The Love Of 'Eight'....

[Master Ray]

I am not one to pester / badger people who have more than enough to do,but can we please start a (polite ) petition if such a thing exists to do a re print of this shirt even with the back print as it is........i have vowed never to buy another t shirt again.(i am 60 years old) and if i lived to be 100 i could never wear all the shirts i have.........but for this i would make an exception   

It's been brought up many times before on this Forum... I'd personally kill for a reprint of the Impurity cover T-shirt... well not actually 'kill' as such, but maybe some minor wounding of the shins... 

[8]

Possibly the T-shirt was made-up before the final version of the song was recorded...?  Lyrics do sometimes get changed before 'the final cut' and perhaps the band needed to get the designs to the T-shirt company before the tour...     Just a guess...

Yeah... on second thought Master Ray, your guess makes total / much better sense.

[Ghosttrain]

Hi MARKXE, my T Shirt size is normally XL depending on make ,

[MARKXE]

Shame. Have a spare Eight shirt but it's an M. If your doing a crash diet I can keep it for you 

[Ghosttrain]

Thanks for the thought............no crash diets on the horizon i am afraid,nice gesture all the same. 

[Pol]

Don't think a medium would have ever fitted me lol

Ok so opinions were asked n they shall be given, after a bit of spare time n a cpl of listens , here is my thoughts.
What I like - flying through the smoke ( must better live tho )
You weren't there. Orange tree roads . R&R ( a live favourite for me ) Snelsmore wood ( probably my favourite as a album track on 8 ) . Hidden gem that I had kinda forgot about Wipeout ( would love to hear this soon live ) .

[Anna Woman von NRW]

One of my favourite albums this one and I think it's stood the test of time pretty well. I remember that it was written and recorded quite fast as an antidote to the long gestation of Strange Brotherhood (hope I've remembered that right) so I'm a bit curious as to whether or not there is a feeling that it would have been any different if more time had been given to it.

R&R live is an absolute belter, Flying Through The Smoke is where me and Keren met  and I'm with Pol - I'd like to hear Wipeout live sometime soon.

Never was keen on the artwork tho - guess I'm just not an orange and brown kinda girl 

[cthulhu]

Hidden gem that I had kinda forgot about Wipeout ( would love to hear this soon live ) .

One of my alltime favourite song (like 225 more;-) and i never heard it live and would love to.
i made a video to it, a very old one. this was still edited on analog equipment, which brings me to think about the time that has passed, and that such a song and all the album won't grow old..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaOB2owPICs

[lupus225]

Many really great songs on Eight (FTTS, YWT, Snelsmore Wood, R&R, SLJ, Mixam, Wipeout...).

I remember that back then I immediately thought it sounded a bit flat and "under-produced".

[lupus225]

I think my favorites are Snelsmore Wood, R&R, Leeds Road and Wipeout...I think JS&F played that in Hamburg 2003...totally underrated song.

[Guillaume]

I will always have a fondness for "Eight" in part because it was released in happy times in my life, early 2000's; it's also a fine album, not perfect maybe, but still with some very good songs like "You weren't there", "Snelsmore wood" and "Leeds road 3AM".
"Someone like Jesus" is a stunning masterpiece, also "Orange tree roads" is one of my very favourite NMA songs, each time i listen to this song i find it fresh, and it evokes in me a weird mixed feeling, a song for me between melancholy and optimism/love for life!     
Its 4 opening tracks alone make "Eight" one of NMA's best albums from the 21st century, along with "High" in my opinion...i like these two albums much more than the last one "Winter"... 

I remember that it was written and recorded quite fast as an antidote to the long gestation of Strange Brotherhood (hope I've remembered that right)

Indeed.
Justin said in a french interview for the release of "Eight" in early 2000's that this album was a return to the simplicity and immediacy of an album like "the ghost of Cain"...especially after the more convoluted/experimental sounding "strange brotherhood". In the interview Justin was saying that "Strange Brotherhood"'s making was really harrowing, it took a very long time of his life and at the end he wasn't really happy about the album...so "Eight" was really thought like an answer/antidote to "Strange Brotherhood", a straightforward, "simple", catchy album like NMA use(d) to do. 

