Album 15

[Son of Stopped]

Happy International Women In Music Day in America!
Happy Be Nice To Your Cat Day which is everyday anyway.
Happy Wear A Hat Day
Happy Hot Tub Day
Happy Black Forest Cake Thing Day
And that health thing beginning with T that's about bloodstream.

58 (59 on sales) was last week. Where in the sixties do you think we'll see? 69(68 on sales) giving it another week on the physical charts.
I was going to make a table of Manics weeks.
I remember reading THB had 3, but with the reissues etc, it's been counted to 11 weeks.
Pretty sure CT has beaten most recent albums.
But RIF has 8 weeks. I don't makes the rules!

[Son of Stopped]

81! 6 weeks. https://www.officialcharts.com/chart...rt/20250328/2/

[everlasting]

Wonder how many sales that makes then in the last week? 7? 8?

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by everlasting

Wonder how many sales that makes then in the last week? 7? 8?

I'm not sure but this could be it's last appearance on the charts.
Edit: Sorry clicked the! By mistake

[Manualex16]

Finally had the time to hear the new album, it's a Manics album, liked that Wire has more vocal presence in it, but at the same time JDB vocals are one of the things that make Manics songs go all the way. Had only heard Decline and Fall, Hidden in Plain Sight and maybe People Ruin Paintings

Out of the deep cuts liked Dear Stephen, OneManMilllitia and My Dear Friend. It's alright, not something mind blowing, but not something offensive either.

[UEF]

Tour support acts announced as:
Lowharness
The Anchoress
Slate
Honeyglaze
Adwaith

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by UEF

Tour support acts announced as:
Lowharness
The Anchoress
Slate
Honeyglaze
Adwaith

Specifically:

Low Harness in Glasgow.
The Anchoress in London.
Slate in Wolverhampton and Bristol.
Honeyglaze in Manchester.
Adwaith in Swansea.

[Son of Stopped]

And that's it gone out the physical charts!
Not a bad run. Be interesting to see if it pops back into the Top 100 during the tour. Might not.

[savemejebus]

Probably won't , anyone who was interested has multiple copies by now. Anyone who was curious has one and everyone else either isn't bothered or will stream it. It's not like the gigs are likely to showcase the album.

[everlasting]

Unless they release a HUGE massive catchy HIT single, then they'll never get the mainstream airplay again nor get the general casual music public to hear anything new by them. Seriously, a lot of people over the years I've talked to about the Manic always say something like "They still around? Not heard anything by them in years, I love Tolerate and Design for Life". Says it all sadly. Glad we're still getting music and gigs, but their time as one of the bigger bands is truly over now I feel

[Son of Stopped]

They owe me a new Tablet! Bloody downloading (and paying to download!) that piano versions made it eventually crash!
Why fill technology up with music when you can fill it with stuff you've written? (YouTube, Word and Zoom are the only things I really need from technology)

[LA ex]

Do albums ever grow and build momentum these days? Possibly for breakthrough acts, but I doubt for established acts.

Back in the nineties albums would be typically released around the time of the second single, so there'd be pick ups in interest when the third and fourth singles came out. Nowadays all the build up happens well before the album comes out and little in terms of releases come out afterwards (unless it's a new remix or collaboration). Which I guess reflects how radio play influences taste far less these days and that once a song is available to stream there's no point in plugging it.

[IntlDebris]

I dunno, by the late '90s the 'lead single two weeks before the album' format was largely solidified, two singles before an album would only really be for when labels were really trying to break a relatively new band. In the '00s you'd often get a free download promo single and then a more traditional single to follow, but yeah, since streaming took over there's nothing stopping numerous tracks being released before an album. Although how the number is chosen still baffles me - why did TUVL get two singles, CT four and RiF six? I've seen multiple singles occasionally used when hype isn't going quite as well as expected (Foxes' second album was absolutely rinsed for potential single material before release and still flopped), but this time Decline & Fall was out months before the album, clearly allowing time for at least two more.

As for albums building momentum, yeah that's largely for new acts. Chappell Roan's first album seems to have done that. But for a band like the Manics, I don't see it happening. To be honest, the only time it's properly happened for them is EMG, which is one of those albums that stuck around for what seemed like forever, regularly popping back up at number 2 every time a single came out or an award was won. Back in the late '90s, the biggest single wasn't always the first - The Divine Comedy's 'National Express', Lightning Seeds' 'You Showed Me' and Travis's 'Why Does it Always Rain on Me' all came along late into their respective albums' promo campaigns, for example.

[Tish]

Originally Posted by everlasting

Unless they release a HUGE massive catchy HIT single, then they'll never get the mainstream airplay again nor get the general casual music public to hear anything new by them

Depends what you mean by mainstream airplay. Both lead singles got playlisted by Radio 2 and 6 Music and they were also on Absolute and Radio X. Of course they’re not going to get on Radio 1, they’re in their 50s, but they seem to get more mainstream radio attention than a lot of bands their vintage.

Plus they’re still selling out those medium sized venues regularly and also seem to be climbing back up the pecking order for festival appearances. I can’t think of any of their contemporaries who are doing better, other than the likes of Blur and Pulp who just get back together every five years to cash in playing the old hits.

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by everlasting

Unless they release a HUGE massive catchy HIT single, then they'll never get the mainstream airplay again nor get the general casual music public to hear anything new by them. Seriously, a lot of people over the years I've talked to about the Manic always say something like "They still around? Not heard anything by them in years, I love Tolerate and Design for Life". Says it all sadly. Glad we're still getting music and gigs, but their time as one of the bigger bands is truly over now I feel

Would agree with all of this. I know a few fans who:

- Have been astonished to learn that the Manics are still releasing new albums and touring.
- Are aware the band are still active, but believe they haven't released anything decent or interesting or noteworthy in decades, and simply trot out middle of the road dad rock.
- Loved them enough to travel around for gigs up until the 2000s but eventually stopped caring enough to keep up.
- Think their days of making relevant music is over and haven't done anything to make an impact on the music scenes or inspirational to new bands or younger people this century.

Since Critical Thinking came out, I've spoken to three former fans who asked me "have you heard the new Manics album yet?" with that awkward 'yeah, it's not good is it' look on their face. When I replied that I'd heard it and found it mostly uninspired with a few moments that were okay, songs that sounded like ideas of songs that could have been great if they'd worked on them, they all said I was being too generous!

Originally Posted by LA ex

Do albums ever grow and build momentum these days? Possibly for breakthrough acts, but I doubt for established acts.

They definitely do for underground acts or for artists who are established but only release albums on occasion. It seems to happen across social media among some music pages I follow, the flurry of hype and praise for a new album released by bands who would play clubs and still work day jobs. I suspect for artists like the Manics, it'll just be the faithful existing fans keeping up.