Bleak

In fact, a strong nervousness is perceptible throughout all the tracks of the album... even in those that sound more "relaxed" like "Mind" and "Heaven" (which feels a lot like an irreversible depressive collapse). In the future, I'll make sure to provide the in-depth "derecensoring" on Pere Ubu that you mention... I agree with you on the relevance of this to the sound of the Speaking Heads.

Well, thank you so much, Hal. I assure you it's a great album... at first (but really at the very beginning, meaning on the very first listen) it may provoke some unwelcoming reactions, but with a bit of dedication, one can realize what this album, as well as the band's other works, manages to achieve: a blend of rich content, musical appeal, and accessibility. That's no small feat.

An album of hyper-alienated and paranoid rock taken to the nth degree, according to your description. Intriguing.

This album is terrible, in a good way, of course. Incredible... I've loved it since the first listen. It has always inspired visions of autumn forests, images of medieval battles, and a whole religious iconography from times gone by (even though I'm an atheist, these are topics that interest me a lot). Truly a beautiful album, a great example of balance between violence and meditation, between anger and melancholy.

I listened to it, I listened to it again, I listened to it once more... a great album. Beautiful... truly incredible. The best for me: "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer," "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret," "Better Living Through Chemistry," "Auto Pilot," and "In The Fade" (not to mention the beautiful and relaxing instrumental "Lightning Song" and the concluding "I Think I Lost My Headache").

Well... I find it decent and nothing more, although it's quite entertaining.

Great review and gorgeous cover (slurp)

What a bore... A repetitive, tired, faded album... the only noteworthy tracks in my opinion are "What You Are" (catchy and with a bit of pathos) and "Hypnotize" (a breath of fresh air in the middle of this jumble of hard rock stereotypes).

Well... musically, I don’t find them very "open"... The lyrics, yes, are absolutely noteworthy and would deserve in-depth analysis, if only for the mixture of citations and references they manage to blend together, and especially for that "authorial nihilism" (words of Piero Scaruffi) that permeates it all. It's hard nowadays to come across lyrics that quote Marx, Kierkegaard, Martin Luther, and who knows how many other figures... but I find that in terms of writing, Dylan and Cave are superior, if only because they manage to give a literary quality to their work by using metaphors and symbols that one could discuss for entire days. I don’t think Richey was considered an misunderstood genius (nor do I hold that opinion of him), but I believe he was the only genius in the group. The other three don’t really resonate with me as musicians and, honestly, they come off as hypocritical morally. But as far as I’m concerned, the Manics are done...

The review is too brief and frankly too poor... The album is fantastic, in my opinion superior to its successor, that "Mit Gas" which is also a great album... another testament to Patton's genius.