Distant Colours

[UEF]

Originally Posted by Automatik

So to be clearer I will say that Distant Colours is like a forgettable b-side - I can't even recall what its chorus sounds like without playing it again.

Here you go: https://youtu.be/ta42xU2UXLA?t=38s

[Automatik]

Originally Posted by UEF

Here you go: https://youtu.be/ta42xU2UXLA?t=38s

Haha! Very good. Yes. Like this. I remember now.

[Routine Builder]

Originally Posted by burnleybassman

I like it. The middle section totally makes it though. I see a lot of people saying that it "sounds" like a B-side. Can anyone actually clarify what they mean by that? Do you mean it sounds a bit unfinished, there's something missing, a bit crap etc?

Foremost, it sounds like it was written, recorded and engineered within one day. Which isn't a terrible thing but the faults (i.e. the songs lyrics) stand out. Also it means the song blends into the band's previous releases and one struggles to recall what it sounds like a day without hearing it. I think it's fair to say that the Manics are a working band able to write and record songs with efficiency that other bands lack. This is the kind of song that the band could come up while sitting on the loo and recording before the flush finishes.

[Marconi Delorian]

Originally Posted by tzb

Nah I miscounted, because Postcards was obviously fucking terrible too.



Well, we have two singles here, so... and RTF and Futurology were atrocious records to all but the echo-chambered-up fandom too. You'll note they hardly made a ripple outside of, well, FD.

Absolute horse shit. Futurology in particular went down very well with the press, it has an 83% rating on metacritic. Just because you didn't like them, doesn't mean they're bad.

They did fuck it up by not touring it or promoting it properly, then it got swallowed up by the Holy Bible tour.

And I'm not a blind devotee - side 2 of SATT is abysmal and It's Not War killed Postcards before it was even out.

[revcheese]

Originally Posted by UEF

The point about him being a massive Leaver is spot on though.

I'm not fussed about that bit, it's just hilarious that someone who pines for Old Labour turns up his nose at the closest resemblance to it in decades. He's a cynical old man, that Wire.

Originally Posted by tzb

Well, we have two singles here, so... and RTF and Futurology were atrocious records to all but the echo-chambered-up fandom too. You'll note they hardly made a ripple outside of, well, FD.

I can't see how RTF and Futurology are atrocious albums by any stretch of the imagination, especially in that late stage of their career - but each to their own.

Originally Posted by Marconi Delorian

Absolute horse shit. Futurology in particular went down very well with the press, it has an 83% rating on metacritic. Just because you didn't like them, doesn't mean they're bad.

They did fuck it up by not touring it or promoting it properly, then it got swallowed up by the Holy Bible tour.

Similarly, RTF managed 80%. Neither album harms the band's legacy in the wider context, if anything it's boosted by them.

[Useless Soul]

Now that I updated some stuff of them over on Wikipedia, just for the fun of it, I still find myself bored so I kinda thought I could share my opinion on the new stuff, not that anyone cares, but yeah...
For me IB did not quite did the trick at first, guess it was a long time without a new song and I felt like IB was not the piece of music I wanted to hear after this long, but after a few days I dived into it, and I find myself quite enjoying it, really upbeat, really inspiring, just happy, that happiness made happy too over the fact that they can still make music after this long.
As for DC I loved it, I don't know what it is, but it feels nostalgic. It was like I heard it before, it resonated with me, like, a lot, just love James voice in the chorus, and the overall distant and melodic tune just did it for me. Really happy with that one.
Now, sure they are my favourite band but that does not mean I go along with everything they do, does not mean either that we're gonna get 'The Holy Bible' or 'Journal For Plague Lovers' all the goddamn time. For now it seems like a mixture of anthemic sound of 'Everything Must Go' and some hints of 'Lifeblood' in there too, like in DC, and I am so fine with that.
Is it the final album? Would not be surprised if that's the case.

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Marconi Delorian

Absolute horse shit. Futurology in particular went down very well with the press, it has an 83% rating on metacritic. Just because you didn't like them, doesn't mean they're bad.

Originally Posted by revcheese

Similarly, RTF managed 80%. Neither album harms the band's legacy in the wider context, if anything it's boosted by them.

These, definitely. It genuinely baffles me when people act like an album can ruin a band. David Seaman got lobbed a couple of times, he must be shit. For Manics to piss on their legacy, we'd have to be looking at an album called "Maybe Thatcher Wasn't So Bad" or even a bit of Yewtree. Kin hell, even if they did The Holy Bible and fifteen shite albums, they've still done The Holy Bible and that alone, knowing what they're capable of, I wouldn't write em off before I've heard the next album. But what do I know.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Some of the comments in here are ridiculous and need a bit of perspective.

