Lifeblood #10

[Takk]

Let's keep this on topic, thoughts and memories about Lifeblood, rather than just lists and rankings .

[nocultureicons]

Originally Posted by Takk

Let's keep this on topic, thoughts and memories about Lifeblood, rather than just lists and rankings .

After having to delete a bunch of threads isn't this preferable to having a separate one for lists?

[Takk]

No, separate threads are fine.

[AK47]

Listening to Lifeblood on a discman - remember those?? - on release day on train home to Newport. It was raining that day and quite cold. I heard 1985 come on and was genuinely blown away by it and I admit I cried as it was the year my older brother died of Leukemia (xmas 85). "I live to fall asleep" also. Beautiful.

[Takk]

Playing it now .

[tomd2103]

Originally Posted by tzb

I like it, I used to love it.. but these days it's a bit too tough to listen to, too personal perhaps, given the meaning. For me it works best as a b-side.

Could have worked perhaps as a hidden track at the end of the record. I remember Everything Will Be being played at festivals before the release of Lifeblood and have always wondered why it only appeared (rightly in my opinion) as a B side.

[tomd2103]

Originally Posted by Takk

Playing it now .

Been playing it all week, as I've always found it an autumn and winter sounding album. On recent listens, I've been dropping Emily and Always/Never and have been putting Solitude Sometimes is at the end, as I've always it would make a great closing song. It only leaves ten songs, but I just find it flows a bit better, particularly in the second half of the album. I feel that and a bit of a tweak to the sound (a bit more like the version of Empty Souls at the Isle of Wight and the versions of some songs that appeared on Youtube with the Patrick Jones videos) and it would have been a real triumph.

I've revisited I live to Fall Asleep quite a bit, as I've never really been a fan, but have been enjoying it recently. Given the penchant for working with female singers, I wonder if they considered it for that track. I just think it would really suit a female voice, with James interjecting.

[Inertiatic]

Happy Anniversary, dear Lifeblood

It'll be interesting to see if Wire can bring himself to tweet any Lifeblood love today.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Lifeblood is my 3rd fav Manics album. I really rate it that highly. It really really annoys me that I can't remember where I bought Lifeblood. I either picked it up in the Tesco I was working in or the HMV in town. More likely the HMV in town but I can't remember at all.

It truly is a winter album for me. It soundtracked a great period of my life when I moved in with the missus into a little 1 bed flat. Ten years later with the usual money, job, and family responsibilities, I would go back to that time of my life in a second.



I love the artwork. I love the glossy booklet. And I loved the Holy Bible card inside it.

Despite not remembering where I bought it, I have a strong memory of sitting and listening to the Lamacq session on Radio 1 that Monday evening. The version of This Is Yesterday, with the raw solo, feedback, and then Jimbo growling "...and it leaves me blind" is pure magic. That is probably their best session ever.

And then there's the cool article in Guitarist magazine (which can be found here)



And let's not forget about all the white on stage. And all that leather! Cool as fuck. I went to the Belfast Waterfront Hall gig on Monday 6th Dec 2004 (day that Holy Bible reissue was released) and it was mega. Wire up on the speakers and then leaning into the crowd with his mic stand during PCP. (I'm pretty sure he was still drinking in those days...!!!)



In that Belfast gig we got 1985, NSAF, Yes, DITS, PCP, E/A, SIS, Masses, Song For Departure - amazing. I'd kill for that setlist now.

I still listen to Lifeblood a lot. I can understand why the band hate it - it came at a time that their Radio 1 commercial success was finished and they were moving toward becoming the Radio 2 band they would become in 2007 with YLA.



But forgetting about how the band felt at the time, the album itself is a fucking fantastic collection of songs. 1985 is their best opening track. TLORN is not a first single, but it is a fucking freaky, weird, and strangely quintessentially Manicsy. Aside from the fact they wrote a song about Richard Nixon, it is actually a well constructed lyric with some interesting images "Richard the third in the White house / Cowering behind divided curtains". I'm a big fan of Empty Souls as well. It would be great live a little faster and a little heavier (a la Isle of Wight 2004) with Jimbo or Wayne playing the guitar overdubs. A Song For Departure is another beautiful track with one of Jimbo's best ever solos. I live to Fall Asleep is one of Jimbo's best vocals. Now we get into murky territory. I like To Repel Ghosts and Always/Never, but Emily, Fragments, and Glastnost are still album tracks and nothing more. Solitude Sometimes Is is one of my fav Wire lyrics and should be played more. And the album finishes with one of their best closing tracks and their best Richey lyric. The lines "For I witnessed splendour / And evil that no-one saw / And I felt kindness / And vanity for sure" get me every time. Truly beautiful.

Reaching the climax of my Lifeblood loving, I just wish the band would just accept that it's a great fucking collection of songs. It's a really enjoyable listen and as soon as the opening chords of 1985 kick in I am back in that tiny flat with my DELL computer, my dial-up internet, my PS2, and my Manics' CDs. And along with my gorgeous missus, that was all I needed.

And if the band need to remember why Lifeblood is not the disaster they remember it as, then they only need look at this (stolen from the blog of my good FD mate, the slightly Chubby Bono)

[Littlesue]

Lol, James will never be able to live down that mag cover, remember going to get it in WH Smiths in Brum and the woman asking me what was in so exciting as she had sold about half dozen that morning to women.

[Politico]

My fav Manics album. Love the clean production, lyrics and design.

[River Boy]

There were many good reviews of it at the time, I remember someone pointing out that if Coldplay had released it it would have been a mega hit.

"You can't please all of the people all of the time."

[Littlesue]

Think if it had been released after TIMT it would have sold a lot better but the fans they picked up from that had left after KYE.

[wireintheblood]

I loved the Lifeblood era, and wish they'd stop slagging it off. The trouble is when you set the bar as high as they have... Its their most different album to what's "expected" from them, but no less brilliant because of it. Would love 1985 on the THB20 tour, assuming they do play other songs x

[wireintheblood]

I also had personal messages signed by the band on my Empty Souls single boxset as it was around my 30th birthday, which I'd post pictures of, if only I could find how to on my user panel