[lotus]

For me, Eight is my fav album
the ones before are filled with anger, surching for a way to express things in a rough (?) way, then a break (perhaps lack of money, connections, personal problems) and the ones later are a kind of mix of knowing how to express better (not the lyrics, but music and sound, producing) and yes, getting older (that`s life we all old fans have to face) .....
We were young, we are getting old, we are (here) still in this together 

[Guillaume]

Here's a nice review i found on Amazon US, posted in 2004...:


 
5.0 out of 5 stars NMA - Not being tired of delivering yet another Masterpiece
BySwen Roschlauon January 16, 2004
Format: Audio CD

NMA prove once again that they have further refined their unique music style through the years wíthout losing their enthralling vigor and riveting grip on the souls of the listener.
By far NMA are taking much effort and attention for every song they put out (even their B-side collections like "Lost Songs" are outstanding in many ways). I dont share all of their political thoughts as I am more optimistic regarding the ability of the western world to cope with the challenges ahead.
Nevertheless their lyrics are a class of its own - unmatched by comparable alternative rock acts.
The songs on Eight are:
"Flying through the smoke" - a spell binding folk rock track gathering gradually in momentum and exposed fury till it bursts into a final explosion - disturbing and absorbing at the same time.
5 out of 5
"You weren't there" is a ballad carried by a quite simple but nevertheless atmospherically tense organ-like keyboard tune. The lyrics are dealing with the gap between media reality and hands-on experiences. A catchy slow track, but losing a little bit its magic by hearing it again and again.
4,5 out of 5
"Orange tree road" displays the romantic power and vitality of NMA at its peak. The song comes along like a 4 minute road movie - fast and emotionally engrossing. Once again the rather sweet though dynamic melody is brought by a earshrapnelling organ-keyboard tune, which fastens its grip the more you listen. The lyrics deal with memories of lost love, dedication, renewal and life being an endless journey. One of the best songs NMA has ever written.
5 out of 5
"Someone like Jesus" is a spartanically instrumented ballad, which didnt get a grip on me at first. But dont underestimate this song, appearing still on the súrface, but exposing a dark yet fasicnating realm of sound and word the further you are diving into it. I got more and more - literally !- soaked into this song and came to appreciate it as one of the best elaborates NMA has created so far. The lyrics deal with the sinister side of sanity.
5 out of 5
"Stranger" and "R&R" are more or less average stuff for NMA benchmarks. Good rock tracks anyway, but I miss the special enchantment the other songs enfold so impressively.
3-3.5 out of 5
"Snelsmore Wood" was pubslihed before as a live track on "&nobody else". Both versions dont differ much, though I prefer the tense atmosphere of the live act. The song is first just filled with the permeating voice of Justin and the rough sound of the acoustic guitar. In this track actually Justin reaches a level where he directly penetrates into ones mind - really invading in every aspect! The song eventually erupts in an e-guitar solo dripping into the melody like a chain of raw diamants. The track stands paradigmatically for NMA finding a highly exciting synthesis between a raw, unfiltered and emotionally tense sound.
5 out of 5
"Peakakriki beach" fits well as some kind of relaxing exercise. Sound and lyrics unit to a hymn for a more peaceful place "away from the battlefields" of life.
4 out of 5
"Leeds Road 5am" is a story-telling folk rock song reminding me of some of the works on Springsteen's "Nebraska".
4 out of 5
"Mixam" has an infectious groove line, but dealing with NMAs favorite topics (blind mankind tumbles further to the apocolypse), which sometimes get a little bit annoying to be honest.
3,5 out of 5
"Wipe out" is the dignified closing track of the album and a stirring poem to the sea, kind of redemption song. The guitars are oscillating between soft chords and rougher uptempo, again NMA at its best.
4.5 out of 5
So to sum up...a strong buy :-)

[Master Ray]

Nice find, a great review!

[Guillaume]

Indeed!
I especially agreee with what he is writing about "Orange tree roads" and "Someone like Jesus" ("one of the best elaborates NMA has created so far") ...also the reference to Springsteen's "Nebraska" for "Leeds road 3AM", interesting...if i am right Justin loves this album (or another acoustic one from the Boss?) and i remember him saying that he read Springsteen's autobiography these last years.