I've never heard of the band before. I'm going to listen to the album. They have an excellent name lol. "Journal for Plague Lovers", that sounds like something that I would listen to. I love it already just because of the title lol.
Next to U2, the Manics are my favourite band. I've seen them 9 times, (most recently at Wolves Civic Hall 1 June 09). Also caught James Dean Bradfield on his solo tour (3 times). JFPL is a powerful, deep album. The Holy Bible for 2009. I see nothing wrong with the artwork at all! What would Richey say about supermarket censorship??
Do they have a greatest hits or a Joshua Tree I can listen too? Even though the story from that "last" (?) album got me pretty pumped. A bunch of lyrics left by a dead frontman (?) and turned into a full album years later by the rest of the band... Touching story besides the music itself. Let's see if I can find the time to listen to them this week!
They're a great band, I've not yet had chance to listen to the new one though. Saw it in HMV last week but of course, you can't buy from there. I'll get round to it soon.