Manic Street Preachers continue

[Custard]

Fuck it, having a listen on Spotify

Year Of Purification is a lovely tune, but how is it the opener? Found That Soul does that job perfectly fine, thank you

It's weird them putting a remix and a cover version on this too, as much as I like The Avalanches remix and We Are All Bourgeois Now. The original So Why So Sad is one of my favourites from this period, even if no one else in the entire world likes it

A SMILE AS REAL AS A HYENAS

Masses and Door To The River came out a full year before this album, therefore it feels a bit cheap to suddenly lob them in

Hmmm, this feels like someone's weird altered playlist version. Still, nice artwork!

[purlieu]

I love So Why So Sad and will never get why loads of people seem to prefer the Avalanches remix.

Door to the River came out two years after the album. It was recorded at the same time but left off. Masses is definitely a different era, though.

[Custard]

Wasn't Door To The River on the Masses single? I could swear it was!

Oh no, I'm thinking of Close My Eyes!

[Custard]

Yeah, I clearly remember them saying Masses was them "connecting with their younger selves" again, and would be a palette cleanser before they started work on the new album (KYE). It was never intended for this record. Such a weird choice to try to retcon it now, 21 years later

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Maybe I'll get told it sucks now or whatever but I reckon Close my Eyes is both mint and skill.

[purlieu]

Yeah, 'Close My Eyes' is great, but it's basically an orphan track now. One of a very small number of tracks that makes Lipstick Traces still worth owning.

[Glyn]

Yeah, I clearly remember them saying Masses was them "connecting with their younger selves" again, and would be a palette cleanser before they started work on the new album (KYE). It was never intended for this record. Such a weird choice to try to retcon it now, 21 years later

They also made a huge fuss at the time about it being deleted on the day of release (which along with releasing it just after Xmas helped massively in getting it to No.1).  It makes little sense when Little Trolls has been left out and songs like Locust Valley could easily have been promoted to the Solidarity tracklist.

It's also another one where they've unnecessarily changed the outro in the remix. The Camus quote did make me cringe a bit the first few times I heard the song but it's a deserved callback to Motown Junk

[Custard]

They've removed the "a slave begins by demanding justice" bit?! Why? It perfectly fits, and like you say is a good callback to previous work

[Custard]

Maybe I'll get told it sucks now or whatever but I reckon Close my Eyes is both mint and skill.

Oh no no, that's a beauty

[dontpaintyourteeth]

never liked Masses much, but it was fun hearing it get to #1 on the chart show back in the day.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

The revisionism is weird, but at least it makes for an interesting listen instead of just making no sense (swapping out Underdogs and Nobody Loved You* on other reissues for example)

I imagine if you still prefer the original tracklist that you can buy the OG cd for £0.01 + postage at this point. A vinyl release of the 2001 version probably would have been fair though.

*I say this even though I looooove Prologue to History.

[Custard]

Onto the second part of the album, and sadly I'm not feeling this at all. The original tracklisting is so burned into my brain, it just feels like I'm listening to all the tracks from the period on shuffle. It just doesn't flow very well. Such a strange release

And I'm such a sad fan boi I have it on two different formats :(

[Custard]

The revisionism is weird, but at least it makes for an interesting listen instead of just making no sense (swapping out Underdogs and Nobody Loved You* on other reissues for example)

I imagine if you still prefer the original tracklist that you can buy the OG cd for £0.01 + postage at this point. A vinyl release of the 2001 version probably would have been fair though.

*I say this even though I looooove Prologue to History.

Yeah, the option to buy the original version too would have been nice. I'd have probably bought this new version too

The original vinyl is quite pricey these days, second hand. And it's all crammed onto one disc, so apparently it doesn't sound great either

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I don't have the tracklist burned into my brain exactly but I had to stop myself from reflexively hitting the skip button when The Year of Purification ended

[Glyn]

Maybe I'll get told it sucks now or whatever but I reckon Close my Eyes is both mint and skill.

Sorry, my reference to liking most of I Killed the Zeitgeist was to show that all expressed views could very well be utter bollocks.

