Tag Archives: manic street preachers

#659: Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

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Hello there. Your favourite series is back, this time covering the Js, coming to you every other day until those songs are done. There aren’t a lot of songs I have on my phone beginning with ‘J’. It’s one of those letters that don’t really appear quite frequently at the start of a word. The songs to come are great though. At least I think so. I’ve been okay if you wanted to know. Been learning to drive and steadily getting there. That’s about it. On to the song!

‘Jackie Collins….’ was the first single from their 2009 album Journal for Plague Lovers. Well… it wasn’t really a single. No track from that album was. Nicky Wire joked that just the titles alone for some of the tracks on there didn’t really make them suitable for a commercial release. Though it was this one that made it known that there was a new album on its way. It’s one of the lighter and poppier moments on the album, save for the last minute or so where James Dean Bradfield really lets loose on the vocals accompanied by the thrashing drums and rise in tempo. Those guitar harmonics that serve as the song’s main musical hook are brilliant too. Good musical substance packed into two and a half minutes.

The lyrics were written by Richey Edwards, the band’s former guitarist and lyricist who disappeared one day in February 1995. Despite all hopes that he would some day return, he was officially presumed dead 13 years later in November of 2008. All of the lyrics on the album were written by him, if you hadn’t heard it before, and were taken from a notebook that he had left behind before his disappearance. They’re not the easiest to decipher, though that doesn’t matter really. I’ve always sensed some sort of sarcasm and satire from them though for reasons I don’t understand myself. You’d just have to listen to the song.

My iPod #425: Manic Street Preachers – The Girl Who Wanted to Be God

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“The Girl Who Wanted to Be God” is a track from Manic Street Preachers’ album “Everything Must Go“, released in 1996. This album was their first after the disappearance of lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards (which happened twenty years ago yesterday, if you didn’t know) though some tracks on it included lyrics that Edwards had left over – today’s track is one of them, though Nicky Wire did contribute lyrics too. I’ve personally never looked into the lyrics much though the title is also the name of a poem by the late Sylvia Plath, whose work Edwards was known to study. Take from that what you will.

Admittedly the part of the track that got me straight away were the sensational strings that give the track this elating feeling of freedom. After seconds of a choppy guitar and a meddling rhythm section that start the track off, the strings suddenly appear to play the chorus melody and I’m launched into the air and find myself soaring through the sky, faster than the speed of sound. And then James Dean Bradfield reinforces that feeling by belting out the title phrase which makes up the song’s chorus. The verses are good; they have a good melody to them. But that chorus…. some days it will pop in my head, and I can be repeating it for minutes on end.

If I were lucky enough to be a member of Manic Street Preachers in 1996, I would definitely have wanted this to be a single. Could you imagine thousands of people singing back that chorus to you at concerts? Man. Better than “Kevin Carter“, I think. Though however glorious the strings and wailing guitar may be, it still reminds me of music that should be in the background of a flight advert or the theme music to a soap opera. I really don’t know why, I just get that vibe from it.

My iPod #403: Manic Street Preachers – Further Away

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Well. Here’s the final song from the “F” section. It’s been a while. It should have come yesterday, but university work took over. Hope you understand.

And to cap it all off is “Further Away”, the penultimate track from Manic Street Preachers’ stellar album “Everything Must Go”. Understandably, the band had a horrible time (to put it lightly) after guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards’ disappearance in Febrary 1995. But only a year and a bit later, despite everything they’d gone through, the three remaining members pulled off one of the greatest comeback albums. That was “Everything Must Go”. And it all just went on from there.

“Further Away” is great. Very underrated, though some may say it’s one of the weakest on the album. I disagree. I think it’s as strong as any other song on there. I do actually prefer it to “A Design for Life”. Yeah. That’s right.

Why? Because I feel so emotional listening to it. The track was written Nicky Wire when the band were on tour and he was having a bout of homesickness, and who better to sing his lyrics and write the music than James Dean Bradfield? Honestly, his vocals just tower over everything. Over what are pretty simple chord changes throughout is a voice so powerful, but intricate and melodic at the same time. Staying restrained for the most part in the verses Bradfield then proceeds lets it all out in the chorus leaping from one syllable “FUURRRR-“, and the next “THER”. Just glorious in every way. Majestic. Everything about the track is wonderful, I can’t express it enough.

I also own the 10 year anniversary remastered version, so everything sounds just a tad clearer and sharper. Sounds like you are right next to the amplifiers there and then in the studio. Good to experience at high volumes.

And there it is. Another letter done. It’s been fun. What a great way to end it too, but that’s just me. You may not like the song.

Be back soon.

My iPod #361: Manic Street Preachers – Faster

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‘I hate purity, hate goodness, I don’t want virtue to exist anyway, I want everyone corrupt….’

Er… huh?!

Could you imagine how it was for me, after all these years of listening to post-Richey Manics, to actually sit down and listen to “The Holy Bible” for the first time? That album is not fun. It is very good. But if seeing the absolute worst in mankind is your thing, then “The Holy Bible” will be the best 56 minutes of your life.

No lies, I listened to “The Holy Bible” for the first time nearing the end of last year when Manic Street Preachers came to mind for some reason. Before then I’ve only known of the ‘A Design for Life/If You Tolerate This/You’re Not Alone’ Manics. The ones with the radio-friendly, festival anthems. So to say “Faster” was a change is a definite understatement. It took me a few minutes to get over what I had listened to.

What are essentially phrases, sentences and a few proverbs coined by Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire (mostly Richards) are placed with some of the most ferocious music that James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore have written. The drumming by Moore seems to never end right until that final note, being quick on the bass drum with constant fills here and there and Bradfield melodically shouts at you against a two-note riff that symbolises uneasiness, fast rhythm guitars and loud licks and a terrifying solo before the coda.

This song is a bit scary and disturbing. I give it 10/10, good work.

My iPod #265: Manic Street Preachers – A Design for Life

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Noted for being the first track the band worked on after guitarist Richey Edwards’ unexpected disappearance, “A Design for Life” was the first single released from Manic Street Preachers’ fourth album “Everything Must Go”.

I watched its video a long time ago having no idea who the band was and still left in wonder of the thing. That James Dean Bradfield is an astonishing singer. The vocals on this track are delivered with pure passion and power, and both the pre-chorus and chorus themselves are nothing short of shiver-inducing with those dramatic string arrangements. I will go on to say that it’s not my favourite MSP song. But my god you can’t say that it isn’t epic. Finding out that it was the first song the band released after a time when the band members weren’t sure if they were even going to continue makes it that bit more special too.