Manic Street Preachers: Lifeblood

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joncool5 · #61 Post by **joncool5** » Tue 02 Nov 2004, 6:41 pm

The Holy Bible is one of my favourite albums and makes you want to rebel. Know Your Enemy was okay but tried too hard to recapture the Holy Bible period. I am getting my copy of the album tomorrow, but I think that single sounds a bit like DM which isn't a bad thing.

Native · #62 Post by **Native** » Tue 02 Nov 2004, 6:57 pm

They are actually releasing a 10th Anniversary edition of 'The Holy Bible' remastered, on a double cd plus dvd on 06/12.

Lethe · #63 Post by **Lethe** » Tue 02 Nov 2004, 7:23 pm

I do agree that Nicky Wire is a far inferior lyricist to Richey. The odd song - If you tolerate this.............apart - he does write in aphorisms. I kind of lost interest in them after the release of This is my truth. That bloody song about Hillsborough!!!!!

I do like The love of Richard Nixon but I doubt I can stand a whole album of Wire again.

Eldritch · #64 Post by **Eldritch** » Wed 03 Nov 2004, 8:12 am

Lethe wrote:I do agree that Nicky Wire is a far inferior lyricist to Richey. The odd song - If you tolerate this.............apart - he does write in aphorisms. I kind of lost interest in them after the release of This is my truth. That bloody song about Hillsborough!!!!!

I do like The love of Richard Nixon but I doubt I can stand a whole album of Wire again.

Wire is indeed inferior to Richey, but I think he's still consistently interesting, especially in his choice of subject material, which is definitely more than one can say about 99 % of the successful rock or pop artists. And on Lifeblood he is more clear and linear than before – there's little nonsensical junk like Intravenous Agnostic here.

The Hillsborough song was an unrivalled disaster though, even Simon Price lambasted it in his Manics book.

Lethe · #65 Post by **Lethe** » Mon 22 Nov 2004, 7:35 pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features ... 43,00.html

Chrispsb · #66 Post by **Chrispsb** » Mon 22 Nov 2004, 7:37 pm

The new album is pretty good. I especially like the track 1985...C

Eldritch · #67 Post by **Eldritch** » Tue 23 Nov 2004, 6:26 am

This is sooo true:

'You're not allowed to use words,' [Wire] says. 'You know, the White Stripes are seen as being important, but I can't recite you a single one of their lines. Even the Strokes, who are a perfect conglomeration of people, a truly stunning-looking band - none of their lyrics stick in my head. The destruction of language seems unstoppable. When a reviewer says, "Sounds like he's swallowed a thesaurus" - that old line - you just think, Oh, f*** hell_ there's just no way somebody can be intelligent in pop any more. It's dead, truly dead,' he says. 'How can it ever come back?'

Native · #68 Post by **Native** » Tue 23 Nov 2004, 8:58 am

The media response to ‘Lifeblood’ just absolutely deludes me. I wonder what the sales were like? It didn’t enter in the top five (I don’t think), and it plummeted to around fifty on its third week. Difficult time of the year to achieve anything in the albums chart, I suppose. I have a feeling their up-coming UK arena tour might have a ‘Nightlife’ UK tour feel-about-it. *Except Cardiff, of course*

Eldritch · #69 Post by **Eldritch** » Tue 23 Nov 2004, 11:33 am

Native wrote:The media response to ‘Lifeblood’ just absolutely deludes me. I wonder what the sales were like? It didn’t enter in the top five (I don’t think), and it plummeted to around fifty on its third week. Difficult time of the year to achieve anything in the albums chart, I suppose. I have a feeling their up-coming UK arena tour might have a ‘Nightlife’ UK tour feel-about-it. *Except Cardiff, of course*

It underperformed horribly: it spent only two weeks in the UK album Top 75 (chart placings were 13-51). With this album the Manics hit the same brickwall as Suede did two years ago with A New Morning. In the both case former music press darlings couldn't even get interviews in the music mags and both albums flopped totally. The difference being that the Suede album was a real let-down, while Lifeblood is up there with the best of Manics material.

Empty Souls will be released as a single Dec 13th, but I doubt it can do anything to rescue the album.

Leeds City Boy · #70 Post by **Leeds City Boy** » Sun 30 Jan 2005, 12:10 pm

Manic Street Preachers have announced a full UK tour in April. Dates and venues are as follows.

April 03: Southampton Guildhall
April 04: Derby Assembly Rooms
April 06: Wolverhampton Civic Hall
April 07: Swansea Brangwyn Hall
April 09: Liverpool Royal Court
April 11: Bristol Colston Hall
April 12: Cambridge Corn Exchange
April 14: Newcastle City Hall
April 15: Edinburgh Corn Exchange
April 17: Leeds University
April 18: Hammersmith Apollo London

Support is from The Delays.

I simply cannot believe the Manics are playing at Leeds Uni!

Chrispsb · #71 Post by **Chrispsb** » Sun 30 Jan 2005, 3:13 pm

I wonder if they ever tour Germany with the new album?

dVTB · #72 Post by **dVTB** » Wed 11 Apr 2007, 10:57 am

Syncratic wrote:When people talk of irony in PSB I think there's more in the Manic Street Preachers. I think it was Richey who slagged off the boys. Far enough it was the single Was it Worth it? James Dean Bradfield is a massive fan of pop actually.

I also understood that the Manics slagged off PSB, hence my surprise when I read a new interview with them on the website of a Dutch music magazine (OOR) when browsing Google News for news about Pet Shop Boys.

Translated: "In an interview with the BBC, bass player and band philosopher Nicky Wire admits that their previous two albums didn't sound like the Manic Street Preachers. "Lifeblood was very confusing. We didn't work together well, we thought we should sound like New Order or the Pet Shop Boys. Know Your Enemy has its moment, but it lacked a focus. We didn't like ourselves anymore, so how can an audience enjoy us then? With this record, we try to reconnect with that audience."

The Manics wanting to sound like PSB. It surprises me very much. It seems PSB just function as a way for them to display themselves?

Joemoz · #73 Post by **Joemoz** » Wed 11 Apr 2007, 11:05 am

dVTB wrote:The Manics wanting to sound like PSB. It surprises me very much. It seems PSB just function as a way for them to display themselves?

I think PSB and New Order are synonyms for 'intelligent pop' which is what they probably aim at, rather than them literally trying to sound like PSB.

Eldritch · #74 Post by **Eldritch** » Wed 11 Apr 2007, 11:11 am

dVTB wrote: The Manics wanting to sound like PSB. It surprises me very much. It seems PSB just function as a way for them to display themselves?

I interviewed Nicky Wire yesterday and when I asked if it's possible to age gracefully in pop, he mentioned PSB as an example of how to grow old in pop without losing sight of one's goals. He said that while he is not really a fan of their music in general, he said that he has nothing but respect for how PSB have carried on.

He also said the same as he did in the BBC review: that on Lifeblood they tried to not sound like themselves and ended up sounding like Pet Shop Boys and New Order. On the new album they have reverted to their old tricks and done a melodic hard rock album, which Nicky thinks is what they are really best at.

He sounded like a really nice and intelligent guy in general. Shame that the new album is not very good - only Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, Autumnsong and The Second Great Depression sound like vintage Manics songs.

BlueSwan · #75 Post by **BlueSwan** » Wed 11 Apr 2007, 11:12 am

Wow! Ancient thread alert!