At the time of writing it's the 20th anniversary of the Manics debut Generation Terrorists - a sprawling two disc mess of Situationism, left-wing polemics, small town boredom, classic rock cliche and fragments of nihilistic beauty. How many other bands would have the guts to start their career with, to make an obvious Clash comparison, a cock rock Sadinista. A self described mess of eyeliner and spraypaint for a useless generation, Guns 'n' Roses with an appetite for construction. But where glammed up God Ol' Boy Axl spat lazy homophobic and sexist slurs, the Manics Richey and Nicky pretended to get off with each other in videos and James duetted with porn star Traci Lords on a song about men's oppression of women. At this point in their career they often were described as sell-outs by a sneering press for ripping off different Yank rock poses to everyone else. In an era of studied apathy, here was a band who refused to pretend not to care and dumb themselves down, playing this (admittedly life affirming) trad rock by numbers because it was it was the most popular form. If they'd formed now....they couldn't form now.
The spirit may remain in every self conscious, wordy young World's Forgotten Boy on a mission but its not a popular enough form of expression now to be hijacked by a team of four young Adornos in Hanoi Rocks clothing. In typical High Fidelity list style I'm going to cherrypick 20 essential Manics tracks:
1.Motown Junk
The White Riot period. A repeated loop of the word "Revolution" crashing into a punk-rock riff Mick Jones'd have been happy with. Whats most striking here is how young they sound, the touching way James high voice struggles to fit all the syllables in on typical Wire/Edwards shock statements like "I laughed when Lennon got shot" (a line now omitted live, probably for the best when they played the same bill as McCartney). "We live in urban hell" may have worked on people with no knowledge of Blackwood, but actually its a lovely place. If Blackwood is urban hell then Pontypool is a horrific sci fi metropolis.
2. Motorcycle Emptiness from Generation Terrorists
Obvious choice maybe but it sounds like nothing else by anyone else. Amid the nihilistic weird cross breed of studio polished punk and airbrushed cock rock, a six minute beauty with a cosmetic similarity to Journey's overplayed Don't Stop Believing. In a just and fair world the Glee brats would've brayed "Culture sucks down words" instead of "Just a small town girl" while grinning inanely and Melodyned to an inch of their life. But now's not the time for cultural snobbery and bitterness, this is really one of their classics. Irresistible and faintly mournful in a way a lot of great pop music is, only the sorrow here isnt that their baby done left them but the emptiness of a capitalist society. Sure, "this wonderful world of purchase power" rings out as a bitter punchline to their overpriced boxsets and multiple editions, but they're just small town boys born and raised in Blackwood after all. Albeit ones who tastelessly mocked Billy Bragg for walking the walk when they were all still at school. When the synth strings and raindrop piano falls around the beginning of the post bridge guitar solo I could forgive them anything.
3. Stay Beautiful from Generation Terrorists
And the fan favourite. Their deathless manifesto, and, as they still seem as into the R'n'R dream and rock myth as ever, ideally the last song they'd ever play. Can't even pick any holes in this one, every second of it pitch perfect, great guitar solo and shout along chorus. It was very hard to pick essentials off Generation Terrorists - honourable mentions go to the bold failure of the Bomb Squad mix of Repeat; the feminist Springsteenian power ballad Little Baby Nothing; the oft underlooked Methadone Pretty and the closer Condemned To Rock 'n' Roll which predicts the second album they said they wouldn't do and Richey's joining of the stupid club.
4. Life Becoming A Landslide from Gold Against The Soul
It boggles the mind that people who'd heard their debut could accuse them of selling out (AGAIN!) for making another radio friendly and quietly subversive pop rock album. One of Richey's finest lyrical accomplishments, and some of Sean Moore's best drumming. After being replaced with a drum machine on the debut he proves his work here, driving the song along from the hushed introduction and choruses to the distortion pedals being engaged on the second verse. "I don't want to be a man" isn't some Peter Pan of rock cry but a cry of despair at the joint cruellest sex, and "My idea of love comes from a childhood glimpse of pornography" is, let's face it, a show stopper. Predicts where they'd go next in many ways.
5. Donkeys from Lipstick Traces
One of the reasons I love the Manics so is a masochistic one. They tuck a lot of their best tracks away as B sides. No one ever went hungry underestimating the masses, though, but this could've been a hit too, a lot better then something like Drug Drug Druggy where Bradfield shouts melodramatically about dancing like a robot on the parent album. A beautifully world weary sigh contrasting with all the overwrought angst, ending in a beauty of a solo.