Our favourite band is still making music and albums that they feel passionate about now into their 50s. The songs are still driven by melody but there is still artistic integrity in what they are doing. Moreover, they still have direction and purpose. For example, I very much like the concept of the videos that they are doing here again with Kieran Evans. Clearly it will be another trilogy and there will be a third song before the album release on 13th April. After Nice and the valleys, I'm interested to see where they will go next.

Regarding the songs themselves, yes they are traditional types of Manics tunes, but they are driven by a passion to be great. They are not phoning it in.

And it's great to see them doing promo on various radio stations and hear them talking about their fav music. The 6 music show was fantastic. As was James on Absolute Radio. A few stories and tidbits of info that I hadn't heard before.

I thought RTF and Futurology were very patchy and overly conceptualised to the detriment of the albums themselves. I'm just hoping that the War on Drugs and Ryan Adams influences on James recently seep through and we get a really solid selection of songs that don't need to mean so much or be blockbusters but in themselves are well crafted tunes. IB and DC are both of these. And both are gorgeous in their own way.

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

Some of the comments in here are ridiculous and need a bit of perspective.

Our favourite band is still making music and albums that they feel passionate about now into their 50s. The songs are still driven by melody but there is still artistic integrity in what they are doing. Moreover, they still have direction and purpose. For example, I very much like the concept of the videos that they are doing here again with Kieran Evans. Clearly it will be another trilogy and there will be a third song before the album release on 13th April. After Nice and the valleys, I'm interested to see where they will go next.

Regarding the songs themselves, yes they are traditional types of Manics tunes, but they are driven by a passion to be great. They are not phoning it in.

And it's great to see them doing promo on various radio stations and hear them talking about their fav music. The 6 music show was fantastic. As was James on Absolute Radio. A few stories and tidbits of info that I hadn't heard before.

I thought RTF and Futurology were very patchy and overly conceptualised to the detriment of the albums themselves. I'm just hoping that the War on Drugs and Ryan Adams influences on James recently seep through and we get a really solid selection of songs that don't need to mean so much or be blockbusters but in themselves are well crafted tunes. IB and DC are both of these. And both are gorgeous in their own way.

I loved listening to the 6 Music show, but feel they'd have been better off doing it maybe a couple of weeks either side of the album coming out rather than now. Only relying on memory here, I know it's the longest gap between albums but is it not the longest gap between an album being officially announced and released? Thinking back to the Futurology era I'm not sure how according to plan things went, still doesn't make sense to me for that tour to have ended three months before the album was actually released and them only playing two songs from the album for the whole tour except London when they pulled Lets Go To War out too.

Aye, still enjoy the videos. Love the ones from Rewind The Film, lovely scenery in those and the new ones. Still quite indifferent about the last couple of singles but that doesn't change how I feel about the band as people or musicians, or their back catalogue. It'd be weird if it did.

[UEF]

I'd forgotten how bemusing the whole Futurology non-tour tour was.

[sculptureofabloke]

Rough Trade was a hell of a gig though eh?

[Europa Gluten Free]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

Rough Trade was a hell of a gig though eh?

I think it's my fav Manics video on youtube. It is genuinely fantastic.

[Routine Builder]

I don't think the manics are in their fifties yet, just saying....

[Routine Builder]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

Some of the comments in here are ridiculous and need a bit of perspective.

Our favourite band is still making music and albums that they feel passionate about now into their 50s.

I don't buy this argument. We should drop our own standards because the band are getting older (late forties)? I don't expect same intensity but nor do I expected lacklustre songwriting where most of the criticism directed. This is band with their own studio and 12 albums worth of songwriting experience, my expectations are high because the band have already demonstrated that they can breach them.

As someone who who has harsh criticisms towards their more recent better reviewed albums, you can't really call ridiculous criticisms of Distant Colours.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by tzb

Yeah. No.

If this is all they've got in the tank, they need to stop. The only people still biting are the "fans" won by better songs in different eras, who shouldn't be financially responsible for, as Dancing Kirby put it, "enabling" this shite.

Today I read an interview with Wire excusing himself from standing for anything these days. Legacy not so much pissed up the wall as a dry stain on the pavement at this point.

Don’t you love the phenomenon on comments threads of people not posting anything for months on end (since may 2017 in your case) to show up and absolutely must tell us all how much they hate a new track? You don’t like it or any of their recent stuff, we get it, we do. But saying nonsense like it’s “enabling” or nobody outside the fandom liked rewind the film or futurology (plainly not true as pointed out by others) needs to stop. Time to move on maybe?