Manic Street Preachers all inclusive thread

Suedehead

Suedehead

I Will Survive
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Feb 18, 2023
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I'm in a Manics mood at the moment.
I'd like to discuss their music, the discography and journey overall.
 
Massive fan over here, I've been in the mood too.

I've recently realised what an amazing album Futurology is, having previously been of the "there's some good tracks but, y'know..." opinion. I even tracked the 2CD on eBay for the demos and bonus tracks.
 
I haven't been in a Manics mood for quite a while surprisingly but I'm more than happy to jump right back in!
 
I've been listening mostly to the earlier stuff. I sort of lost track after Know Your Enemy (hated it) and then was interested again with Send Away the Tigers but I would like to investigate their more recent work further.

I'd love an album rankings/rate and all out detailed outlook from @all kinds of octophone if possible :eyes:
 
'Indian Summer' is such a 'Design for Life' rewrite though isn't it (musically.)
 
Building A Mysterious Woman said:
I've been listening mostly to the earlier stuff. I sort of lost track after Know Your Enemy (hated it) and then was interested again with Send Away the Tigers but I would like to investigate their more recent work further.

I'd love an album rankings/rate and all out detailed outlook from @all kinds of octophone if possible :eyes:
Click to expand...

On my way home from work about now - expect this later this evening while everyone else is watching the Eurovision heat.
 
ALBUM 1 - GENERATION TERRORISTS

Messy, over-ambitious debut that nonetheless serves up some serious boo. Hampered by a flat production and their own dogged insistence that they make a double LP, the album is the locus classicus of the "flawed masterpiece". A manifesto first and an album second, it works best when considered as the former. Plus, it has "Motorcycle Emptiness".

Don't miss:

The pure punk energy of "Crucifix Kiss". An excellent example of the intense collaged sloganeering of their early work which also happens to absolutely rock.




Avoid:

"Tennessee" and "Methadone Pretty" are a bit nothingy and you can ditch the sleepy re-recording of "Spectators of Suicide". The original recording of "You Love Us" is better than the album version too. In a certain light "Repeat (Stars And Stripes)" is funny. But it's also terrible.

Rating 7/10
 
ALBUM 2 - GOLD AGAINST THE SOUL
That hypocritical second album. Didn't bode well that it was just 10 tracks deep and was still patchy. Was the well running dry already? However, all 4 singles are magnificent so it comes out of their singles compilations very well. The lyrics are more focused, to varying degrees of success. It's still all a bit too metal tho'. Big in Japan. Like VERY big in Japan.

Don't miss:

Fan favourite "Sleepflower" is a fan favourite for a reason; it completely rocks and the lyrics are great. The band hate it. Which is apt, given the general feeling of unresolved dichotomy that surrounded the band at this time.



Avoid:

"Drug Drug Druggy" is one of the worst things they've ever done; smug and judgmental in a way that really didn't suit them at all. "Nostalgic Pushead" isn't much better.

Rating: 5.5/10
 
ALBUM 3 - THE HOLY BIBLE

No-one saw it coming. I mean, yes, there was "Comfort Comes", the jagged, off-kilter b-side of "Life Becoming A Landslide" but...no, no-one expected this. Shorn of rock posturing and refined to a white-hot glow, it was apparent within seconds that this was a massive gear shift. The fourth word sung on the album is "cunt". Dropped beats, uncomfortable intervals, militaristic drum patterns, voice samples strewn everywhere and a lyric sheet that was, to be honest, terrifying, "The Holy Bible" could not have been a more intense and deliberate statement. Reaching into post-punk rather than hair metal, the group essayed this lengthy, word-packed key statement in a tiny demo studio in 6 weeks. Sony only released it because it was so cheaply made they felt they couldn't lose out. Released into the noon-bright multi-coloured peak of Britpop, the Manics couldn't have looked or sounded more at odds with their surroundings.

One of the greatest albums ever made by anyone ever in the history of everything.

