FIVE YEARS OF "SEND AWAY THE TIGERS" - Forever Delayed

Son of Stopped · #1 18-01-2012, 23:48

Five years. Was it your first? No, it was my sixth Manics album. (I didn't buy the first two on release, and even then THB was within the year.)
Five years ago. In that time this album's taken a kicking! And I can't really disagree as it was a step back from Lifeblood. I liked it on the first listen. It took me a few plays for Lifeblood and Know Your Enemy.
This was the first album since TIMTTMY I loved from the very minute. (As opposed to "All right" or "More to get used to".)

So the seventh album that "saved" the Manics and then condemned them in the eyes of some people. And yes, it's the one with Autumnsong.
I remember joining FD around that time as well. Wow, five years of this.
And what with No Manifesto rearing it's welcome head, what better way to look at Send Away The Tigers?

I still love it. It is perfect for sunny days. Could have done with a couple of extra tracks, but I suppose that's the Japanese to track down.

Where were you when SATT was released and where are you now?

Around SATT I was unemployed and writing/reading poetry and had an electric bass and speaker. Now SATT I'm still unemployed but I've now got an acoustic bass only and I'm also doing a Low Budget Film course as well as writing/performing poetry.

I'm telling you this now, bolded into all seriousness: Can you imagine how heavy it will get when benefits phased out and replaced with credits when I next ask you to contribute to a thread to celebrate SATT in another five, maybe even fifteen, years time?

So yeah, your stance on SATT now and where were you when?
Balanced with of course where you are now. This probably isn't going to be my final post in this thread.

I'm not using the album's release date, I using today's date at the time of writing. (23:46)
http://calendarhome.com/cgi-bin/date...&wd2=Wednesday

We could definitely use some pics and video links from that time in this thread to.

Dext37 Fielding · #2 18-01-2012, 23:49

the first Manics album i got into

Bobafettish · #3 18-01-2012, 23:52

It am a bit Wank

relic · #4 18-01-2012, 23:59

I like to hear the singles live (apart from Indian Summer). I sometimes get a vague feeling that I'd like to hear Winterlovers or Imperial Bodybags more often than I do. And yet, I never play it. I'm sorry SATT fans, but to my ears, the album is dead on the inside.

Manicben · #5 19-01-2012, 00:02

I rarely listen to the album these days and though I like it I'd rate it low in comparison to most others. However I'll always have a soft spot for this era as after years lurking in the mist of FD I finally started meeting folk and attending meetups. Things changed quite a bit from then on.

Flint · #6 19-01-2012, 00:05

Got it on release day, hurried home excitedly, listened through it and felt absolutely nothing afterwards. Compare this to the genuine euphoria that led me bouncing around the room when I first heard 1985 and yeah, it was a bit different. Later that nothing switched to massive disappointment. The album, coupled with the band's interview chatter at the time ("this is the real us", "we had lost our way when we made the past few albums" etc) killed the Manics fanboy in me for quite a while, as corny as that sounds. It was a soulless, autopilot wreck that sounded like the debut album of a former Manics cover band. I didn't mind the idea of Manics returning to big stadium rock songs (Leviathan IMO was a bit of a preview for the project and sounded great), it's the fact that they did it so... terribly. A coldly calculated album to score a hit.

Over time I've made my amends with it and in the right mood can even enjoy it (plus Winterlovers and Indian Summer are genuinely great songs), but it's still the weakest Manics album to me and the condensation point of everything that can be somewhat iffy in them these days. Plus on top of it all the b-sides were a miserably average bunch from what was before that a flawless b-sides band.

Manualex16 · #7 19-01-2012, 00:19

I like it but it should have been a lot better(when you compare it with Journal&Postcards heck even Lifeblood)

mrdavidj · #8 19-01-2012, 00:23

It's essentially a "lost" album for me, in that I'd drifted away from the Manics after Lifeblood and when Send Away The Tigers came out I just wasn't that interested. It wasn't until Journal For Plague Lovers was announced that I found myself listening to the band again, and finally buying a copy of Send Away The Tigers. Even then it was the older albums that I found myself listening to, the songs that brought back happy memories.

