RTF - (hysteric) reactions, ranking...

[tzb]

Originally Posted by Jay

Listening to AHATS I get the impression that they are trying to say something about Richey between the lines, like "We know You can hear us" or is it just me? In that way, it's almost a "feel-good" song.

Is it between the lines? Seems pretty plain to me, it's written directly to him. But the fact the song is about his skin being buried in the soil suggests they believe something different...

[Jay]

Originally Posted by tzb

Is it between the lines? Seems pretty plain to me, it's written directly to him. But the fact the song is about his skin being buried in the soil suggests they believe something different...

Maybe I didn't explain myself well...I was saying it feels as if they knew something about him and were trying to gain his attention somehow.
Altough the title it is very bleak, the lyrics have undeniably a big call feel which almost make you think they don't really believe he's gone... You may say it has to be understood as a "poetic" or an "abstract" thing, but some lines in it, as I see it, could also unveil they have got a clue.

[Bathtub]

I'm really impressed by the album. I was slightly worried with all the talk of acoustic guitars and folkiness that it might be "a bit Mumford". Thankfully not.

I also like, how for once, the things they said about the album before release actually bear some resemblance to the music they ended up making. So not like So Why So Sad, which they claimed sounded like the Beach Boys (it doesn't), or My Guernica resembling a Jesus and The Mary Chain song (again it doesn't).

4 Lonely Roads feels surprisingly at home on the album. It reminds me, not at all in sound, but in how it fits, of Primal Scream's Don't Feel it Fight It from Screamadelica. Despite the usual vocalists not being present they're obviously Manics/Primal Scream songs.

My only gripe would be 30 Year War, which musically is fantastic, but the lyrics are too clunky as tends to happen when they do overtly political songs. You don't need to use a sledgehammer to crack eggs.

[Mr Richey]

Originally Posted by Jay

Maybe I didn't explain myself well...I was saying it feels as if they knew something about him and were trying to gain his attention somehow.
Altough the title it is very bleak, the lyrics have undeniably a big call feel which almost make you think they don't really believe he's gone... You may say it has to be understood as a "poetic" or an "abstract" thing, but some lines in it, as I see it, could also unveil they have got a clue.

I find it offensive to suggest that the Manics know where Richey is or have known for years where he is.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Mr Richey

I find it offensive to suggest that the Manics know where Richey is or have known for years where he is.

I'm not saying that, my point is that they might believe he's still alive.

[bachelorette]

Originally Posted by Jay

I'm not saying that, my point is that they might believe he's still alive.

The lyrics ARE certainly weird, given the fact that boys have stated in the more recent past that they don't believe that they will ever see Richie again. Part of the lyrics sound like they are spoken to someone absent, not dead, especially "lifetimes we spent far apart" sounds as if the person addressed is living their life somewhere far away but known to the speaker. But I think that's an oddity or maybe just a way of dealing with a pain that is incomprehensible (to me at least). I don't think Wire is consciously inferring he knows where Richie is, that is just unimaginable.

[mar]

Originally Posted by Jay

I'm not saying that, my point is that they might believe he's still alive.

Agree, they always said they believe he is out there somewhere. So do I.

[deadmartyr]

I can see this being my fourth favourite MSP studio album. It does get better with each listen. I love that they've produced such a great record after such a long career, and for anybody who didn't think they could make such a great album without any input from Richey, well this is another example if they didn't like Truth.

[cool-groovey-morning-fine]

I didn't like AHATS at first, but now it's really grown on me. I find the "I love you so won't you please come home, oh it's been so long but I can't let go" refrain really affecting (and also slightly confusing, for the above mentioned Richey stuff). Also, does anyone else think Manorbier, especially at the start, sounds a bit like it could have been on Blur's 13? At least until James starts going "Woooahahah..." etc.

[beautifuldistortion]

I know they might say they believe Richeys 'out there somewhere' but didn't they also write Cardiff Afterlife as a way of accepting he is gone for good (for want of a better term)?
Maybe I've misinterpreted the Afterlife meaning? I take it as being After Richeys life an not some supernatural thing!
Or maybe I've taken it TOO literally and it just means life after he has disappeared as opposed to him being deceased?

Anyway, I don't believe for a second they know anything more than they say!!
With regards to As Holy As the Soil - I like it and it seems to me to be just a song about wishful thinking rather than a direct call to Richeys as if he's gonna answer!

[tzb]

I feel that Cardiff Afterlife is about the three of them coming to terms with him being gone more than specifically about a perceived death... they are experiencing the afterlife, life after Richey, whatever actually happened to him. "We sensed the breaking of our lives in the Cardiff afterlife". Nostalgia vs survivor guilt etc. "Yet I kept my silence, your memory is still mine" - even if the man himself is no longer 'his'.

[mar]

Originally Posted by tzb

I feel that Cardiff Afterlife is about the three of them coming to terms with him being gone more than specifically about a perceived death... they are experiencing the afterlife, life after Richey, whatever actually happened to him. "We sensed the breaking of our lives in the Cardiff afterlife". Nostalgia vs survivor guilt etc. "Yet I kept my silence, your memory is still mine" - even if the man himself is no longer 'his'.

[tomd2103]

Originally Posted by hummingbird

this album is in no way overproduced. You can hear in the demos that the songs are unfinished

Maybe overproduced was the wrong term to use. I know that the demo songs are unfinished, but they have a stripped back quality to them that I really like and feel gets lost a little on the album versions.

Don't get me wrong, I like the album, but having listened to some of the demos I think the opportunity might have been there to record that 'Nebraska' style album that they have mentioned in the past.

[Takk]

Well first time hearing the non single tracks, and it's really rather wonderful.

[amnesic]

Originally Posted by cool-groovey-morning-fine

Also, does anyone else think Manorbier, especially at the start, sounds a bit like it could have been on Blur's 13? At least until James starts going "Woooahahah..." etc.

I was thinking it sounded like early Fleetwood Mac. The instrumental is one of my favs from the album