6. Faster from The Holy Bible
Any excuse to go on Top of the Pops in a balaclava with your name written on it. Notable for getting a sample from Ninteen Eighty Four into the charts at the beginning of a song ending in an infuriatingly catchy chant of "Man kills everything". The post-punk drums and bass, scything riffs and feral delivery are a million miles away from From Despair to Where's "70's Rod Stewart does 99 Red Balloons" chic.
7. The Intense Humming of Evil from The Holy Bible
Again hard to pick just one from this album, its all great and essential listening, but the dark heart of the album, Richey's musings on the Holocaust and the only time the Manics have made something thats actually unnerving to listen to. Bradfield's voice and guitar live out the lyrics, taking on different characters and crying out the pain of all those who died in the camps, the six million screaming souls. You can tell from the opening that its going to be a shade or two darker from the rest of the, already breathtaking, album - a hum of eery sampled strings and pounding industrial percussion beneath words from the Nuremberg Trials. Then, the final smack in the face, Richey reminds us of the atrocities brushed under the carpet - "Churchill no different, wish the workers bled to a machine". As he'd written earlier in the album, everyone is guilty - he'd been inspired to write this by reading the sickening words of historical revisionists like David Irving, conflicted by the establishments equally sickening urge to suppress their voices and present one unconditional, unquestionable version of history.
I couldn't possibly agree that Churchill was no different to Hitler, and to me it's a stupid statement. I completely disagree, but history has underlooked Churchill's sins, his turning the army on miners (as less fondly remembered Tory successors would also do) and gassing of Kurds. I'd have overlooked it too, shamefully, if I hadn't heard this song and tried to work out what he meant. Another great thing about this band - they're not ashamed to wear their influences and beliefs on their sleeves. Far from ashamed, they're proud to. Another reason they should be cherished.
8. Everything Must Go from Everything Must Go
The band's semi - apology to those Cult of Richey types who'd say they should've broken up once he left, set to Hal Blaine's immortal Be My Baby beat. Swooning strings, weeping guitars and one of the many great Bradfield vocal performances, at times subtle and times roaring with the same ferocity as the Holy Bible but in different settings. The tragedy of knowing that they knew that, for all the bruised optimism of "Escape from our history", they never would completely.
9. A Design For Life from Everything Must Go
The reason they'll go down in history. Its almost overplayed but the beauty undented by this fact. The soaring Spector strings are in full force again as are my childish put downs of the band - fastforward from "We don't talk about love" to Your Love Alone Is Not Enough and (It's Not War) Just The End Of Love. It doesn't matter, because in two short verses and two choruses they say a lot. Even more is said without words when the spiralling strings arc downwards into the final choruses. There's something in my eye.
10. If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children will Be Next from This Is My Truth
Another deserved big hit, a number one about the Spanish civil war blessed with comet in the night sky strokes of guitar, a passionate vocal performance, an eerie video and some more great Wire lyrics. The same album would contain such monstrosities as "Disco dancing with the rapists" but "On the streets tonight an old man plays with newspaper cuttings of his glory days" is a beautiful line. Again accompanied by accusations of selling out but the odd whiff of stadium rock aside this album is Nicky Wire's Holy Bible, a melancholy album with the recurring theme of depression and feelings of uselessness.
11. Ready For Drowning from This Is My Truth
One that should've been a single in place of the turgid, shouty repetitive You Tore This Song From My Arse. Equal parts the band exploring the history they were trying to escape from and addressing the homeland they had a troubled relationship with. The band have progressed from erroneously labelling Blackwood an urban hell and slagging off Wales to celebrating the country. For me, the Manics and John Cale are just two great reasons to be proud of my Welsh roots (along with my mum's family; Dylan Thomas; Glamorgan sausage; the Super Furry Animalsl Plaiyd Cymru; Aneurin Bevan and RS Thomas who is quoted in the album title, the last two I was made aware of by the album). This song largely seems to be about the flooding of Capel Celyn to supply Liverpool and the Wirral with water, another in a long line of examples of England's mistreatment of Wales. All Wales have done in revenge is allow the Stereophonics and Lostprophets to exist and peddle trad rock dirge.
