TUVL: Your First Listen Thoughts

[beautifuldistortion]

After one listen.
I'm smiling. Something I never thought I would do at a Manics album.
It's simply batshit. In a good way. I think.

Sapporo is a brilliant song.
Quest for Ancient Colour and Don't let the night divide us had me shaking my head and grinning at the same time.
Can't really explain why, it just doesn't make any sense musically and lyrically together but I like it!

Most of the songs build so slowly that I wasn't quite sure but by the end they get there quite epically.

What a strange album but I'm all in for the ride!

[meanestgreenmeme]

I’m feeling disheartened with the reviews ��. I loved PFAYM & Lifeblood and songs about being bored & writers block still seem valid to me. They have had some masterpieces and reflective songs in between the lulls.

https://youtu.be/h6pRbwu4Pf0

[ForeverDelayed.com]

Originally Posted by *Found That Soul*

Probably my favourite, what’s wrong with it?

my least favorite. Don't mind the verses, but hate the chorus. Might grow on me, don't know.

[Mr Richey]

Originally Posted by meanestgreenmeme

I’m feeling disheartened with the reviews ��. I loved PFAYM & Lifeblood and songs about being bored & writers block still seem valid to me. They have had some masterpieces and reflective songs in between the lulls.

https://youtu.be/h6pRbwu4Pf0

I was really hoping this album would be Lifeblood 2…but sadly it’s not. It’s the Manics doing Eurovision. Which is fine if that’s your thing but it ain’t mine.

[Porco]

Wonderful bonkers beautiful band.

This is about the 10th stab I’ve had at writing this(!) most of the others were longer. I’ll spare you (and me) those.

My minor quibbles are but a drop in the thematically-realised ocean compared to the tsunami of great moments this album is already giving me.

It’s really just clicked with me on about the 4th-and-a-half listen. The album cover, the sprawling themes, the sense of space and distance, the at-times initially super-awkward vocal melodies… it’s loose-fitting, dreamy, definitely and defiantly Nicky’s ‘retro-futurism’ writ large.

I can’t even say which is my favourite track yet because there are 5 or 6 contenders and they keep changing.

[Routine Builder]

I've not listened to the album in full but have given all the songs a listen over the day. I could easily see these as b-sides to the last few albums and I mean that as high praise. There's no pretension hear and it doesn't like a band struggling against their own images of themselves. All the songs seem natural for the first time Enriga's production doesn't try to make the record sound like record a reconstruct of past glories. Someone else said this, but it's very much a wide screen version of the band, layers upon layers and quite a few tracks would stand equally tall without JBD's vocal performances.

This is what the Manics sound like when they're not afraid to fail and it's glorious.

[Routine Builder]

Afterending = Which Way to Kyffin + 15 extra years of musicianship....

[manicsturkey]

After third listen, it's a melancholic pop record avoiding hit songs.. Coherent and modest. Not a Lifeblood 2, more it's like pfaym on piano to me.. 7/10

[less than zero]

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

Complicated Illusions and Don’t Let the Night Divide Us are super mega shite. Right down there with the most embarrassing half-assed mating calls to Radio 2 they’ve done.

Both these are the Nicky tracks according to iTunes Store, and each demo is weirdly just over 1 minute long

[Europa Gluten Free]

Can I whisper that on first listen it’s a bit disappointing?

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

Can I whisper that on first listen it’s a bit disappointing?

Oh cool that means it's really good ...thanks!

[sculptureofabloke]

Only had a few sneaky phone listens to bits, will look forward to a proper listen to one of the 15 copies I've got on the way. Early impression is musically it's nice. Would rather summat less nice but whatever. Lyrically, there's a few shockers. Still an improvement on last album, mind.

[Routine Builder]

It's definitely an album rather than a collection of songs which is what RiF sounded like. I don't think I'll be skipping any of this in future listens. My only disappointment is the verse of DLTNDU. I had such high hopes for the song based on the snippet from the sampler but the verse lands with a damp squib. I still like the song based on the pre chorus and chorus, but I was really looking forward to loving it. On the other hand, the song I most feared, Blank Diary Entry, gets better with each listen.

The one common element running through album (though absent from the singles) is that the way song begins is not an indication for where it will go. This is exemplified by Still Snowing in Sapporo which sounds like three different songs mashed together. At the same time, it sounds like it would sit very happily in a different (and more experimental) album.

All in all, I'm very much happy with this album.

[jl45]

after 2 listens: I hate it, i hope it will be a grower. if this were a new band id never heard of then i wouldnt bother with it again, but I want to like it, I dont want MSP to be a band I used to like, so i will persevere. futurology is proof they can still write good stuff so i still have some hope.

[y2kyle16]

My major quibble is the lack of intros. Too many straight to the point songs