ a ticket to see a glorified karaoke session. No matter what anyone thinks of his politics these days, the Sex Pistols will never be the Sex Pistols without Johnny Rotten front and centre stage.

[Scarecrow]

The hologram thing has definitely started to happen with older artists. (Side note: I once worked at a ticket agency and we had customers book for the Roy Orbison hologram tour then complain about "false advertising" as it wasn't the real person!)

I suppose like the package nostalgia tours that have moved from generation to generation, it'll probably happen eventually with today's artists.

Originally Posted by IntlDebris

The weirdest thing is that 'Automatik Teknicolour' is the only one of the TBTGOG b-sides not on there. If it was just one disc that'd be one thing, but skipping a single track is bizarre. It's also weird to think that there's no way any of those songs other than 'Automatik Teknicolour' would have been the single if they were recorded today.

Yeah, surely it's a mistake, it can't be a deliberate choice to not have that online. Or a rights issue, who knows.

It is a fantastic song though, such a massive chorus and great tune. I'd love to hear it live, such a pity they often dismiss obscure numbers instead of making them part of the live set.

[IrelandCalling4]

A week and a half in, I'm here with the demos playing while I am working and they are so well done. The acoustic takes on some of my favourites from the album - including Being Baptised/People Ruin Paintings/Out of Time Revival/Dear Stephen - are beautiful; very well written.

On initial listens it felt like a progression of the more laid back RiF/TUVL sounds, far from the firebrands of the earlier 90s but very reminiscent of the TIMTTMY/Lifeblood eras. I loved TUVL, and have returned to it frequently; but there is something in the new one more vital, more engaging than the last two. Hints of Futurology aesthetic maybe on some tracks, along with the influence of some of my own favourite eras TIMT/Lifeblood.

'Decline & Fall' is one of my top picks - very commercial, very single-y, alike 'International Blue', 'It's Not War'..etc It's not 'Faster', but it is both instantly memorable and one I can see myself returning to a lot, just as I do 'International Blue'. The more 'blue skies' Manics, soaring melodies and a sugar rush, but very well done.

I think some real Manic magic is there on material like the wonderful 'Being Baptised', 'Brushstrokes of Reunion', 'People Ruin Paintings', 'Deleted Scenes' and quite a few more.

It is early days, just a week and a half since release, but one that, for me anyway, has the promise of being near Futurology as one of their later career peaks.