Don't miss:

The album's pause for breath, "This Is Yesterday". For people so young to be writing such deep reflective melancholy was the unheard cry for help of the album, lost within the clamour of the more obviously disturbing contents.



Avoid:

Nothing. I mean, OK, "She Is Suffering" is, as Nicky Wire admits, a bit "man to the rescue" but it still has some beautiful lyrics so you'll just have to put up with it.

Rating: 10/10
 
all kinds of octophone said:
ALBUM 1 - GENERATION TERRORISTS

Messy, over-ambitious debut that nonetheless serves up some serious boo. Hampered by a flat production and their own dogged insistence that they make a double LP, the album is the locus classicus of the "flawed masterpiece". A manifesto first and an album second, it works best when considered as the former. Plus, it has "Motorcycle Emptiness".

Don't miss:

The pure punk energy of "Crucifix Kiss". An excellent example of the intense collaged sloganeering of their early work which also happens to absolutely rock.




Avoid:

"Tennessee" and "Methadone Pretty" are a bit nothingy and you can ditch the sleepy re-recording of "Spectators of Suicide". The original recording of "You Love Us" is better than the album version too. In a certain light "Repeat (Stars And Stripes)" is funny. But it's also terrible.

Rating 7/10
Click to expand...

You Love Us was a B-side wasn't it? Or am I imagining that?

'Repeat' was a single no? :D
 
all kinds of octophone said:
ALBUM 2 - GOLD AGAINST THE SOUL
That hypocritical second album. Didn't bode well that it was just 10 tracks deep and was still patchy. Was the well running dry already? However, all 4 singles are magnificent so it comes out of their singles compilations very well. The lyrics are more focused, to varying degrees of success. It's still all a bit too metal tho'. Big in Japan. Like VERY big in Japan.

Don't miss:

Fan favourite "Sleepflower" is a fan favourite for a reason; it completely rocks and the lyrics are great. The band hate it. Which is apt, given the general feeling of unresolved dichotomy that surrounded the band at this time.



Avoid:

"Drug Drug Druggy" is one of the worst things they've ever done; smug and judgmental in a way that really didn't suit them at all. "Nostalgic Pushead" isn't much better.

Rating: 5.5/10
Click to expand...

My first Manics album. I was (almost) obsessed at the time as a 13 year old. I remember writing 'Life Becomes a Landslide' lyrics everywhere on my school notebooks :D
 
ALBUM 4 - EVERYTHING MUST GO
A triumph of the human spirit. The group have talked at length about the process of trying to pull themselves together as a trio but it bears remark that they're only in their mid 20s - their manager has died, their lyricist and best friend is missing with no trail and yet...they pull THIS out of the hat. "Everything Must Go" is the musical equivalent of waking up to a clear blue sky the morning after the worst day of your life; the grief and the horror is all still there but so is defiance, so is beauty. Their most compulsively melodic record thus far, it catapulted them into the mainstream. Still sounds utterly amazing in 2023.

Don't miss:

"Elona/Alone" is the microcosm of the album. You can hear James Dean Bradfield screaming when previous takes broke down around the line "all I want to do is live, no matter how miserable it is"



Avoid:

Seems a bit churlish...."Further Away" is a bit lightweight, I suppose.

Rating: 10/10
 
ALBUM 5 - THIS IS MY TRUTH TELL ME YOURS
After the success of Everything Must Go, the comedown. Nicky Wire, in particular was racked with guilt over the fact that they'd been so successful with Richey Edwards and a gloom hangs over this album. It runs right out of steam at the end, it's way too long (classic CD era mistake), has at least one song that is certifiably shite ("SYMM") and almost collapses under it's own weight around the "My Little Empire"/"I'm Not Working" double whammy. There is beauty and resilience and "Ready For Drowning" could be their most undervalued song but elsewhere the album sags under the cloud that had formed over the Manics as they got their wish that bit too late for one of their number.

