Futurology

[Dancing Kirby]

One point the Herald makes...

"I've heard the word "krautrock" thrown around, but it's not enough to simply record your album in the Hansa studios in Berlin and add a jackboot march beneath actress Nina Hoss chanting in German on Europa Geht Durch Mich."

...is closer to the truth than Simon Price's...

For a band so often accused by their cynical detractors of failing to walk it like they talk it, there's something gloriously vindicatory about seeing Bradfield, Wire and Moore doing exactly what they said they were going to do here.

Maybe this is the album they intended in their heads all along but it's not the album "they said they were going to do" in those mission statements.

Nicky brought the top quote on himself, as is his way.

[cdrw1992]

Admittedly I really don't know much about Krautrock beyond what the Manics have said (maybe it's the difference between influence/emulate though?) but wasn't there at least one interview where the band stated they were really unsure about recording at Hansa because of being perceived to be 'doing the whole Berlin thing' and spent time looking for a different studio before being convinced? They obviously didn't just walk into it blindly which seems to me what the Herald might be implying? But yes if Nicky's prophecies came true on each album the Manics' back catalogue would be a very different beast!

[AK47]

The album sounds perfect in this order:

EGDM
LGTW
F
WMTTB
TNJTLM
DACH
BS
MM
TVFSH
BTCATB
DY
EM
LTISP

[Takk]

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

One point the Herald makes...



...is closer to the truth than Simon Price's...



Maybe this is the album they intended in their heads all along but it's not the album "they said they were going to do" in those mission statements.

Nicky brought the top quote on himself, as is his way.

You didn't write it, did you?

[Bathtub]

Krautrock is a fashionable name drop these days, but it's really just an inadequate term used to describe a whole range of experimentally inclined rock and electronic music being made in Germany in the mid 60s to the mid 70s. It's as useless a term as Britpop, in that counting Neu! and Tangerine Dream in the same class is as stupid as grouping together Oasis and Elastica just because they happened to be making music around the same time.

As such I don't think it's possible for a band today to say they've made a "krautrock" record, and I don't think the Manics have claimed to, they said they'd made a European sounding record, which is where I'd take issue with the Herald review.

[Dancing Kirby]

Originally Posted by Takk

You didn't write it, did you?

My only real complaint about the album has been the choice of opening track. Which IS a fairly fundamental one when it comes to appreciating the album as it is. But as per my post in the ratings thread, I've found my own way to enjoy the songs. I'm even part of a seemingly tiny gang that likes Mayakovsky. But not as a closing track, I might add.

They can do a krautrock album next time. Or maybe after they've done GNR playing The White Album.

[The Holy Bum-Bum]

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

I'm even part of a seemingly tiny gang that likes Mayakovsky. But not as a closing track, I might add.

This.

I like it a fair bit, but it's a bit of a damp squib as a closer. Swap it with Hugheskova and the album ends on a victory lap.

[Scarecrow]

I like Mayakovsky, but object to it being labelled an instrumental. There is only one instrumental on this album.

[Mr Richey]

I've had 8 listens to the album in full now. Think I'll wait until I've listened 10 times before I write a review though. Then I plan on creating my own playlist, as usual

I actually agree with DK* that the title track probably shouldn't open the album. It feels like a closing song to me in every respect, so my playlist will likely feature it at the very end. I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and suggest that an instrumental opening would be pretty awesome and "Dreaming A City" would be my preference as "Mayakovsky" feels more like a mid-record breather.



*I'm as surprised as the rest of you.

[Manicben]

I've only heard it on the sampler. But Mayakovsky was the song that intrigued me the most. It sounded good.

[Radiomanic]

Still trying with it...doesn't get better on repeated listens. Just cant feel any love for it at all. Its like a cross between Lifeblood and PFAYM. More PFAYM... Bar a few excellent tacks i just find it really boring. If they hadn't claimed it was something else entirely (i.e. A bit spikier, more alternative), i wouldve probably been less disappointed. 30 Year War has far more bollocks than most of this album and that was supposed to be their more delicate record! For me it feels like somebody going on for months about a wonderful place you'd love and you finally go...and its all run down and deserted.

That's my final say on it, wounded

[Europa Gluten Free]

Originally Posted by Radiomanic

Still trying with it...doesn't get better on repeated listens. Just cant feel any love for it at all. Its like a cross between Lifeblood and PFAYM. More PFAYM... Bar a few excellent tacks i just find it really boring. If they hadn't claimed it was something else entirely (i.e. A bit spikier, more alternative), i wouldve probably been less disappointed. 30 Year War has far balls alone than most of this album and that was on RTF! For me it feels like somebody going on for months about a wonderful place you'd love and you finally go...and its all run down and deserted.

That's my final say on it, wounded

Try the demos of the songs you don't really get. I found them to be a million times better stripped back, e.g. Stow Hill, Clock and the Bed, Divine Youth, SPLAM, etc

[cherrybomb]

Totally fed up now of my missus saying 'Don't I fucking wish!' every time James sings 'I can still fill your void', it's like back when the Forever Delayed dvd came out and she had the Slash n Burn vid on repeat. ~Feeling inadequate~

[cherrybomb]

Originally Posted by Radiomanic

Still trying with it...doesn't get better on repeated listens. Just cant feel any love for it at all. Its like a cross between Lifeblood and PFAYM. More PFAYM... Bar a few excellent tacks i just find it really boring. If they hadn't claimed it was something else entirely (i.e. A bit spikier, more alternative), i wouldve probably been less disappointed. 30 Year War has far more bollocks than most of this album and that was supposed to be their more delicate record! For me it feels like somebody going on for months about a wonderful place you'd love and you finally go...and its all run down and deserted.

That's my final say on it, wounded

Yeah that was what I was like on my first few listens, I'd heard words like spiky and angry and confrontational, and phrases like Holy Bible's bedfellow and expected the album to take my throat in its jaws and shake me around like a rag doll but it turned out, for the most part, to be pretty sedate, at first I struggled to work out where the tunes were. I love most of it now though, just stop promising me heavy metal then giving me damp grass!

[Inertiatic]

After listening to the album several times, I think it's brilliant. It's definitely an album to listen to on headphones as there's so much cool stuff going on. At the moment I'm obsessed with Let's Go To War and Misguided Missile, but it's impossible to pick favourite song/s as I love all of them except The Next Jet To Leave Moscow and Stow Hill. They aren't bad songs either, just not as good as everything else in my opinion.