12. Prologue To History from Lipstick Traces
Another from the Greil Marcus referencing B side collection, opening with some fantastic 90's house-y piano crashing into some Manics arena-punk with elements of the baggy bands like The Charlatans and Happy Mondays they'd claimed to despise at the time. James sounds genuinely angry here, and his furious delivery makes lines like "A brand new Dyson - that is decadence!" even funnier than they are written down. Which is still funny.
13. The Masses Against The Classes - Single
The first No.1 of the new milennium, quite an accomplishment, hot on the heels of playing the Milennium Stadium and being huge for a while (while never quite breaking America). Opens with a lift from Twist and Shout via Bowie's Let's Dance. Responding to accusations of being too commercial by, er, making a very commercial arena punk track. Occasionally marred by live renditions with hilariously naff Phoenix Nights organ.
14. Found That Soul from Know Your Enemy
Around this time they decided they needed to be less commercial, so recorded in a less expensive studio. This track, with aggressive vocals, pounding one note I Wanna Be Your Dog piano and powerful rhythm section, is the best of this period by far. This is of course the period where, being less than consistent as per usual, having spent their early years decrying sexism and homophobia they went and played nice for Castro with his long history of human rights abuses. That said, a Western rock act playing in Cuba is a big deal and one from the valleys just makes it all the sweeter so its hard to condemn them too much. I wonder if he bought the deluxe £200 edition of National Treasures?
15. There by The Grace of God from Forever Delayed
Another bit of proof they don't really know what they're doing. The Manics tend to only look back fondly at material that has sold a lot. This was a pretty big hit yet they still ignore it as its neither politicalised punk or swooning stadium rock with a string section. Instead its a gorgeous, subtle track with beautifully restrained guitar and lush electronic textures. Note the incongrous Marilyn Manson Coma White reference in the first line, someone Nicky Wire seems to have a thing about (see also the bizarre line "Brian Warner has a tasty little ass" on Know Your Enemy. Come on Wire, you can do better than Reznor's puppet).
16. 1985 from Lifeblood
They have also disowned Lifeblood, claiming it was a critical and commercial failure despite the almost universally positive writeups and the fact it spawned two number two singles. Lifeblood is, along with the Holy Bible, my favourite Manics album (Journal For Plague Lovers would be number two). This is one of their "Should've been a single" tracks, a beautifully reflective little thing with melodica, Peter Hook bass, heavily treated guitars and sighing, nostalgic lyrics. A great opening track too. All of the album is essential but its nothing like the rest of their stuff, probably why they don't like it. There is an element of a frustrated music journalist about Nicky Wire sometimes, a man who loves music and has a great passion for it but likes to put everything into tiny little boxes, and Lifeblood is hard to pidgeonhole. It's identifiably Manics because it has Bradfield's voice on it and the odd burst of effective guitar wankery (see the majestic solos on A Song For Departure), but is another album like This Is My Truth, a wintery album of elegaic pop songs to look inward to. Gorgeous stuff.
17. Bobby Untitled from Nicky Wire's I Killed The Zeitgeist
I Killed the Zeitgeist is tragically underlooked, listened to only by Manics fans and this is a gorgeous little song, its up to you whether its a love song or about Bobby Sands or another song about Richey. That skinny little ghost just won't go away, as you'll see, colouring reactions to everything the band does in some way. Even when I decried those who harp on about "tragic, beautiful doe eyed little Richey Manic" in faintly homoerotic terms, struck by his beauty and the fact he was a rock cliche who realised he was a rock cliche, I'm doing it myself now. In a section that doesn't need to mention him at all. I Killed the Zeitgeist is a lovely album with hints of early Primal Scream, Pavement and Jesus and Mary Chain about it, Nicky's C86 fandom coming through. It's a more important album in the Manic catalogue than given credit for, his new confidence as a songwriter allowing him to write "comeback hit" Your Love Alone Is Not Enough. Bradfield's solo album The Great Western is just as good, following on from Lifeblood in many ways, but not as interesting. It's a pleasant listen, though, and only a fool would say it wasn't well written.