Don't Miss:

"Ready For Drowning" - one of Wire's best lyrics, a seriously deep pass that draws a winding path around the treatment of Wales in British history and the media's treatment of Richey's disappearance in the light of the success of "EMG".



Avoid:

"SYMM" - bloody awful. "Be Natural" isn't great either. "You Stole The Sun From My Heart" is a bit underwritten and "You're Tender And Your Tired" has a bloody whistling solo! No ta.

Rating: 5/10
 
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all kinds of octophone said:
ALBUM 3 - THE HOLY BIBLE

No-one saw it coming. I mean, yes, there was "Comfort Comes", the jagged, off-kilter b-side of "Life Becoming A Landslide" but...no, no-one expected this. Shorn of rock posturing and refined to a white-hot glow, it was apparent within seconds that this was a massive gear shift. The fourth word sung on the album is "cunt". Dropped beats, uncomfortable intervals, militaristic drum patterns, voice samples strewn everywhere and a lyric sheet that was, to be honest, terrifying, "The Holy Bible" could not have been a more intense and deliberate statement. Reaching into post-punk rather than hair metal, the group essayed this lengthy, word-packed key statement in a tiny demo studio in 6 weeks. Sony only released it because it was so cheaply made they felt they couldn't lose out. Released into the noon-bright multi-coloured peak of Britpop, the Manics couldn't have looked or sounded more at odds with their surroundings.

One of the greatest albums ever made by anyone ever in the history of everything.

Don't miss:

The album's pause for breath, "This Is Yesterday". For people so young to be writing such deep reflective melancholy was the unheard cry for help of the album, lost within the clamour of the more obviously disturbing contents.



Avoid:

Nothing. I mean, OK, "She Is Suffering" is, as Nicky Wire admits, a bit "man to the rescue" but it still has some beautiful lyrics so you'll just have to put up with it.

Rating: 10/10
Click to expand...

A masterpiece, naturally. It took a while for it to become my favourite Manics album though. I just had far too much of a connection with Everything Must Go at the time.
 
all kinds of octophone said:
ALBUM 5 - THIS IS MY TRUTH TELL ME YOURS
After the success of Everything Must Go, the comedown. Nicky Wire, in particular was racked with guilt over the fact that they'd been so successful with Richey Edwards and a gloom hangs over this album. It runs right out of steam at the end, it's way too long (classic CD era mistake), has at least one song that is certifiably shite ("SYMM") and almost collapses under it's own weight around the "My Little Empire"/"I'm Not Working" double whammy. There is beauty and resilience and "Ready For Drowning" could be their most undervalued song but elsewhere the album sags under the cloud that had formed over the Manics as they got their wish that bit too late for one of their number.

Don't Miss:

"Ready For Drowning" - one of Wire's best lyrics, a seriously deep pass that draws a winding path around the treatment of Wales in British history and the media's treatment of Richey's disappearance in the light of the success of "EMG".



Avoid:

"SYMM" - bloody awful. "Be Natural" isn't great either. "You Stole The Sun From My Heart" is a bit underwritten and "You're Tender And Your Tired" has a bloody whistling solo! No ta.
Click to expand...

OMG SYMM and My Little Empire - worst
I'm fucked with being fucked :manson: I started going off them with this album.
 
ALBUM 6 - KNOW YOUR ENEMY

It has become apparent in recent years that the Manics had decided they wanted to shed a certain audience. They'd had fun plying the big sheds and the Manic Millennium show that they turned into a celebration of Welsh musical talent but they were done with that. "Masses Against The Classes" was the most raw and fired up they'd sounded since Motown Junk and served notice.
In the end, they shed their audience a bit too successfully by hatching this weird hodge-podge of...well, of what? It seemed like every track was their take on something, whether it was The Beach Boys, disco, Sonic Youth, The Fall (no, really! "Wattsville Blues"...), REM, whatever. The result was an album that lacked any cohesion and felt like a band throwing as much as possible against the wall (17 tracks) in the hope that enough would stick. All but unlistenable in its original form.

