Sleeve Notes: Van Halen meets the Supremes? It can only be Manic Street Preachers

Man your stations, the Manics are back Next week sees the release of Manic Street Preachers' 10th – yes, 10th – album, Postcards From a Young Man. Many of you will already have heard their latest offering, bafflingly described by Nicky Wire as "Van Halen meets the Supremes", and many of you will have heard it on guardian.co.uk/music when we exclusively premiered the album on Monday through We7. "Some Kind of Nothingness is pure pop perfection," was the verdict of seanoc86, while gingerjohn said: "Oooo ... listen to it again you say? Don't mind if I do." We were moved, also, by the quiet response of May68, who simply said: "They used to be on my side in this lonely world full of hate," to which MikeyMcC84 responded: 'HOW DARE YOU BE HAPPY GO BACK TO BEING MISERABLE YOU'RE SPOILING MY OPINION OF YOU." So yes, the full gamut of opinions on the Manics' new album (and to add one more, here's what Guardian pop critic Alexis Petridis thinks ). If you care to proffer yours, click here , have a listen and let us know. Five things we learned this week Music Weekly may be the only time Janelle Monáe and Fugazi share a platform What Dave Sitek thinks his new Maximum Balloon album sounds like Why we love indie loners, basically Arcade Fire announce plans to retire pretty damn soon (OK, in about a decade) Why Sean O'Hagan hearts the Pop Group Do you know what I'd like to see? More articles about Lady Gaga Poor Gaga. She gets all dressed up like a dog's dinner, and the press just turns a blind eye. When will the world's media shine a spotlight on this ... OK, we'll stop this weak joke in its tracks, because there has clearly been an abundance of copy devoted to Gags since what feels like forever. But even under such a barrage of press clippings, this week has been quite something. First there was the meat-kini, then there was Camille Paglia underlining her decreasing cultural relevance by missing the point of Gaga spectacularly . Oh, and then there were the VMAs where, crucially, a point was being made. Not about feminism , but about the US military's antiquated "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Flanked by a number of discharged servicemen and women down the red carpet, Gaga explained: "I'm here for a very, very important cause tonight. These are all my friends and they are with sldn.org, which is an organisation that was founded in 1993 under reaction to the 'don't ask, don't tell' policies . Their stories are very inspiring and there's so much we can do right now." But then the Lady went and wore a meat dress and managed to annoy those folks at Peta , which meant her commitment to those discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality was sidelined. So we'll draw this week's instalment of Sleeve Notes to a close with a link to sldn.org , and hope you join their fight. For a fine selection of tweets, follow Guardian Music on Twitter