20. Manic Street Preachers - The Ultra Vivid Lament
The Manics scored their second Number One album earlier this year... a fact I found rather surprising. A Number One album doesn't really mean much these days, other than that you've still got a fanbase who will all buy your new record on the week of release, and that neither Adele nor that ginger bloke had anything out that week. But the only other Number One the Manics have had was back in 1998, at the peak of their popularity, with the all-conquering This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. Its predecessor, Everything Must Go only made #2... a position also reached by my personal favourite, 2007's Send Away The Tigers.
The Ultra Vivid Lament is better than anything the band have done in a long time... though it's not quite up there with the three records named above. It succeeds largely through sticking to a timely template of blatant Abba steals. The Manics have never been afraid to purloin riffs and even wholesale tunes from other more successful artists, then rough them up a bit and glue on the 6th Form poetry. More power to them if the end result sounds like this.
great choices so far , looking forward to this series
ReplyDeleteThanks. I hope the rest don't disappoint.
DeleteI've got that one at number (not saying yet) in my list.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling/review is very similar to yours - "good stuff again, but more 6th Form poetry"
I don't think they'll ever escape that label.
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