However, in 2022, Dave Eringa and James Dean Bradfield remixed the album and re-sequenced it, following Nicky Wire's original tracklsitings for 2 separate LPs. Shorn of some of their more obtuse mixing decisions and letting the material breathe, it's clear that, actually, they did have two decent albums in them but they managed to find neither of them. The reissue is therefore the one to have.

Don't Miss:

"Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children" - originally the (official) closing track of the album and thus missed by everyone who switched off bored after "Miss Europa Disco Dancer", this is actually a certified Manics epic.



Avoid:

The original version of the album. Apart from "So Why So Sad" - the band are wrong, their original is better than The Avalanches' remix.

Rating: original 3/10, reissue - 8/10. Amazing how much difference a good mix and a proper treatment of the material made to this, way ahead of my expectations.
 
ALBUM 7 - LIFEBLOOD

Often considered the great misstep of their career, time is proving kind to Lifeblood. "The Love Of Richard Nixon" was a brave choice of opening single but it didn't land well and the album debuted at #13, leaving the charts 2 weeks later. However, the elegiac pop has found an audience within their fanbase who appreciate the gentleness of the album, the reflective, emotional songwriting ("Solitude Sometimes Is" and "Cardiff Afterlife" are particularly strong) and the change in musical emphasis into more detailed arrangements. The "What Is Music?" podcast, whose first season was about the Manics, judged this to be their best album! I wouldn't agree with that but I do wonder what would have happened if they'd released propulsive, magical "Empty Souls" as the first single.

Don't Miss:

"I Live To Fall Asleep", Wire's self-chiding masterpiece of the album.



Avoid:

Umm..."1985", the open track never really landed with me.

Rating 7/10.
 
all kinds of octophone said:
ALBUM 6 - KNOW YOUR ENEMY

It has become apparent in recent years that the Manics had decided they wanted to shed a certain audience. They'd had fun plying the big sheds and the Manic Millennium show that they turned into a celebration of Welsh musical talent but they were done with that. "Masses Against The Classes" was the most raw and fired up they'd sounded since Motown Junk and served notice.
In the end, they shed their audience a bit too successfully by hatching this weird hodge-podge of...well, of what? It seemed like every track was their take on something, whether it was The Beach Boys, disco, Sonic Youth, The Fall (no, really! "Wattsville Blues"...), REM, whatever. The result was an album that lacked any cohesion and felt like a band throwing as much as possible against the wall (17 tracks) in the hope that enough would stick. All but unlistenable in its original form.

However, in 2022, Dave Eringa and James Dean Bradfield remixed the album and re-sequenced it, following Nicky Wire's original tracklsitings for 2 separate LPs. Shorn of some of their more obtuse mixing decisions and letting the material breathe, it's clear that, actually, they did have two decent albums in them but they managed to find neither of them. The reissue is therefore the one to have.

Don't Miss:

"Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children" - originally the (official) closing track of the album and thus missed by everyone who switched off bored after "Miss Europa Disco Dancer", this is actually a certified Manics epic.



Avoid:

The original version of the album. Apart from "So Why So Sad" - the band are wrong, their original is better than The Avalanches' remix.

Rating: original 3/10, reissue - 8/10. Amazing how much difference a good mix and a proper treatment of the material made to this, way ahead of my expectations.
Click to expand...

Right I really need to pop that remixed version on then don't I!
 
ALBUM 8 - SEND AWAY THE TIGERS

The failure of Lifeblood saw the Manics take a break - Wire and Bradfield made solo album which did fuck all and OKish respectively. When they came back together, they knew this album had to count - the record company vultures were circling and they knew they could be yesterday's men if they got this wrong.

