So, my SMITHS thread went down pretty well, where do you lot stand on my joint-second fave band ever..?
The Manics... an excellent, diversive, exciting, no-two-albums-the-same, occasionally ridiculous, often funny but ALWAYS interesting band...
Saw them live for the first time during the early days and I've got so much rare vinyl... rough as **** during their first gig but so enjoyable...
GENERATION TERRORISTS was the first album, kind of a low-budget mix of Guns And Roses and The Clash, an 18-track album that was a bit short of being a classic but so many great songs on it... You Love Us, Motorcycle Emptiness, Little Baby Nothing, Repeat (Both versions), Condemned To Rock And Roll, Crucifix Kiss...
GOLD AGAINST THE SOUL... not a fan fave but much better than much of the stuff around nowadays... love Life Becoming A Landslide, From Despair To Where, Roses In The Hospital...
THE HOLY BIBLE... ******* classic. An album that takes the sheer disturbing nature of Joy Divisions lowest moments and puts loud guitars on top. Yes, Revol, Of Walking Abortion, PCP and the bloody brilliant Faster... utterly great stuff.
How do you follow that? With EVERYTHING MUST GO, an album that's half arena-filling Phil Spector sounding stuff with Ritchie-lyrics songs that sound like something Nirvana would turn down as being 'a bit low...' This albums a blast for much of it, but when was the last time you heard a multi-million selling album that dripped into the public ears that had lyrics like 'Here, chewing your tail is joy' and 'Killer God Blood Soiled Unclean Again'? Not gonna get that on the next Coldplay album, are you?
THIS IS MY TRUTH, TELL ME YOURS... hmm, some great tracks but also some awful ones. The singles are great, the rest of it, not so much. Sounds like a band who came into a shitload of money and lost their fire. That said, If You Tolerate This, The Everlasting, I'm Not working and You're Tender And Your Tired are nice tunes.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY... The Manics version of Sandinista, by The Clash! 16 tracks of wildly diverse sounds and quality. At least the guitars are turned up loud again, Intravenous Agnostic, Dead Martyrs and Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children are fantastic! Ocean Spray and Let Robeson Sing are also nice chilled out tracks. Shame about the rest of it, some pretty forgettable tracks there...
LIFEBLOOD - generally regarded as the lowest Manics point, but I like it... Love Of Richard Nixon, Empty Souls, 1985 and To Repel Ghosts are great tracks...
SEND AWAY THE TIGERS... just to show I'm a contrary sod, this was the Manics big comeback album, very successful commercially, but it's my least favourite, I liked LIFEBLOOD far better. YOUR LOVE ALONE and AUTUMNSONG are awesome, the rest of it leaves me cold...
No matter, because JOURNAL FOR PLAGUE LOVERS was the next in line... superb, a stripped down, mostly performed live album made out of old Ritchie lyrics... not a bad song on this album. King of like THE HOLY BIBLE but a lot more optimistic in places...
POSTCARDS FROM A YOUNG MAN... a lovely album, the Manics 'last shot as mass communication', as they put it back then... not true as it happens, the next couple of albums got far more attention, but anyway... not a bad track on this album, big chorus's, hugely enjoyable... Some Kind Of Nothingness, the title track and Don't Be Evil are fantastic...
Which brings us to the two albums they've put out in the space of a year... REWIND THE FILM is almost entirely acoustic and just lovely and sometimes heartbreaking... and FUTUROLOGY, which came out last week... one of their best things they ever did, kind of 80's non-metal rock and well worth checking out...
Bloody hell, I meant that to be quite a short post but I seem to have gone on and on! That's what you get for drinking on a Friday night! Sorry! So, your opinions of THE MANICS!!!
