TUVL: Your First Listen Thoughts

[centralscrutiniser]

After a few go throughs - fantastic. I love it.
Sounds to me like a continuation of EIE - especially the verses of blank diary entry. After ending has more TGW for me. Really great.

[Marconi Delorian]

Originally Posted by savemejebus

I've a feeling that this'll be my last post on this forum for a while so may as well make it a twofer so that everyone can continue to be lovely to one another and sing along to the same not-quite abba-esque tune.



Yes boss i'll shut right up so as not to upset the groupthink by saying anything that might be construed as prickishness by suggesting something that might be uncomfortably close to the truth for some. Oh look I post in orwellian times....



That gave me a chuckle. This may help you buddy.

Classic victim mentality. No one's said you're not entitled to your own opinion of the album, but if you're going to start creating strawmen and projecting inane reasons why other people have a different opinion, you're gonna get called out.

[Mr Richey]

Originally Posted by Marconi Delorian

Classic victim mentality. No one's said you're not entitled to your own opinion of the album, but if you're going to start creating strawmen and projecting inane reasons why other people have a different opinion, you're gonna get called out.

No mate, you just don’t understand - some people liking TUVL and some people (like myself) disliking it is clearly a sign of groupthink!! YOU’RE JUST NOT EDGY ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND!

[Routine Builder]

If you're going to troll, have some self awareness. I think everything Dancing Kirby says is hastening our travel towards the heat death of the universe but I just love how they don't give a fuck.

[Marat Sar]

Originally Posted by Son of Stopped

I know Iiked RIF. But that's only because I didn't know they could still make stuff like TUVL.
No idea what's next.
.

My feeling exactly. Didn't think James still had it in him to move me with his voice like that. Didn't think they have such conceptual guts either.

This album and the first half of Even In Exile are incredible. I sorta wish they released Even In Exile as an Manics EP, though... Has anyone tried listening to TUVL and EIE highlights mixed in a play? It's very very very good damn music.

[tomd2103]

Even though the majority of the lyrics were written by Patrick Jones and not his brother, I thought Even in Exile would have been a good Manics album at that point in their career. Interesting subject choice and a kind of concise concept album which they have not done before.

After the first few listens of TUVL, I still think that is the case really. TUVL just seems all over the place after a couple of listens and sounds more suited to a JDB solo record. It just seems a bit disjointed and that may change after a few more listens, but just not there with it at the moment.

[IrelandCalling4]

Initial listening just after midnight Thurs night into Friday morning (when it appeared on YouTube) was underwhelming. Seemed quite different with much of the tracks composed on piano; some stood out but I felt it wasn't up to the standard as RiF (loved the album, still do) and James' exquisite 'Even in Exile'.



However, upon first listen on Friday morning, after a good sleep, it clicked. Subsequent listens all weekend and I have to say I find it a gem. Every track has magical musical passages, or a vocal hook, a synth wash , that keep me coming back. 'Elegiac' seems to be the word utilised in many reviews, and I think an apt descriptive word. It is a work of beauty.



The demos, always interesting, this time are more so. Not all, but some are genuinely intriguing and as compelling as the album versions - Still Snowing in Sapporo, Complicated Illusions, Diapause, Afterending - wonderful alternate melodic journeys and worthy companion pieces.



'Blank Diary Entry' may be my top pick; the slightly jazzy chords, the mood, the atmosphere, the vocal melody on the chorus. Sublime. 'Into the Waves of Love' - demo is excellent, as is the album version. The arrangement - the breakdown after the middle, the almost Pink Floyd-ish female vocal. Magic stuff indeed. Full of highlights though - Sapporo, Diapause, Afterending.

[Fabulous Disaster]

I've had the opposite experience to RIF, an album I loved at first but then which faded in a number of areas. TUVL didn't really do much for me on the first listen, but after another 2 or 3 it really started to shine and continues to do so. It's the first Manics album I've listened to on vinyl first, and the structure works really well in this regard. In fact, I'd say I love side 2 more, one of their strongest ever imho. Afterending is a fantastic closer. Mark Lanegan's contribution is excellent and really balances JDB's vocals quite superbly. Once again they exceed my expectations; to be putting out something so melodic, fresh and consistent at this point in their careers is really quite staggering. It could well go on to become one of my favourite MSP albums, who'd have thunk it.

[Flint]

This is likely 100% irrational and just my mind playing tricks on me because the songs have similar themes, but anyone else think the synth wobbling at the intro of Sapporo is reminiscent of some of the background elements in Tokyo Skyline? Not simply because it’s a more “electronic” touch but the back-and-forth-esque “melody” of it just sounds similar to the rhythm of Skyline’s programmed elements.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Originally Posted by Flint

This is likely 100% irrational and just my mind playing tricks on me because the songs have similar themes, but anyone else think the synth wobbling at the intro of Sapporo is reminiscent of some of the background elements in Tokyo Skyline? Not simply because it’s a more “electronic” touch but the back-and-forth-esque “melody” of it just sounds similar to the rhythm of Skyline’s programmed elements.

I thought exactly the same. And I do think they are the same sample. But then I listened to both and they are slightly different. But that could be because the songs are in a different key and the sample has been modulated.

[rosetree]

It doesnt seem irrational, Tokyo Skyline and Sapporo seem a lot similar musically and in the reminiscing lyrics. It's such a great start to the album. It reminds me of the early songs Motorcycle Emptiness, 4 Ever Delayed and the videos in Japan. On the demo version I think James sounds really emotional towards the end of the song.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Can we make a list of Japanese linked Manics songs?

Still Snowing in Sapporo
I Miss the Tokyo Skyline
Motorcycle Emptiness (Video)
Ocean Spray (Spoken Japanese)
Tsunami (Japanese word)
Born to End (Nagasaki dolls are burning)
Nobody Loved You (Cherry blossom tree)
Motown Junk (Single cover)
Enola/Alone (Enola name of plane who dropped bomb on Hiroshima)
The Intense Humming of Evil (Wire said song partly inspired from visit to Hiroshima Peace museum)
Mausoleum (Also possibly influenced by visit to said museum)
Faster (Nailed to History claims Faster was influenced by Richey reading Yukio Mishima)
Everything Must Go (Cherry Blossom Tree in video)
Kodawari (Japanese concept meaning the endless pursuit for perfection)
Life Becoming a Landslide (video taken from Japanese gig)
Archives of Pain (references serial killer Yoshinori Ueda)
Me and Stephen Hawking (Spoken Japanese in intro)

[tzb]

Born To End ("Nagasaki dolls are burning")
Nobody Loved You ("just a cherry blossom tree")
Motown Junk (single cover features watch from Hiroshima)

[Routine Builder]

Mausoleum is partly about Hiroshima isn't it?
The Everything Must Go video also has a Cherry Blossom Tree.

[Flint]

Kodawari?