Do NMA get better with age, or is it just me imagining it?

[jackroadkill]

Do NMA get better with age, or is it just me imagining it?

Have just been listening to Raw Melody Men, and whilst I love the record and the sound, I'm pretty sure that it's not a patch on the band's recent live performances.  For example, the version of Vagabonds on there seems not to be as intense and vibrant as the performance of the same song when it was played in Nottingham a few weeks back.  I also noticed this with Purity; maybe I'm just chuffed to have seen NMA so many times in recent years, or the immediacy of the music comes across better live (which I suppose is a given, really), but it seems to me that the band is more hungry and powerful, more energetic and energised, more relevant and immediate than they've ever been.

I don't know, I've only been aware of NMA really since I went to uni in 1997 (although I'd heard Raw Melody Men and T&C before then) so I could be talking out of turn.

What do you lot think?

[Pol]

The band have definitely changed and of course time and a bigger back catalogue help a lot. For me the addition of Marshall and more recently Ceri have given the band a lot of energy and drive that was maybe missing slightly under Dave and Nelson.

[Shush]

I don't think you are imagining it Jack. The performance in Nottingham, could it really have been any better ? The five members are at the top of their game, and the many years of experience is showing. Even with Ceri, may not have been in the band that long, but has been around music and playing instruments all his life. I think his energy and passion has rubbed off on the others to some extent.

Long may it continue.   

[Anna Woman von NRW]

Nice one Jack, like this topic (Sorry everyone).

I could be talking out of turn.

Not sure why you'd think that though, the tag line on NMA's twitter thing says “We welcome everyone equally”. Don't matter how long, how many gigs, how many miles or how old

Anyway (Restraint Anna, remember restraint? No you don't do you?)  I feel a bit guilty saying what I'm about to in case it could be construed as criticism of anyone or anything that went before. It's not – I'm sad, I love all of it but.....

You right Jack, and I think it all started with the arrival of Mr Marshall Gill (cue bow down, we're not worthy guitar god shit) I'm not enough of a muso to be able to describe this properly but his guitar genius has made things bigger, fatter, bit rougher, harder, wider and ….. better! Then Nelson left and Ceri came in who was perhaps more happy to do multi-instrument stuff which meant the sound again got bigger and wider, more expansive(?) Which brings us to the current NMA live beast. I didn't think the 30th nights could be topped but 2014 has proved me an idiot. Vintage year and I got lucky with getting to Oxford, Southend and Nottingham. 3 very different gigs and for my money right now NMA are better than they've EVER been. Just in case that reads a bit like hagiography I would just add I wish Mr Sullivan would smile a bit more cos his eyes scare me 

[Rusco]

I believe the form of the group affects a lot. Look at the Marquee videos from midst of eighties and you could see how they really are up to it. You couldn't watch it without tears. And the vids from start of ninetites; especially German gigs. I think it's also due to mixing, recording, a difference of festival they are playing at. I think it's also good to bear in mind they were near to hit the charts at start of 90's and NMA had a lot of interest everywhere.

[Master Ray]

I'm sure I started a thread about something similar a couple of years back but it seems to be gone... no matter...

I agree, YES!

I jumped on board roundabout 1989 or so... and I still love those albums, you know, the 'classic era', Thunder, Cain, No Rest, etc.  Bloody LOVE 'em.   

But if I was going to stick an NMA album on tonight, it would be HIGH or TODAY IS A GOOD DAY or BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF...  I do wonder if it's just because I've listened to those old tunes a gazillion times and I don't need to listen to them again, I can play them back in my head anytime I want...

But I've noticed it at the live shows as well.  if I need a pee or a drink or a smoke, I'm far more likely to do it during the 'old' songs... it's not that I dislike those tunes, far from it, but when I hear 'Red Earth' or 'One Of The Chosen' or 'Kneival' or so many others from the last few years... it excites my imagination more than 'No Rest' yet again... I know, blasphemy and all that, bring on the disagreements... 

I remember last time NMA played the Manchester Ritz, having a smoke outside and a discussion with someone who was all 'not interested in the new stuff, just wanna hear the old stuff' and I thought 'poor you if you can't get how great the new stuff is...' 

So, yeah, NMA are getting better with age, in my silly little mind... and 'Angry Planet' is probably one of my top ten ever!

[Rusco]

About the group,  I think they have  the best group right NOW. Since the times of Heaton. They've reached now something which wasn't possible earlier.

[Amandistan]

I don't know, I have not been a round long enough. But i do like their newer albums best and they are always awesome live.   

[Space]

Like all things on Earth - from The Rolling Stones to Catherine Deneuve's beauty - NMA has gotten worse with age.

Sorry, folks, it is what it is. If "Dog And Wolf" were an early NMA release, they would have lasted about three years and had to have called it quits.

[claireinblack]

Like all things on Earth - from The Rolling Stones to Catherine Deneuve's beauty - NMA has gotten worse with age.

Sorry, folks, it is what it is. If "Dog And Wolf" were an early NMA release, they would have lasted about three years and had to have called it quits.

I don't like Between Dog and Wolf at all. But anyone who attended any of the recent gigs cannot fail to notice that this is a band firing on all cylinders.
you don't have to like everything they do, but gotten worse with age? No way!

[Pol]

I'm not dog n wolfs biggest fan although i loved wine and blood.
Funnily enough dog and wolf was widely described by the music industry as the best nma cd ever and gained the band quite a few new fans. So maybe if dog and wolf was a early lp the band might have been bigger.

[Space]

you don't have to like everything they do,

And that's what makes the band so good. I do not like everything they do, but I keep following them.

[Pazza]

I'm not dog n wolfs biggest fan although i loved wine and blood.
Funnily enough dog and wolf was widely described by the music industry as the best nma cd ever and gained the band quite a few new fans. So maybe if dog and wolf was a early lp the band might have been bigger.

What a fascinating thought

I love the new stuff, BDAW took time but is a classic concept album, and the NMS back catalogue is the richer for it

Carnival, Eight, High and TIAGD all deserve to live alongside T&C. They get better, and the current line up is way the most potent and packs quite a lunch live as we saw again just before Xmas.

[jackroadkill]

They get better, and the current line up... packs quite a lunch live.

You calling them fat?!

I have to say that TIAGD took a bit of getting used to, and that I still think BDAW is a triumph of production over songwriting for the most part, but I listened to BWAB in the car yesterday with the stereo pumping and a shit-eating on my face.

[Rusco]

You calling them fat?!

FMA? A parallel reality in a way like Matrix the movie?

Ok, I'm always into bad jokes. The worse they are the better they are.