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the New Musical Express, pure and simple.
right..so...lets have a talk about the ole nme.
im sure not many people on here buy it or read it. im sure even less people actually like it or would admit to it. and im sure that the word is filth around these parts in general, but..it cant really be ignored can it? everyone must have got a copy in their time at some point.
to keep it brief, i think the nme reached an all time low in the last two years (in my time at least,ive read since about 14). three years ago i still got it out of habit from my younger days but felt like i should hide it like a dirty jazz mag. then it got really, really bad and you couldnt tell the difference between the front cover of nme and nuts or zoo, with all the gauche orange fonts and repetative studio photography. open up and the words werent much different.
so i havent got it for about two years/year and a half (maybe one or two for torture/intrigue).
paul morley on the state of the mag uttered the only thing to ever come out of his mouth that i agreed with. that the nme was now just 'captions and snapshots'. and thats what it has become.
so..the point is...today i got a copy for the first time since they have changed it again and...flicking through..it seems like it could be getting better. you notice it straight away with the cover, plainer, not just a bland studio portrait, but then they seem to have got rid of all the cringy down with the kids shit, less piss poor attempts at humour, less making up words/genres, less 'lets be like nathan barley in an ironic way but still actually end up cunts' shtick,.. and it may seem like its attempting to get back to something worth while....maybe maybe maybe. better than it was anyway...maybe..i need to give it a proper once over. and i probably wont get next weeks, but...it seems like a change in a better direction at least.
anyway...
so...anyone got any take on this? anyone else noticed a change? anyone like it? is it just completely nothing to people on here? could anyone give a shit? should i be talking about something far more hip and obscure that is so fresh it isnt even in print yet?
go on..have a chat about it all.