Over the years I've gone backwards and forwards with Manic Street Preachers. I never really attached myself to their comet's tail as many did. They always had something but it wasn't always for me. Their name was always great . Somewhere between Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood and a comic book treatment of The Old Testament. A truly great Rock & Roll band name.
The Richie Edwards incarnation with which they appeared was never really my thing. He was the important player in that band until he went missing and I'm afraid he never appealed to my sensibility. What I was looking for.He was an artist in distress and I had plenty of problems of my own at the point of my life.
As for their sound. I always liked The Clash but never particularly took to bands who took them as a guiding inspiration any more than I gravitated to bands who blindly followed Joy Division or The Fall..Why not just listen to The Clash, Joy Division or The Fall if that's what you identify with. They had the idea first.
The Holy Bible is often considered the go to MSP record but I missed it at the time. I found some of the things Richie was going through and getting up to fairly repellant and disturbing I confess. I went tp one concentration camp. I won't be back I've only come to it the record itself in retrospect. It's damned impressive. One of the few records genuinely worthy of critical comparison with the two Joy Division albums in terms of harrowing intensity and full blooded engagement . Living genuinely on the edge. Artistic bravery of the ultimate kind. It's an incredibly compelling record.
Design For Life is actually the Manics album that means most to me. It came out and I bought it at a time when I was going through a genuinely deeply upsetting break up that did me some damage for a number of years. I remember vividly listening to the title track while smoking a cigarette at the window of my room in my parents house. Genuinely distraught at what I was going through,
They were quite the right band for a moment like that. To soundtrack the intense, threatening moments in peoples lives. To offer consolation and solace to those in apalling distress and crisis of identity. To put out a hand to hold just when it's needed. They deserve respect.
Anyway, I got over it and didn't really follow the Manics much thereafter, Their sound is ultimately a little too monochromatic despite its relentlesss artistic commitment for my tastes for the most part. I don't care for James Dean Bradfield's voice and though their lyrics are always the real deal their tunes often pass me by . They can be bland. Quite self consciously, But I genrally opt for more stylistic variation. Colour is not their thing.
Still here is Critical Thinking. Their 15th studio album after almost 40 years.Good for them. They didn't seem like a band that would survive. But against the odds they have. They're incredibly resilient. Durable. I gave it a listen this morning and it's not bad at all.. They're an interesting band to listen to in these Post Truth Days.. They engage, the record is called Critical Thinking which is the essential skill if you're not going to lose your moorings in these times and get carried away in the remorsefless flood by the distractions of deluge and lies.
But as much as I enjoyed listening to the record it falls short of being an essential one for one key reason. The band sound contented these days. Even happy. Good luck to them. But really the best Manic Street Preachers records came from places where they clearly weren't . I'll give it seven and listen to the stand out tracks agin where thy reconnect to their unforgettable fire once more. They won't be forgotten.
FYI that woud be to the title trackwhere they update the zeitgeist Irvine Welsh 'choose life' monologue of the Trainspotting film for an even more perilous age. Hiding From Plain Sight where Nicky Wire at last takes the mic and does so with some emotional and rigorous aplomb. I hope people will notice this. They're a band that stand apart. They understand Art and its importance. Community. The winds of change. They know their Orwell from their Gramsci. Their Walter Benjamin. How many bands can you say that of? How many people for that matter. I don't. But I'm glad they do. Respect.
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