I should really give it more of a listen at some point.

amay · #9 19-01-2012, 00:23

Your Love Alone is the reason I got into the Manics - I got so obsessed with that song that I just had to get the album! Reminds me of happy times at school, it's fun and easy to listen to. And it must have made some impression if I'm still here 5 years later!

jack_duckworth · #10 19-01-2012, 00:31

send away the tigers has got a warm fuzzy place in my heart.

i was very much 'out' of the band around the time of forever delayed/lipstick traces/lifeblood. I got into the band just before everything must go came out(which i didn't like at the time, strangely), i went to all the tours and bought all the singles out of loyalty etc, but at that time in my life i was more interested in drugs and swilling about in my own self pity.
(for the record, lifeblood is now my 3rd favourite manics record because i think it sounds like the manics trying to sound like u2 - and i love u2)

i vividly remember the first time i heard 'your love alone'.
i was sat at ye olde computer in my old house, high, and watching shite on youtube when a thumbnail popped up for a manics song i didn't recognise. i'd seen nicky solo and thought it was all over. i knew mates of james' at the time and they told me things i didn't want to hear as a manics fan, but i clicked play on that video thinking it was some trashy money-making outtake or b-side balls that i'd come to expect from the band i'd once loved so much.
i was wrong - it was a new single and it was a new video.
it was exciting, it had 'that' rush, it was a bit different, they were wearing combat gear, james was thin, nicky had cool make-up on, there was little to no keyboards involved - YES!!
I fell so heavily in love with the band again it hurt. it also happened to be the time when they got their own studio in cardiff and i started seeing them about and bothering them for autographs.
then i also started seeing the manics as a band i could listen to without being fucked up and without being some attention seeking, screaming, quote spouting mess.

also about the time i joined here ;-)

Blue Cat · #11 19-01-2012, 00:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flint

Got it on release day, hurried home excitedly, listened through it and felt absolutely nothing afterwards. .

This. I refused to listen to or read any possible leaks/ descriptions. I bounced home, and was just... meh. The album itself was okay, but it's blandness was crushing.

I will still always look back so fondly on that era though. It was around when I started reading FD, when I had enough money to finally start going to gigs, when I started talking to my ex-FDer boyfriend etc. My late best friend and I were obsessed at that time, proper manixfan style. I'll always associate this album with her, with gig times with her, with drinking in hotels, bad makeup, leopard print and feathers with her. So the album itself I could so easily erase from my memory, but the bringing back of the glittery pompous manics who we never thought we'd see live in that way- I can forgive the album for bringing that back.
I can't believe it's five years.

IanL · #12 19-01-2012, 00:56

I will always remember that time as the time I did a double take at the sight of Nina Pederson hitching up her knickers in the video for YLAINE....and thinking,"They left THAT bit in??"

Tom · #13 19-01-2012, 01:02

Our relationship never recovered.

starstruck · #14 19-01-2012, 07:16

i go back to it every 12 - 18 months and get pleasantly surprised by it. remove the overt attempts at pop sensibilities (Autumnsong and to a lesser extent but still YLAINE) and you have a set of tracks that would more or less fit in anywhere with what they have done EMG onwards.

a pretty good set of songs overshadowed by, for some a controversial choice of cover and two singles that had Manic purists going "wtf" - with the concerns around both being valid enough. if it sold by the shed load and set the boys pension funds up for life, well then so much the better.

Bathtub · #15 19-01-2012, 10:03

As a stab at "mass communication" it was a hell of a lot more successful than the last attempt. Whether or not it was an especially high quality album, it was a good period of their career. They started to look sharper, great b-sides and they were on form for the first tour.

It's a decent record. It's probably stifling to always be working inside your comfort zone, but at the same time you don't have to be constantly re-inventing the wheel.