18. Indian Summer from Send Away The Tigers
Listen to this to know why Send Away The Tigers is my least favourite Manics albums. This is a pleasant enough little pop song til you realise its a deliberate rewrite of A Design For Life to attempt to sell as much as Everything Must Go. See also the same album's dull Autumnsong, where Bradfield is reduced to singing "Now baby what've you done to your hair" in a song which has stolen the riff from Sweet Child of Mine. Not even attaching fierce intelligence to tired good ol' boy rock. And Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, not enough, not enough. Around this time, disturbingly, instead of writing two verses they just recorded one verse and pasted it into the song twice in Pro Tools
19. This Joke Sport Severed from Journals for Plague Lovers
With Richey pronounced dead they set to work putting his lyrics to music and unsurprisingly it was better than the last album by miles. The ghost, of course, is never quite laid to rest. Why would it be? The death of one of your closest friends is undoubtedly very hard to recover from - even harder the lack of an absolute full stop. This doesn't excuse the shameless exploitation of his memory that goes on a bit - see the timing of footage of a smiling Richey to line up with "You could've been anything if you wanted to" (paraphrasing) in the X Factor style cover of The The's This Is The Day chosen to promote National Treasures. Even if they weren't responsible for the video, you still have to step in sometimes and say "No, you're not using our loss as a cheap heartstring plucker".
Of course I have one sore point with this album - why record a sparse, bare bones album as live with Steve Albini then overdub glitz with Dave Eringa? Then if you're going to do that, why not release any singles from the album when its streets ahead of your last one and full of catchy, non derivative tunes. It doesn't suffer for this for the most part, though. This is a particular standout, starting off just James double tracked over guitar and sounding intense enough just in this manner. Then a false ending, headrush and reverb, and it re-enters with pounding tribal drums and an ominous wall of strings.
20. Postcards From A Young Man from Postcards From A Young Man
The followup also echoed Everything Must Go the same way Send Away The Tigers did but this time it sounded like they were doing it for the love of it - resulting in a higher proportion of Manics classics on the album. This highly concentrated piece of Mass Communication was nothing like the Tamla Motown Metal Wire promised before the album was released - in the same way My Guernica doesn't sound like the Jesus and Mary Chain and Send Away The Tigers isnt a return to Generation Terrorists territory. Bless him. Instead its a testament to the remarkable work of Bradfield, Jones and Moore from the opening strums to the fantastically grandiose strings and choir ending with an echo of Queen's Somebody To Love. For all I and anyone else slags them off, this is as good a song to sum them up as any. "This life sucks your principles away, you have to fight against it every single day" tacit admission of and apology for their more questionable decisions and fixation on Hits Hits Hits at expense of their own soul. But still, when James roars "This world will not impose its will I will not give up and I will not give in" over the music of his friend and cousin and a mass of session players, you believe that they will stick around. They will be infuriating, they will be interesting, there will be moments of genius and they will Stay Beautiful.
The spirit may remain in every self conscious, wordy young World's Forgotten Boy on a mission but its not a popular enough form of expression now to be hijacked by a team of four young Adornos in Hanoi Rocks clothing. In typical High Fidelity list style I'm going to cherrypick 20 essential Manics tracks:
1.Motown Junk
The White Riot period. A repeated loop of the word "Revolution" crashing into a punk-rock riff Mick Jones'd have been happy with. Whats most striking here is how young they sound, the touching way James high voice struggles to fit all the syllables in on typical Wire/Edwards shock statements like "I laughed when Lennon got shot" (a line now omitted live, probably for the best when they played the same bill as McCartney). "We live in urban hell" may have worked on people with no knowledge of Blackwood, but actually its a lovely place. If Blackwood is urban hell then Pontypool is a horrific sci fi metropolis.
2. Motorcycle Emptiness from Generation Terrorists
Obvious choice maybe but it sounds like nothing else by anyone else. Amid the nihilistic weird cross breed of studio polished punk and airbrushed cock rock, a six minute beauty with a cosmetic similarity to Journey's overplayed Don't Stop Believing. In a just and fair world the Glee brats would've brayed "Culture sucks down words" instead of "Just a small town girl" while grinning inanely and Melodyned to an inch of their life. But now's not the time for cultural snobbery and bitterness, this is really one of their classics. Irresistible and faintly mournful in a way a lot of great pop music is, only the sorrow here isnt that their baby done left them but the emptiness of a capitalist society. Sure, "this wonderful world of purchase power" rings out as a bitter punchline to their overpriced boxsets and multiple editions, but they're just small town boys born and raised in Blackwood after all. Albeit ones who tastelessly mocked Billy Bragg for walking the walk when they were all still at school. When the synth strings and raindrop piano falls around the beginning of the post bridge guitar solo I could forgive them anything.