They got it right. Sort of. SATT is a soaring rock album - riffs, solos and big choruses abound. They had a proper hit in the wonderful "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" and the tour was a victory lap that started in smaller venues and finished in larger ones. Yes, we still loved them. However, with a bit of distance, SATT now feels formulaic, underwritten, almost lazy in places - verses are repeated with minor inversions, there's the odd clunky edit, a chorus too many here and there...it adds up to an album that makes all the moves of a great album but somehow, is really unsatisfying. It's too well defined a rut of Manicsness. "Indian Summer" is just "A Design For LIfe" cut with Echo And The Bunnymen. But maybe that's what they needed to do to work out who they really were again.

Don't Miss:

The wonderful title track - if it had all been this good, ohhh...



Avoid:

Autumnsong. I mean, it's important because it is Nicky Wire's abdication, his recognition that he is now of the next generation rather than the now generation. But it's crap, innit?

Rating: 5/10
 
ALBUM 9 - JOURNAL FOR PLAGUE LOVERS

With a successful album behind them again, the group felt it was time to deal with that folder of lyrics left to them by Richey in early 95 before he disappeared (Sean Moore admitted that they didn't want to do it after Lifeblood because they thought it would look like they were trying to get some interest going by using them). No singles, one very cheap video that no-one would show for a song with sweary words in it...all they had for publicity was a minor kick-up over some retailers refusing the stock the album because they thought the cover looked like a boy who'd been assaulted.

It was their best album since "Everything Must Go". With the self-imposed pressure of doing their friend's work justice, they produced one of their most powerful statements - the music is raw but tender, the judicious use of strings working to add an elegiac feel to an album that shines a surprising amount of light into the darkness of some distressing material. They're obviously enjoying themselves in places too with Bradfield on full throttle. It's not The Holy Bible II because it couldn't be. Instead, it's an exceptional act of love with no real parallel, a gifted group bringing their absolute best to honour the man without whom.

Don't Miss:

I'm choosing the breathing space, "Facing Page, Top Left" - one of the most fractured and worrying lyrics, delivered with exceptional tenderness.



Avoid:

Hmmm, nah. Just skip the awful remixes that were commissioned by the label.

Rating: 9/10
 
I hope you don't mind @all kinds of octophone - I'm putting together this playlist on Spotify - which includes many of the highlights you've mentioned, plus some of the better known Manics tracks all mixed in for everyone to enjoy.

 
ALBUM 10 - POSTCARDS FROM A YOUNG MAN

"One last shot at mass communication" said Nicky Wire. "Absolute donkey balls" says octophone. Their worst album by a country mile, PFAYM restores all the rawk posturing that they'd shed for "JFPL" and the result is the most obvious mid-life crisis ever committed to vinyl/CD/megabytes/whatever. They could have bought themselves new sports cars and leather jackets and saved us all the bother. The wall-of-sound production is exhausting, the songs aren't there to be had and having Duff McKagen from Guns 'N' Roses on bass for a track is utterely pointless when he plays pretty much exactly what Wire would have played himself. This was the end of me and the Manics for a bit. To my detriment. But we'll come to that.

Don't Miss: the bin

Avoid: completely

Rating 1/10 because "It's Not War Just The End Of Love" is OK.
 
ALBUM 11 - REWIND THE FILM

After a singles compilation, the Manics said they'd be away for a bit. Fair enough. So when they turned up with this in 2013 and said it was an acoustic album, I thought "Nah, you're alright". I was busy, a bit of a mess and I couldn't find space for this. When I picked this album up for a few quid in 2017, I realised what an absolute idiot I had been. This album is wonderful. The songs are fully formed, broad in their scope and the absence of electric guitars was to allow space for some horns, some low-key electronics and some other voices - Richard Hawley's turn on the title track is devastatingly effective when contrasted with Bradfield's more keening delivery. The result is the perfect soundtrack to that 2am whisky you might have when you've been sitting with your own thoughts for a while. Plus, on "30 Year War", they start ragging on the Tories again. Good good.

Don't Miss: I'm having two...

Show Me The Wonder - the delightful opening single. The video is a charming accompaniment.



Also, "Running Out Of Fantasy" which ripped my heart out and popped it on the mantlepiece for me to look at.



