Mean Everything To Nothing , the second album from Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra, is everything you want a rock record to be: raw, urgent, emotional, and 100 percent authentic. "There is nothing fake about this record," says frontman and lyricist Andy Hull. "There's not one fake sound on it. We recorded it live because we wanted it to sound like a band, and I think it does: live and loud!"
Inspired by the pounding, primal assault of Weezer's Pinkerton , Nirvana's In Utero , and Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape , this young band has created its own version of what a classic rock album should sound like, complete with fiercely beautiful melodies, shifting guitar and keyboard textures, loud/soft dynamics, and an urgency in each band member's performance, especially Hull's cathartic vocals.
The drama is magnified by the fact that the album's first six songs bleed into one another without stopping. The blistering opener "The Only One" immediately gives way to the propulsive "Shake It Out" and the torrential first single "I've Got Friends," followed by the anguished "Pride" and the menacing "In My Teeth," before slowing down on the darkly funny "100 Dollars." Then the album pauses and down-shifts into less relentless yet equally gripping territory on songs from "I Can Feel A Hot One" (which was featured on Gossip Girl last September), to the ruminative closer "The River."
The breakneck pace is both exhilarating and exhausting, which Hull says was intentional. "I like the fact that there isn't a chance during the first six songs to say anything if you're listening to it with somebody. It's seamless. We did that to emphasize that there are two halves to the album." The first half is a brooding tale of teenage angst and anger -- the confusion and disillusionment of growing up and becoming an adult. The second half is about redemption and an overall re-evaluation of the self. It's about Hull beginning to realize in his own words "that things are not ok, I am not ok, and there's a beauty in that -- a calming, a forgiveness," he says.
you were incredible tonight in colorado (: i screamed my head off and cried when you played the river, haha. i'm sorry that people were obnoxious and ruined andy's fabulous exit. <333 come back soon
it's about freaking time manchester comes back to new orleans. We've been waiting for you I love you guys, and will be screaming my head off for you at the concert can't wait, april 16th will be the best day of the year so far
my brains leeked out of my ear onto my pillow last night, why you ask because manchester orchestra blew my mind once again last night in SLC thanxx guys come back soon!
Baah! Epic collaboration of chaos! Seen ya play in P-town on Friday..It was all things that are good :) Gonna see ya with Thrice in my hometown of Eugene in May :) Wicked excited.. lol perhaps i ll be vehicle less :) this way I wont have to sit in a parkin lot lookin like I'm creepin' .. soberin' up.. ha ha.. - Life is good :) <3 Oregon
You guys put on a great show last night. I really enjoyed it. Personally, i think the last song should of been with the whole band though, but it was good. Come back to Portland sometime.
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