3. Stay Beautiful from Generation Terrorists
And the fan favourite. Their deathless manifesto, and, as they still seem as into the R'n'R dream and rock myth as ever, ideally the last song they'd ever play. Can't even pick any holes in this one, every second of it pitch perfect, great guitar solo and shout along chorus. It was very hard to pick essentials off Generation Terrorists - honourable mentions go to the bold failure of the Bomb Squad mix of Repeat; the feminist Springsteenian power ballad Little Baby Nothing; the oft underlooked Methadone Pretty and the closer Condemned To Rock 'n' Roll which predicts the second album they said they wouldn't do and Richey's joining of the stupid club.
4. Life Becoming A Landslide from Gold Against The Soul
It boggles the mind that people who'd heard their debut could accuse them of selling out (AGAIN!) for making another radio friendly and quietly subversive pop rock album. One of Richey's finest lyrical accomplishments, and some of Sean Moore's best drumming. After being replaced with a drum machine on the debut he proves his work here, driving the song along from the hushed introduction and choruses to the distortion pedals being engaged on the second verse. "I don't want to be a man" isn't some Peter Pan of rock cry but a cry of despair at the joint cruellest sex, and "My idea of love comes from a childhood glimpse of pornography" is, let's face it, a show stopper. Predicts where they'd go next in many ways.
5. Donkeys from Lipstick Traces
One of the reasons I love the Manics so is a masochistic one. They tuck a lot of their best tracks away as B sides. No one ever went hungry underestimating the masses, though, but this could've been a hit too, a lot better then something like Drug Drug Druggy where Bradfield shouts melodramatically about dancing like a robot on the parent album. A beautifully world weary sigh contrasting with all the overwrought angst, ending in a beauty of a solo.
6. Faster from The Holy Bible
Any excuse to go on Top of the Pops in a balaclava with your name written on it. Notable for getting a sample from Ninteen Eighty Four into the charts at the beginning of a song ending in an infuriatingly catchy chant of "Man kills everything". The post-punk drums and bass, scything riffs and feral delivery are a million miles away from From Despair to Where's "70's Rod Stewart does 99 Red Balloons" chic.
7. The Intense Humming of Evil from The Holy Bible
Again hard to pick just one from this album, its all great and essential listening, but the dark heart of the album, Richey's musings on the Holocaust and the only time the Manics have made something thats actually unnerving to listen to. Bradfield's voice and guitar live out the lyrics, taking on different characters and crying out the pain of all those who died in the camps, the six million screaming souls. You can tell from the opening that its going to be a shade or two darker from the rest of the, already breathtaking, album - a hum of eery sampled strings and pounding industrial percussion beneath words from the Nuremberg Trials. Then, the final smack in the face, Richey reminds us of the atrocities brushed under the carpet - "Churchill no different, wish the workers bled to a machine". As he'd written earlier in the album, everyone is guilty - he'd been inspired to write this by reading the sickening words of historical revisionists like David Irving, conflicted by the establishments equally sickening urge to suppress their voices and present one unconditional, unquestionable version of history.
I couldn't possibly agree that Churchill was no different to Hitler, and to me it's a stupid statement. I completely disagree, but history has underlooked Churchill's sins, his turning the army on miners (as less fondly remembered Tory successors would also do) and gassing of Kurds. I'd have overlooked it too, shamefully, if I hadn't heard this song and tried to work out what he meant. Another great thing about this band - they're not ashamed to wear their influences and beliefs on their sleeves. Far from ashamed, they're proud to. Another reason they should be cherished.
8. Everything Must Go from Everything Must Go
The band's semi - apology to those Cult of Richey types who'd say they should've broken up once he left, set to Hal Blaine's immortal Be My Baby beat. Swooning strings, weeping guitars and one of the many great Bradfield vocal performances, at times subtle and times roaring with the same ferocity as the Holy Bible but in different settings. The tragedy of knowing that they knew that, for all the bruised optimism of "Escape from our history", they never would completely.