Close My Eyes is brilliant. So much of This is My Truth is Wire just moaning but with Close My Eyes he perfectly articulates the utter boredom of being on tour and being in the band that they had become at this time. The fact that it was the b-side to Masses, which has almost the exact opposite sentiment ('hello it's us again') was perfect.

[Custard]

America - the Devil's playground. Oof!

Baby Elian and Freedom Of Speech is a great two punch finisher too, so of course let's change that!

[dontpaintyourteeth]

can I just shock you? I like I Killed the Zeitgeist

[Custard]

I've liked ALL the solo stuff. So nerrr

Apparently Wire has been sitting on a second album for ages. Stick it out man!

[Rev+]

It's a great REM song.

Well yeah, hence my mentioning the AIDS thing.

They've always been a bit peculiar with their influences - stampeding straight towards emulation or pastiche, but that's one of the most blatant ones.  I don't hear REM in 'Epicentre' though, which some people apparently do.  Maybe if you stuck a mandolin over it.

[Rev+]

Also:



Good enough to be released as a single in Japan.

[Custard]

Manics, stop getting previous Manics wrong!

It really is annoying though. Finally we're gonna rerelease Know Your Enemy! But wait, it's actually not Know Your Enemy, it's a different one. Ahhhh!

The one that really gets me is the removal of the quote at the end of Masses. Why? Now it's just a clanging noise that isn't a tenth as memorable. It's nuts

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Also:



Good enough to be released as a single in Japan.

Same artwork as The Everlasting. Economical I spose

[Custard]

Which is weird, as Nicky has thousands of Polaroids he's taken over the years. I bought a book of them for about 3 squid a few years back. Some really nice ones, but the book is huge, and each page has a tiny Polaroid in the middle!

[purlieu]

It was probably Sony Music Japan that made the decision with very little band input. From memory, it has the same b-sides as 'The Everlasting' as well.

[Spiteface]

DttR is pissing all over Solidarity for me because Solidarity has all the shit songs on it (Wattsville Blues, Miss Europa, Pedestal, Bangkok Novotel)

Not having this.

Wattsville Blues, Miss Europa and Bangkok Novotel are all awesome.

The one that really gets me is the removal of the quote at the end of Masses. Why? Now it's just a clanging noise that isn't a tenth as memorable. It's nuts

I wonder if they were embarassed by it. They were clearly trying to recreate the end of Motown Junk with that but it doesn't quite work.

James never did that bit live anyway, he always did the "We live in urban hell" bit on Motown Junk though.

[Kankurette]

Miss Europa Disco Dancer is great. If only because it's so barking mad.

[Custard]

The lyrics are so harsh too

"Brutally, becomes a no hoper".

Then of course Nicky's repeated line at the end

Though I'm surprised they didn't cut that out too, seeing as they're getting rid of good bits...

[Custard]

Not having this.

Wattsville Blues, Miss Europa and Bangkok Novotel are all awesome.

I wonder if they were embarassed by it. They were clearly trying to recreate the end of Motown Junk with that but it doesn't quite work.

James never did that bit live anyway, he always did the "We live in urban hell" bit on Motown Junk though.

James can be very dismissive of some of their past work. His hate for Revol I've never understood. When I was a teenager that'd come on and I'd go nuts. It still gets me going now

When he plays it live, extremely rarely, he literally cannot wait for it to end. "Now stop fucking asking for it!"

[Kankurette]

Revol is a banger. Actually, this is an unpopular Manics opinion: PCP is my least favourite song on The Holy Bible. I don't know why. I like the intro but the rest of it, not arsed.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

The original Know Your Enemy is my second least favourite Manics album (Postcards being the worst) but I'm absolutely loving this.

If you're listening to the deluxe version on Spotify or whatever then you're potentially not getting the full effect of the reimagined album - Door to the River should end on Epicentre, and Solidarity should end on Miss Europa. It's a weird decision to put the bonus tracks at the end of each disc, but it wouldn't be a Manics reissue without some sort of baffling decision.