I mean the Manic Street Preachers album, not the book. It wasn’t their most successful album, but it was probably their most uncompromising.
I find it disturbing that it’s subject matter seems to be even more relevant today than it was when it first came out. Ayn-cap sex slavery where you don’t even own their own gender, the consquences of far right politics, and the culture of treating mass murderers as celebrities.
I hope to write some more about the songs, but I was wondering what other people thought. @politeruin? @anon61221983?
(This has been put in the wrath section because a discussion about politics is inevitable)
Fascinating to think this was released at the height of britpop, the same day as definitely maybe, no less. To say they are polar opposites would be an understatement but yeah, unashamedly uncompromising and confrontational. Certainly their magnum opus but i do love the post-richey album journal for plague lovers as a follow up to the themes in this. Was it stuart maconie who described this album as a granite obelisk? I think that’s apt. Certainly, the subject matter is still relevant even if the cultural references have long dated - the death penalty for those who deserve it, opioids for the masses, political correctness, corruption of childhood innocence… it just goes on and on and a lot of it you most certainly will not agree with but then they’ve never been a band that pretends to have answers.
Oh and look at the promotional poster for the album’s impending release. The artwork is alarming for sure but they don’t focus on that, they choose to focus on what makes the album what it is and that’s the lyrics, though the music from james and sean deserves equal praise.
“I know i believe in nothing but it is my nothing.”
I’ll put this here because their glastonbury set in 94 is blistering and furious and i’ve said this before but faster is one giant fuck you to debilitating depression and self-doubt.