9. A Design For Life from Everything Must Go
The reason they'll go down in history. Its almost overplayed but the beauty undented by this fact. The soaring Spector strings are in full force again as are my childish put downs of the band - fastforward from "We don't talk about love" to Your Love Alone Is Not Enough and (It's Not War) Just The End Of Love. It doesn't matter, because in two short verses and two choruses they say a lot. Even more is said without words when the spiralling strings arc downwards into the final choruses. There's something in my eye.
10. If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children will Be Next from This Is My Truth
Another deserved big hit, a number one about the Spanish civil war blessed with comet in the night sky strokes of guitar, a passionate vocal performance, an eerie video and some more great Wire lyrics. The same album would contain such monstrosities as "Disco dancing with the rapists" but "On the streets tonight an old man plays with newspaper cuttings of his glory days" is a beautiful line. Again accompanied by accusations of selling out but the odd whiff of stadium rock aside this album is Nicky Wire's Holy Bible, a melancholy album with the recurring theme of depression and feelings of uselessness.
11. Ready For Drowning from This Is My Truth
One that should've been a single in place of the turgid, shouty repetitive You Tore This Song From My Arse. Equal parts the band exploring the history they were trying to escape from and addressing the homeland they had a troubled relationship with. The band have progressed from erroneously labelling Blackwood an urban hell and slagging off Wales to celebrating the country. For me, the Manics and John Cale are just two great reasons to be proud of my Welsh roots (along with my mum's family; Dylan Thomas; Glamorgan sausage; the Super Furry Animalsl Plaiyd Cymru; Aneurin Bevan and RS Thomas who is quoted in the album title, the last two I was made aware of by the album). This song largely seems to be about the flooding of Capel Celyn to supply Liverpool and the Wirral with water, another in a long line of examples of England's mistreatment of Wales. All Wales have done in revenge is allow the Stereophonics and Lostprophets to exist and peddle trad rock dirge.
12. Prologue To History from Lipstick Traces
Another from the Greil Marcus referencing B side collection, opening with some fantastic 90's house-y piano crashing into some Manics arena-punk with elements of the baggy bands like The Charlatans and Happy Mondays they'd claimed to despise at the time. James sounds genuinely angry here, and his furious delivery makes lines like "A brand new Dyson - that is decadence!" even funnier than they are written down. Which is still funny.
13. The Masses Against The Classes - Single
The first No.1 of the new milennium, quite an accomplishment, hot on the heels of playing the Milennium Stadium and being huge for a while (while never quite breaking America). Opens with a lift from Twist and Shout via Bowie's Let's Dance. Responding to accusations of being too commercial by, er, making a very commercial arena punk track. Occasionally marred by live renditions with hilariously naff Phoenix Nights organ.
14. Found That Soul from Know Your Enemy
Around this time they decided they needed to be less commercial, so recorded in a less expensive studio. This track, with aggressive vocals, pounding one note I Wanna Be Your Dog piano and powerful rhythm section, is the best of this period by far. This is of course the period where, being less than consistent as per usual, having spent their early years decrying sexism and homophobia they went and played nice for Castro with his long history of human rights abuses. That said, a Western rock act playing in Cuba is a big deal and one from the valleys just makes it all the sweeter so its hard to condemn them too much. I wonder if he bought the deluxe £200 edition of National Treasures?
15. There by The Grace of God from Forever Delayed
Another bit of proof they don't really know what they're doing. The Manics tend to only look back fondly at material that has sold a lot. This was a pretty big hit yet they still ignore it as its neither politicalised punk or swooning stadium rock with a string section. Instead its a gorgeous, subtle track with beautifully restrained guitar and lush electronic textures. Note the incongrous Marilyn Manson Coma White reference in the first line, someone Nicky Wire seems to have a thing about (see also the bizarre line "Brian Warner has a tasty little ass" on Know Your Enemy. Come on Wire, you can do better than Reznor's puppet).
16. 1985 from Lifeblood
They have also disowned Lifeblood, claiming it was a critical and commercial failure despite the almost universally positive writeups and the fact it spawned two number two singles. Lifeblood is, along with the Holy Bible, my favourite Manics album (Journal For Plague Lovers would be number two). This is one of their "Should've been a single" tracks, a beautifully reflective little thing with melodica, Peter Hook bass, heavily treated guitars and sighing, nostalgic lyrics. A great opening track too. All of the album is essential but its nothing like the rest of their stuff, probably why they don't like it. There is an element of a frustrated music journalist about Nicky Wire sometimes, a man who loves music and has a great passion for it but likes to put everything into tiny little boxes, and Lifeblood is hard to pidgeonhole. It's identifiably Manics because it has Bradfield's voice on it and the odd burst of effective guitar wankery (see the majestic solos on A Song For Departure), but is another album like This Is My Truth, a wintery album of elegaic pop songs to look inward to. Gorgeous stuff.
