Andy wrote:

Keep going with the great posts, Dante, you’ve made a really positive contribution to the thread.
.

If only Alanis Morissette was next - wouldn’t that be ironic

A bit like R.E.M I only really appreciate Manics at a surface level.

However Motorcycle Emptiness is one of my fave songs. Not top 10 but probably would be in a top 40.

Literally their worst album so I’d hope not

It got two stars in Q

Diluted Dante wrote:

No, because no one talks about seeing a set, they talk about seeing a band. That's frankly stupid.

I disagree, there are soie bands that I've only been able to see once and for them seeing the "band" was what happened, but there are plenty of bands I've at least once a year and for them I'll pick out sets that were better or worse than others. Though most of the time that has little to with the band themselves and more to do with the crows that rocked up to watch at that point. Been (un)lucky recently that a lot of 10/20 year anniversary gigs have happend and they've all been bloody brilliant because the people that are there really really want to be

Motown Junk

For all the "MOR bland shite" that REM got thrown at them, I'd throw exactly the same at the Manics, they just never did anything for me. Motorcycle Emptiness is a choon, but yeah the rest seemed a little too introspective and wanky. A lot weaker than other stuff happening not nly across the pond but even on these shores where "indie" (a broad brush I know) was being pushed in different and better directions. Hell even Travis put out the odd true banger like U16 Girls, let alone all what was going on with stuff like Fat of the Land, Chemical Bros, Underworld, and Skint records blurrring the lines between dance and rock

Bob wrote:

monkey wrote:

Manics are good live.

Nah they suck live James dean is a very one dimensional front man

I respect your entirely valid viewpoint but I happen to differ from it.

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

Can we have a wild swing in genre and or timeline next please? Madonna? Daft Punk? Sinatra?

Yes please. Mix it up a bit. Gremill will have to wait for the RHCP.

Can't really think of many manics tunes that ever stood out for beyond design for life. So that's my vote

Here comes my "In this essay I will..."

So, I'll do it a bit like Andy, album by album.

Generation Terrorists
It's not a great album, it's long, bloated and full of a bit too much riffiness. That being said, You Love Us is a banger for a reason, but I still can't get over seeing JDB hitting the notes, and basically soloing all the way through Motorcycle Emptiness



Gold Against The Soul
I don't often think it, but when I do, I sometimes think this might be a top 3 for them. It's 10 tracks and there's a shit load of bangers - Roses In The Hospital (Rudy! Rudy!) Sleepflower, From Despair... But again, the one I always love is a riff and a half - La Tristessa Durera. That rumbling bumbumburrumbumbalurabum. Ooft.



The Holy Bible
It's the biggin, the one that "real" fans go to town on, and it remains a nihilistic and difficult record to listen to at times. I love the riff on She Is Suffering, Yes remains one hell of an opener with a shitload of lyrics, and Ifwhiteamerica.... Is an excersise in chorus excellence. But my favourite, and possibly in one of my top 3 tracks, is This Is Yesterday - the slow, rhythmic buildup that ultimately hits catharsis in the scorching solo, when the drums finally release, oh god, that's narrative in song.




Everything Must Go
Pretty much every track on this album is a top one for me, pop perfection with a good dose of Richey lyrics throughout. A Design is obviously iconic, as is Australia, both very 96 songs. Non singles like Enola/Alone and Further Away could be lead tracks on any other album, but fuckin get the lighters up, because it's No Surface All Feeling , which remains one of the greatest live MSP songs to see. Shivers down the spine.



This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
Hard to top the one before, do an album that is actually about losing a friend and bandmate (EMG isn't, a lot of it was in place) and continue the big choruses they became famous for, but TIMTTMY manages it. Probably their best known singles on here - Everlasting, If You Tolerate This, Tsunami. Some of the non-single stuff has performed well under re-evaluation with last year's rerelease (although I love Prologue, why the fuck did you take Nobody Loved You off?), And My Little Empire has stuck in my head since. I'm going to cheat a little here and go for the demo version of The Everlasting which has a bit more oomph to it than the final one, and almost feels like a half way between this and EMG .

(Could only find Spotify for this one)
https://open.spotify.com/track/345aH9Jyo2mLFPzlCTG3Nc?si=fFERykyWQMisxQRaYIeUrg

Know Your Enemy
Bless it. I have a nostalgia for it - I was in junior year of high school and trying to get my American friends into MSP. This was not the album to try it with. Back up to the bloat of 16 tracks, and some recorded deliberately messy, but sounding too much like rough demoes, there's not much going on here - shame on them for not putting standalone single Masses Against The Classes on there. Coz that fucking slaps. Anyway, Found That Soul is a romp, Ocean Spray is heartfelt, My Guernica is okay, as is Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children. I'll give it to the use of the electric organ on The Convalescent though. The best of a mess.



Lifeblood
Following their first greatest hits (Forever Delayed) with two okayish new songs that definitely felt quite MOR, and their 2003 B sides and rarities collection (Lipstick Traces), Lifeblood continued adult rock sound and kind of plods through a not quite good enough New Order alike. There's not really much I like here, and the band agree, having somewhat disowned it. Still, The Love of Richard Nixon has a hook, Empty Souls the band likes and is pretty good, and 1985 is a New Order ripoff jam of the highest degree. Recently the band went back to Sometimes Solitude Is and reenergised it, and it's pretty good tbh, so I'll go with that.




