TUVL Reviews

[Son of Stopped]

*Goes to music instrument store and marches over to piano
Dur urd da dink dink Simon Price!
Shopkeeper: Hey get out! We've warned you before!!!
Yikes! Oh by the way, spoilers in this review *legs it

https://thequietus.com/articles/3044...wy2MLaDR3OhR54

[Porco]

The older I get the more I feel reviews can do just do one.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Simon Price is a terrible writer.

[cameron33]

Re. That i Paper review.
“primarily on piano – that means cascading chords straight out of ABBA’s “Waterloo” (pop “Orwellian” on and tell me I’m wrong)”

If a song fits that description it’s got to be “The Secret he had missed”, surely, rather than “Orwellian”?

[savemejebus]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

Simon Price is a terrible writer.

He is such a patronising piece of shit hack it's not funny.

[deadmartyr]

You always expect 4 star reviews for the band these days - it rarely ever changes

[cameron33]

Reviews of popular music has always seemed to me an incredibly subjective activity, much more so I’d argue than reviewing films or books. There is usually far more consensus on what is an entertaining/good/profound film or novel than what is a good pop song or what makes good pop music. To take one obvious example, you could easily argue that the Strokes “is this it” was nothing more than a tired pastiche, a bland and monotone retreading of trad rock sounds and themes, with a few clever hooks here and there but absolutely nothing new to offer musically or lyrically. 5/10. Or you could equally call it a thrilling reworking of the genre, offering up some of the catchiest tunes of the decade.

[sitdown1985]

Originally Posted by savemejebus

He is such a patronising piece of shit hack it's not funny.

His review comes across as being written by someone who spends too much time on Twitter, and his interpretation of Orwellian and dismissal of PCP almost reads as ironic, but having listened to him being interviewed on the Do You Love Us podcast I know he genuinely thinks that censoring speech (instead of you know, actually attempting to engage and change people's minds) is OK. I was listening to the Riot Act podcast about The Holy Bible and their interpretation of PCP was so much more mature.

[Suicide Aldi]

I cant stand Simon Price. Such a pompous arsehole.

[savemejebus]

It's a travesty that people looking for written documentation of the manics end up with 'everything' as their main option.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by savemejebus

It's a travesty that people looking for written documentation of the manics end up with 'everything' as their main option.

Well i'm not sure about that, it might be the most known but there are plenty others and new ones forthcoming. Off the top of my head...

Manic street preachers: album by album
33 1/3
Riffs and meaning (also modern music masters by the same author)
Sweet venom
Triptych

There seems to be a bit of a resurgence in manics inspired books lately which is great and it must be a lot of those authors experiencing them in their formative years. The band always said they've inspired more writers and academics than musicians.

Edit: Since i've already stretched the definition of biographical to breaking point with triptych i'd have to include caitlin moran's stuff, with how to build a girl featuring the manics a fair bit.
There should be a section on msppedia for all the manics influenced writing out there.

[savemejebus]

I wouldn't count any of them as what 'Everything' was supposed to be. At the time it was supposed to be the definitive historical document of the band, not essays or author's interpretations of feelings and events.


Caitlin can't count either, she was a fangirl. What we need is someone like a "Loudermilk" writing a historical book on them .
I don't think any such item will ever exist now.

[Suicide Aldi]

I enjoyed the book Nailed To History, although it was a bit harsh on Lifeblood.

[sitdown1985]

The Times:

Manic Street Preachers: The Ultra Vivid Lament review — the urban warriors hit the dancefloor

Agit-prop goes pop as the Manics take on retro-cheese. It actually works
September 3 2021, The Times

★★★★☆


When they emerged in 1991, nobody would put a bet on Manic Street Preachers being in it for the long haul. They seemed like a gimmick: a group of Welsh friends with an unfashionable love of Guns N’ Roses and the Clash who dressed like Italian tourists after a splurge in Camden Market and, apart from the guitarist/singer James Dean Bradfield, couldn’t actually play very well.
They even proclaimed with inadvisable loftiness that they would sell 16 million copies of their debut album, then implode. When in 1995 their guitarist Richey Edwards disappeared near the Severn Bridge, most likely having committed suicide, it seemed like it had to be over. Instead they became the opposite of everything they promised to be: solid, dependable, enduring.
Now comes an album that the bassist Nicky Wire says is a bit like “the Clash playing Abba”. Actually it sounds like Manic Street Preachers bringing a retro-pop sheen and comic twist to songs about contemporary themes. Orwellian starts out as an overview on the dystopian misinformation age, but you can only be so scared by a line such as “Walking through the apocalypse where me and you could co-exist”.
Likewise, Don’t Let The Night Divide Us may be a searing indictment of Tory cronyism, with Bradfield singing, “Don’t let those boys from Eton suggest that we are beaten,” but it has the kind of cheery melody that makes you think of light-up dancefloors and all-you-can-eat buffets on package holidays in Torremolinos.
Sometimes The Ultra Vivid Lament does seem like a concerted effort to test the patience of the band’s hardcore fans. Into the Waves of Love sounds like a 1980s novelty hit augmented by wordless backing vocals in the style of Clare Torry’s contribution to Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky. Bradfield gives in to his worst guitar hero excesses on Happy Bored Alone, which is like something ELO lost down the back of the sofa in 1979. There’s an almost wilful drive towards cheesiness here, and it pulls Manic Street Preachers away from the boring rock morass they could have otherwise fallen into.
Then there are the wordy/pretentious lyrical themes we have come to expect from a trio who, at the height of their stadium-filling success, held a press conference in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Complicated Illusions is about “the philosophical battle between structuralism and deconstructivism”, apparently. And there I was thinking it was a nice love song in the style of late-period Roxy Music.
The Covid era finale Afterending also has a strong whiff of the students’ union. “As the flags fall down, the statues crack and drown, we clap for a crumbling state,” Bradfield sings, at which point you feel as though you are meant to stroke your chin and ponder the profundity of it all.
The overall effect is of a heritage band who, despite their many achievements, cannot manage to take themselves entirely seriously. It makes this album, with its singalong melodies, proper rock craftsmanship and Socialist Worker politics, strangely appealing. (Columbia)

[hummingbird]

A heritage band????