17. Bobby Untitled from Nicky Wire's I Killed The Zeitgeist
I Killed the Zeitgeist is tragically underlooked, listened to only by Manics fans and this is a gorgeous little song, its up to you whether its a love song or about Bobby Sands or another song about Richey. That skinny little ghost just won't go away, as you'll see, colouring reactions to everything the band does in some way. Even when I decried those who harp on about "tragic, beautiful doe eyed little Richey Manic" in faintly homoerotic terms, struck by his beauty and the fact he was a rock cliche who realised he was a rock cliche, I'm doing it myself now. In a section that doesn't need to mention him at all. I Killed the Zeitgeist is a lovely album with hints of early Primal Scream, Pavement and Jesus and Mary Chain about it, Nicky's C86 fandom coming through. It's a more important album in the Manic catalogue than given credit for, his new confidence as a songwriter allowing him to write "comeback hit" Your Love Alone Is Not Enough. Bradfield's solo album The Great Western is just as good, following on from Lifeblood in many ways, but not as interesting. It's a pleasant listen, though, and only a fool would say it wasn't well written.
18. Indian Summer from Send Away The Tigers
Listen to this to know why Send Away The Tigers is my least favourite Manics albums. This is a pleasant enough little pop song til you realise its a deliberate rewrite of A Design For Life to attempt to sell as much as Everything Must Go. See also the same album's dull Autumnsong, where Bradfield is reduced to singing "Now baby what've you done to your hair" in a song which has stolen the riff from Sweet Child of Mine. Not even attaching fierce intelligence to tired good ol' boy rock. And Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, not enough, not enough. Around this time, disturbingly, instead of writing two verses they just recorded one verse and pasted it into the song twice in Pro Tools
19. This Joke Sport Severed from Journals for Plague Lovers
With Richey pronounced dead they set to work putting his lyrics to music and unsurprisingly it was better than the last album by miles. The ghost, of course, is never quite laid to rest. Why would it be? The death of one of your closest friends is undoubtedly very hard to recover from - even harder the lack of an absolute full stop. This doesn't excuse the shameless exploitation of his memory that goes on a bit - see the timing of footage of a smiling Richey to line up with "You could've been anything if you wanted to" (paraphrasing) in the X Factor style cover of The The's This Is The Day chosen to promote National Treasures. Even if they weren't responsible for the video, you still have to step in sometimes and say "No, you're not using our loss as a cheap heartstring plucker".
Of course I have one sore point with this album - why record a sparse, bare bones album as live with Steve Albini then overdub glitz with Dave Eringa? Then if you're going to do that, why not release any singles from the album when its streets ahead of your last one and full of catchy, non derivative tunes. It doesn't suffer for this for the most part, though. This is a particular standout, starting off just James double tracked over guitar and sounding intense enough just in this manner. Then a false ending, headrush and reverb, and it re-enters with pounding tribal drums and an ominous wall of strings.
20. Postcards From A Young Man from Postcards From A Young Man
The followup also echoed Everything Must Go the same way Send Away The Tigers did but this time it sounded like they were doing it for the love of it - resulting in a higher proportion of Manics classics on the album. This highly concentrated piece of Mass Communication was nothing like the Tamla Motown Metal Wire promised before the album was released - in the same way My Guernica doesn't sound like the Jesus and Mary Chain and Send Away The Tigers isnt a return to Generation Terrorists territory. Bless him. Instead its a testament to the remarkable work of Bradfield, Jones and Moore from the opening strums to the fantastically grandiose strings and choir ending with an echo of Queen's Somebody To Love. For all I and anyone else slags them off, this is as good a song to sum them up as any. "This life sucks your principles away, you have to fight against it every single day" tacit admission of and apology for their more questionable decisions and fixation on Hits Hits Hits at expense of their own soul. But still, when James roars "This world will not impose its will I will not give up and I will not give in" over the music of his friend and cousin and a mass of session players, you believe that they will stick around. They will be infuriating, they will be interesting, there will be moments of genius and they will Stay Beautiful.
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