Futurology

[wireintheblood]

Originally Posted by everlasting

It's apparently sold 11.2k as of today. Hmmm. I think it'll make the top 10, say No.7, then drop badly like Lifeblood did I hope it does better though but where's the promotion been for it? Apart from a few radio spots I've listened to from links fans have posted on here I've heard / seen sod all.

It's been said it's number 2 so far.. How many sales are needed for a number one these days? 11000? Sounds a bit on the low side to me?!?

[Littlesue]

Originally Posted by wireintheblood

It's been said it's number 2 so far.. How many sales are needed for a number one these days? 11000? Sounds a bit on the low side to me?!?

Was that based on mid week sales? they always do well begininng of week then drop, hopefully just make top 10

[wireintheblood]

Which would be disappointing, but then Sony have done.fuck all promo, again

[scott_laconia]

Havent listened to this album enough yet but after a few listens I am hugely enjoying it, the title track is so so so much better than the clumsy live version, Nickys voice sounds great, his voice works very well on a chorus following a James verse.

Much more enjoyable than Rewind The Film, love all the synth and soundscapes throughout. Not sure where it ranks in my album list but I'll come back to it.

Welcome back lads!

[Littlesue]

Havent seen any TV adverts this time?? they usually have a few of those

[*Found That Soul*]

It will get top 5 I'd say. But why do charts even matter.

[1985]

Lol at people saying there's been no promo

[LadyWoodbee]

Originally Posted by Son of Stopped

There have been a couple of "Oh is that it?" after the songs played. But once used to how brief the songs are... it's quite good this!

My thoughts exactly! At first those abrupt endings left me kind of... "huh?!?" But now I really like the fact that the songs don't go on and on and on and on...

Originally Posted by someone, somewhere, soon

the title track is a poor choice of opener - puny verses, meandering chorus, trite lyrics, basic, forgettable melody. shouldn't even have made it as a b-side, let alone album track... let alone title track...... let alone opening track. consigned to the iTunes 'unticked' list, alongside Underdogs et al.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that one either. Actually, it made me fear the worst for the rest of the album when I listened to it for the first time, and I kind of braced myself for another disappointment. I've had those moments before where people told me what a work of genius the new album by XYZ was, and I had really high expectations that could only be disappointed. Luckily, that wasn't the case this time, but I still skip Futurology because the lyrics just make me cringe. Bit too "pathos-ridden". Not that the Manics haven't had their pathos-ridden moments before in terms of the lyrics, but if the melody's good I don't mind that so much. But here... "and it huuuuuuurts!"

Still think the ants-line is funny, though.

[manic cow]

I've seen online advertising for it in various places, but that could well be that big brother style 'we know what you look at so will show you relevant adverts' advertising. I hope it gets a good chart position. I don't think many people pay much attention to the charts anymore but I think the band probably do.

I'm only halfway through my second listen but I like it. Not quite as much as I liked RTF, but I expected that based on the style of the tracks I'd heard. I prefer the slower more melancholy stuff as a rule. Apart from GATS, which is just vocal perfection!

Futurology is probably the most different album they've made for a while, as much as I loved rtf it did remind me of timt in overall feeling. Futurology doesn't sound like anything else I've heard them do. It's got balls, it sounds like they're making an album they'd like to listen to rather than trying to make an album that fits into one of the two categories that they defined for their albums when postcards came out.

Someone needs to tell me what "I can still fill your void" is supposed to mean though, I fear my mind may just be in the gutter


Edit: just realised it's probably feel, not fill. Damn. This is why I shouldn't listen without a lyrics booklet.

[Marconi Delorian]

Originally Posted by wireintheblood

Which would be disappointing, but then Sony have done.fuck all promo, again

I know, I don't think they even came down our street to tell everyone there was a new album out, the bastards!

[Flint]

This is really, really excellent. Easily some of their best, most inspired stuff in a decade. To me Rewind the Film was the first sign of their creative juices getting properly flowing again - this is them acting on that and creating once again something that feels vital, important, brand new and inspired.

It's amusing how the band always run away from their more electronic side, keep dismissing it and big up their stadium rock anthems, but at the end of the day they always return to the synths and drum machines. It's like a forbidden fruit they don't dare to admit enjoying. I'm sure they'll dismiss this album too in a few years time, no matter how much praise it's getting at the moment, but we'll just have to mark this down as another underrated piece of genius.

Loving nearly every song, in fact the only weaker parts so far are the title track which good, but needs a bit more oomph I think, and "Mayakovsky" which, once again, is good but just doesn't really have a place on the album and certainly not as a closer; "View from Stow Hill" would do that excellently, Mayakovsky feels like an unnecessary addition. I've started to think it might actually work better as an intro track, rather than closer. The rest of it's brilliant though, be it the beautiful electronic melancholy or the synth-blasted rockers. I love the playfulness in the tone, the ideas in the songwriting, the sound of it all - the production is brilliant, the whole European urban shtick they've gone on about really is audible too. It's probably their most sonically cohesive and focused work since Lifeblood. The duets are also so much better than the RtF ones - James actually gets to make an appearance in each one, and all the voices sound like they have a place and purpose that suits the song.

It's too early to say anything certain but yeah, wow, I'm feeling so super giddy about this. It's really making me as excited as I was back in the day of first getting into the band. Brilliant, brilliant.

The demo disc is the most disappointing out of the four we've had so far though. The other three have had some sort of revelatory moments scattered throughout them that have made them worth visiting occasionally, this one just sounds like a cheap diet version of the main album. They pretty much had the songs figured inside out from day one, including certain sounds, and the demos just come across as lesser-quality versions of the album moments. The few full-on acoustic versions nicely bridge this and RTF together (pretty sure Stow Hill started its life as something for the acoustic side of the sessions), but I'm glad they were given their mechanical sheen. The three studio tracks are good though, especially Empty Motorcades - that's actually proper brilliant.

tl;dr THIS IS SO GOOD.

[LadyWoodbee]

Originally Posted by manic cow

Someone needs to tell me what "I can still fill your void" is supposed to mean though, I fear my mind may just be in the gutter


Edit: just realised it's probably feel, not fill. Damn. This is why I shouldn't listen without a lyrics booklet.

Glad I'm not the only one whose perception of JDB has been spoiled by the James Dean Bradfield Appreciation Society, haha!

And it really is "fill", at least that's what it says in the booklet. Makes perfect sense to me.

[manic cow]

Haha! Maybe I understand James better than I thought. Although i did also think he sang "surrounded by sheep" somewhere else on the album, so maybe not!

[everlasting]

Well, last weekend's No.1 sold about 90,000 copies. I think the 10th placing album sold about 11,000, so going by that Futorology is in the top 10 It needs some serious heavy promo to get sales going and keep them going.

[almostfamous]

Album sales to Tuesday....

1 Ed Sheeran - x (16.5k)
2 Manic Street Preachers - Futurology (11.2k) *
3 Example - Live Life Living (5.9k) *
4 Dolly Parton - Blue Smoke - The Best Of (5.3k)
5 Sam Smith - In The Lonely Hour (5.2k)

If it can hang on to No2 I think it'll be considered a pretty big deal career wise - (position wise at least) on a par with EMG, KYE and SATT. It's certainly do-able.