When you think about it: PFAYM = KYE

[sonicshake]

Originally Posted by proevpete

Quite simply.

The Manics egos were HUGE after the commerical success of TIMT. They fought they could say fuck you in the music industry and go to Cuba. It cost them 6 years of their careers.

Equally now they believe that they can reach some sort of mass communication after being critically acclaimed after their last two albums. They thought they were writing pop greatness yet listen to any interview and after the cold light of day they sound extremely unsure of themselves. Even mentionning "we can be that other band...already we're wanting to go back there" is just a complete cop out.

Well I personally think they just want to make great records. The "mass communication" quote is quite obviously just a soundbite to help sell the record. They're rock n' roll veterans now, not egotistical youths, and they know damn well they're not gonna become contenders again (to the degree of the EMG era anyway) with 'Postcards'. But Nicky is simply not gonna go out in interviews and say "Well to be honest, we've made an average album when you compare it with the rest of our back catalogue." Where is the FUN in that? They were at their most egotistical/outspoken/arrogant during the first three albums anyway. And I loved them for it.

[Lament]

Originally Posted by proevpete

Quite simply.

The Manics egos were HUGE after the commerical success of TIMT. They fought they could say fuck you in the music industry and go to Cuba. It cost them 6 years of their careers.

Equally now they believe that they can reach some sort of mass communication after being critically acclaimed after their last two albums. They thought they were writing pop greatness yet listen to any interview and after the cold light of day they sound extremely unsure of themselves. Even mentionning "we can be that other band...already we're wanting to go back there" is just a complete cop out.

The Manics egos were totally shattered after TIMTTMY. KYE was an attempt to get back all of the people who for the first time had ever turned on them. Everything from Masses through the end of the KYE era was the Manics for the first time doing what they thought people wanted them to do. Their egos were huge when they released GT. Their egos were huge after the EMG era ended (hence Truth being so unlike what anyone expected of them). KYE was the Manics trying to be the Manics. And if you really think going to Cuba was a middle finger to the industry and not "Oh those crazy Manics are being rebels again," you're just sadly delusional.

[CardiffAfterlife]

Personally I think this album is about as far removed from 'Know Your Enemy' (maybe with the exception of Lifeblood) as you can get from the Manics. I really think its more like 'Everything Must Go'. 'Send Away The Tigers' was very 'Gold Against the Soul' then 'Journal for Plague Lovers' was 'The Holy Bible' now we have another shot at a commercial breakthrough a la 'Everything Must Go.' I think the Manics would be the first people to admit that 'Know Your Enemy' was very ashamedly noncommercial.

[CardiffAfterlife]

Originally Posted by proevpete

Jesus, No.3 is more true than any of the other ones!

Personally I think even Nicky realizes the band are nowhere near as popular as they were during the TIMTTY era, hence why they feel the need to have 'one last shot at mass comunication'. Don't get me wrong, I really like Postcards from a Young Man and Know You're Enemy but to me Postcards from a Young Man is the sound of a band striving for one last shot at the big time where as Know Your Enemy was the sound of a band who were already at the top and therefore really couldn't give a shit what anyone thought of them .

[Beat Poet]

I think "PFAYM's successor = KYE" would be more accurate. If they were to go that way, I think they'd nail it, having learnt from the last time. Whichever way they go though, I think they'll definitely fall into a pattern of building themselves up and then knocking themselves down.

[nocultureicons]

Disagree. Postcards isn't particularly long and sonically is nothing like KYE, with the exception of Some Kind of Nothingness which does indeed sound somewhat like So Why So Sad. If anything I'd be more inclined to compare Journal to Know Your Enemy.

[YouLoveMe]

This thread sucks the boab.

[franny]

and your opinon proper?

[YouLoveMe]

Originally Posted by franny

and your opinon proper?

I think this thread sucks the boab. That is my proper opinion. Blatant attempt at trolling.

[franny]

Thanks for clarifying, good trolling though you might want to insult more people.

[YouLoveMe]

Originally Posted by franny

Thanks for clarifying, good trolling though you might want to insult more people.

I wasn't trolling. I was suggesting that the thread itself was set up as an attempt at trolling. I'll happily offend you some more if you really want me to though.

[franny]

It was slightly trolling on your part, I don't think the thread is an attempt at trolling, it's just idiocy. If it would make you feel good I don't mind.

[MrsCarbohydrate]

Originally Posted by proevpete

The Manics egos were HUGE after the commerical success of TIMT. They fought they could say fuck you in the music industry and go to Cuba. It cost them 6 years of their careers.

I think it was the opposite after TIMT- they had reached a point where they didn't know where to progress, there was a bit of a backlash brewing against them from people who thought TIMT, the image and the band well dull and MOR and they had, in some opinions, become a different band to . Seems to me that KYE was an album born out of a sort of self-doubt- a too self-conscious way of getting back to their roots (and wasn't that all the rhetoric surrounding the album?)

I think they have adopted the same schtick this time round except this time they're saying "this is our return to commercial success", etc etc It makes them look like they aren't confident when they have to keep defining the album in advance.

[slatex]

What a strange comparison!

Originally Posted by proevpete

Both had shitty launch promo despite the expectations.

Hammersmith Working Man's Club & The Karl Marx Theatre are slightly different!