• Record Label: Columbia
  • Release Date: Sep 21, 2010
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 16
  2. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. Granted, it is serious-minded fun with ambition, but with Manic Street Preachers you take fun whenever you can get it, and they've never sounded as ebullient as they do here.
  2. For those Manics fans whose bearing on the band is centred by a Britpop firmament, rather than The Holy Bible, this record will prove a joy. It's jolly, but jolly good.
  3. There will be plenty of people who opt to be snobby about the fact that this record is so commercial, so polished and so brazen, but those people are all, to a man, idiots. If you can't love these songs, you are incapable of experiencing joy itself.
  4. The Manics' 10th offensive is a more playful beast than that--poignant, joyful and above all really, really loud.
  5. Q Magazine
    80
    Still raging, not drowning, their flame burns unfashionably on. [Oct 2010, p.110]
  6. Complaining that they occasionally overegg the pudding seems a bit like complaining that the Swedish House Mafia hail from Sweden and persist in making house music. This is what the Manic Street Preachers do. As it plays, you're struck by the fact that no one else does anything like it: reason enough for the Manic Street Preachers' continued existence.
  7. Kerrang!
    80
    This is a terrific album, a rich, sweeping 12-song set that features more potential hit singles than you can swing a pickaxe at. [18 Sep 2010, p.57]
  8. Uncut
    80
    Taking its musical cues from Dennis Wilson and Echo And The Bunnymen, the band remain human underneath the strum and bang and always make sure that, in among the fire and thunder, there are songs, and emotion and, as ever, extraordinary lyrics. [Oct 2010, p.93]
  9. While I wouldn't say that Postcards From a Young Man is quite the late-career masterstroke Journal For Plague Lovers was, it is still a product of a re-energized band. Whether or not it actually garners them the hits and mass audience they're aiming for (and at least in Britain, it seems inconceivable that it won't), they've managed to make an inviting, populist album that deserves the attention.
  10. Overall, Postcards finds Manic Street Preachers at the top of their game, even 22 years after their first single. It's not for everyone--though pop radio will undoubtedly spin several of these tracks hourly for the foreseeable future--but longtime Manics fans will likely find plenty to love in this polished, grandiose "last attempt at mass communication" from an enigmatic rock 'n' roll institution.
  11. Oct 22, 2010
    67
    It sounds like a Manic Street Preachers album, which alone renders it still better than all of the similar arena rock you can name.
  12. Mojo
    60
    Strings, gospel choirs, outeros inspired by Queen--the Manics' 10th album cranks up the drama, but in their hands grandiose needn't be a dirty word. [Oct 2010, p.94]
  13. For all the furious posturing, the message is veneered too neatly with streamlined riffs and swamped too deep in nice-as-pie orchestral melodies. Seething rants seem to pack more of a punch when the product is less polished, and tend to get lost when bookended with excessively opulent trappings. This is rock music, after all.
  14. The Welsh agit-poppers' tenth album isn't terrible--certainly not as listless or confused as Lifeblood--but it does sound lazy, lyrically and sonically.
  15. For a band so obsessed with invoking their past, you do wish the Manics weren't so reluctant to throw in a bit of the old grit and ardour. It's a very nicely put together record, but there are moments so far away from the music that drew you to this band in the first place that you wonder if it's wrong to question what you're actually doing here.
  16. This lack of organic feeling, when paired with the continuous mention of "commercial" aims, becomes troubling.
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 17
  2. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Mar 8, 2023
    8
    Postcards From A Young Man is a album filled with lighter acoustic rock songs that could be heard on the radio(which isn't a bad thing). ThePostcards From A Young Man is a album filled with lighter acoustic rock songs that could be heard on the radio(which isn't a bad thing). The album provides instrumental work from Duff McKagan(Guns'n Roses), John Cale(Velvet Underground) and also vocals from Ian McCulloch(Echo and the Bunnymen). In saying that there are some sections of the record that fall short being the lyrics. Referencing the Godfather films and songs about making music doesn't seem that inspired compared to the bands track history. In summary, it's a good listen for a band that has been releasing music for two decades. Full Review »
  2. Apr 19, 2011
    9
    This album grew on me a lot, and quickly. Wasn't impressed at all initially. Still not convinced about Hazelton Avenue.. Highlights imoThis album grew on me a lot, and quickly. Wasn't impressed at all initially. Still not convinced about Hazelton Avenue.. Highlights imo however include the title track (great outro), Auto-Intoxication (interesting chord progressions with an excellent and typically Manics chorus), All We Make Is Entertainment (similar drumming to that on THB in places) and The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever (that awesome trumpet, great lyrics delivered really well by Nicky). In places on this record the Manics are on fire. Always creative and full of ideas, great songs, and James' voice still as towering and breathtaking as ever. Full Review »
  3. Oct 25, 2010
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Realmente es como si estas canciones fuesen los descartes de JFPL. No obstante, ojala hubiera mas discos de descartes como este. Y es cierto qeu suena a Manics, pero afortunadamente, eso es una gran noticia. Disfruten de la buena música, sin mas pretensiones. Full Review »