Avoid:

Nothing. Give it a full spin.

Rating - 9/10
 
ALBUM 12 - FUTUROLOGY

A product of the same sessions that birthed "Rewind The Film" but there's very little crossover - at a push, one could slip "I Miss The Tokyo Skyline" from RTM to this but, why push when you have another album of such wonderful material? There's an obvious joy in Futurology - after a night starting at the navel, it's time to lift one's head and look to the future. Musically, they're on wonderful form, swapping instruments, playing with effects units, synths and having a few things that sound like two songs slammed together. There are guests - Green Gartside and Georgia Ruth Williams both acquit themselves with aplomb but Nina Hoss steals the show with her superb turn on "Europa Geht Durch Mich". It's a consciously European album. It's also one of their most creative and experimental with no sacrifice in the quality of the tunes. It may take a listen or two but "Futurology" is the kind of late period classic few bands manage.

In the event, they gave us a full mid-life crisis - the new leather-jacket and sports car of "Postcards..", the sad reflection of "Rewind The Film" and then the joy of being alive that courses through this brilliant album.

Don't Miss:

Europe Geht Durch Mich. Why wasn't this Number 1 for a month?



Avoid:

Don't be a twerp.

Rating 10/10.
 
For now I'm listening to the tracks in the playlist as we are curating it live!

(in fact this thread should have been a live thread, no? đź’… )
 
ALBUM 13 - RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

In which The Manics decide to be a bit more like The Manics again for a bit with mixed results. Having stepped away from the notion of mass communication, the album is awash with character studies ("International Blue", "Vivian", "Dylan And Caitlin") with Bradfield writing a nice one about Labour's slow shift to the right (which, by the time the album was released looked messy as Corbyn was leader - now, it's almost too prescient...). But it's maybe a bit too nice and some of the songs struggle to distinguish themselves. There are gems but this feels like an album that was a bit too hamstrung by an overriding decision re: musical direction to land as well as its predecessors. It's alright. There's nothing offensive. But too much of it is inoffensive. If that makes sense.

Don't Miss:

International Blue - a brilliant single with some lovely quirks to keep it feeling fresh and interesting. Only they can do this.



Avoid:

The last third or so. Apart from "The Left Behind" - that's really good.

Rating - 6/10
 
ALBUM 14 - THE ULTRA VIVID LAMENT

I haven't completely decided where I stand on this one yet. It washed right over me when it first came out but I recently revisited it and some of it really landed. Broadly, this feels like the album "TIMTTMY" could have been - it's every bit as reflective but lighter of foot, loving its memories rather than loathing them. "Still Snowing In Sapporo" takes us back to 1993 and against an ambient backdrop, Bradfield delivers a top class performance of a song that deliberately loses focus and then finds it again, the drift into memory and the snapping back out of it and into the present. "Diapause" is a similarly awkward construction, slowing down as it leaves the chorus before snapping straight back into place. We're jolted from our reverie. Elsewhere, there are big choruses because of course there are and, as is now customary, some guest spots, including one from Mark Lanegan which was one of the last things he recorded, poor sod.

At this point, Manic Street Preachers are as much of a contradiction in terms as they ever were. They don't trouble the singles charts any more but the albums go Top 3 (this one went to #1). They have their own studio and deliver their finished masters as fair accompli - a cottage industry on the worlds biggest record label. This album embodies that - it has a freedom but it's a freedom with self-imposed restrictions. Because when you can do anything, maybe that's what you do - anything. And they wouldn't want to make the same album twice, eh?

Don't Miss:

Diapause - needs a couple of listens but this is lovely.



Avoid:

Dunno yet. "Don't Let The Night Divide Us" is a bit cheesy but it's heartfelt and great fun to shout along with. "Orwellian" is a bit meh.

Rating - a cautious 7.5/10
 
Thanks so much for this overview. It's proper put me in a Manics mood and I may have just bought a load of these on vinyl!
 
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