Then there was nothing....


Then in 2007, I remember hearing a song in Virgin on Buchanan St and going "here, that sounds like the Manics" and lo and behold Send Away The Tigers dropped. Sometimes I think this tight 10-tracker may be their top album. Everything is a pop banger. The opening titular track is fucking huge, Underdogs is a riot, Autumnsong is their biggest riff since A Design for Life, the "NANANA" Winterlovers breaks your sound system and Your Love Alone gave them a top duet. It's incredible. But again, I'm going to cheat and go for the replacement track from the 10th anniversary edition (replacing Underdogs) of Welcome to the Dead Zone. It's catchy as fuck and it's now running through my head as I write this.



At this point, I think they hit their most consistent career run. Not their highest highs, but finding their form as a band.

Journal For Plague Lovers aka Holy Bible 2.0. This is an ear-shredder, with a lot of Steve Albini's production running through it in a nasty way. It's also very poppy in its own way, Richey's lyrics finding neater rhythms than 1994's edition. Some huge ones here - Jackie Collins is as close as you can get to a single, although asking if a married man fucks a Catholic is a fun line. This Joke Sport Severed and the title track are also incredibly melodic, but for me, it's Peeled Apples. that opening track rips your face off.



As an aside, the remixes of the tracks on this album are incredible, including The Horror, British Sea Power, Underworld and Optimo.

So to Postcards from A Young Man. Designed to be a companion/comparison piece to Journal, big glossy Pop hooks permeate this. I don't listen to Postcards a lot, but there's some great stuff on here - although most of it is front-loaded. I'm a big fan of Golden Platitudes, A Billion Balconies, It's Not War and the title track. My stand out is the Ian McCulloch duet Some Kind Of Nothingness - an Echo and the Bunnymen alike that goes huge in every day.



Onwards through another Greatest Hits and from the big, into the introspective.
Known by fans as their "acoustic" album, Rewind The Film is a grower, not a shower. Following the bombast of Postcards, at first I wasn't quite there with it, and the band haven't often played a lot from it, bit there's some very pretty stuff on here. Builder of Routines, I Miss the Tokyo Skyline and Show Me The Wonder are all very nice, but I'm going to go with This Sullen Welsh Heart, the opening duet. It's the chorus and minor chord progression that get me. Absolutely gorgeous.



Again, veering back into the noise, 2014 brought their Krautrock sound with Futurology. The instrumental Dreaming A City is a god old daft nonsense, Let's Go To War and Walk Me To The Bridge big old boot stompers, and the whole album is a bit silly to be honest - but a lot of fun. When they played their Holy Bible 20th anniversary sets in 2014, they'd wheel out a lot of this for catharsis in their second set. I'll go with another duet, the absolutely ludicrous .Europa Geht Durch Mich for this one. As soon as you hear it you'll know why.



And so to 2018's Resistance Is Futile. I'm a big fan of this album, finding it stronger than the past two. It's very relistenable and there's some really good melodic, strong stuff on here. Seeing them play a lot of this live last year formed the best of my 10+ times seeing the band live ever. People Give In is a strong opener that leads into A Design For Life part 2 in International Blue (the band knowingly opening sets with that and closing with ADFL). Vivian is a guitar lick and a half, and Dylan and Caitlin another example of excellent duetting. But it has to be the power ballad chorus of Hold Me Like A Heaven for this one, hands down. Ooft. WHOOOAAAAAHHOHOOOO



There's my whistlestop tour, not covering some banging b sides or Motown Junk etc. But in there somewhere is my pick. Now it's thinking time.

Kow's hankering for the u2 week.

Re live acts:

Lots of hazy memories.

Lots of disappointment because of venue.

Big acts that were shit because of venue and where I was seated.

Rod laver arena (sound is hard to get right): The killers, Prince, inxs,

Powderfinger were also disappointing. (festival hall up top on side)

As for best, a lot of pub gigs: mystic journeymen at revolver, elbow at the corner, Jackson Jackson at the evelyn.

Bunch of goodies at the midsize venues:

Roots at the palace (better sound than metro), DJ shadow at the palace.

Muse at festival hall (basically front middle) and radiohead at festival hall (absolute front row) both all timers.

Both had impeccable sound, which helped.

Muse deserve special credit as doing a great job with sound generally, saw them at rod laver too, basically within a week of seeing killers.

It was both audibly and visually obvious they just spent more on their sound system. It was a fucking behemoth of a thing that gave quality clarity even towards back of the stadium.

@regmcfly I hope you understand, I now will be expecting a write up for each band going forward. Whatever about the tracks, that's a good read.

LivDiv wrote:

Edit: Nothing wrong with the choices we have had btw, dont want anyone getting worried about it.

RedDave2 wrote:

@regmcfly I hope you understand, I now will be expecting a write up for each band going forward. Whatever about the tracks, that's a good read.

I will only do it for the following 5.

Prince (although make way for Muggins here)
Nine Inch Nails (do EPs count?)
Blur (my tastes here are... Eclectic)
Beastie Boys
Depeche Mode