i recently got into them due to someones name dropping of them
holy bible is excellent!!!
though i hated their newer stuff
ugh!
richey must have been key

There's a few gems in their newer stuff, Send Away The Tigers was actually a fairly alright album though i wouldn't recommend Know Your Enemy to anyone.

i listened to your love alone is not enough
purportedly a brilliant career resurrecting track according to Q magazine (no longer trusted, probably should never have been)
made me wanna die it was sooo bad

The Holy Bible really is MSP's Magnum opus.
Commendable for Richey's truly incredible lyrics and also for James' skill of putting them to a melody.
Lots of run on lines and hefty use of syllables in there. Not an easy task.

It's not bad for what it is, a catchy pop song. It's the kind of song that some people are always going to hate.
And never listen to Q ever.

i only ever bought one q magazine
not worth my cash
i think clash is fantastic though!

it didnt really grab me
the stuff on holy bible infinitely catchier and all round better

Bump.

I love The Manic Street Preachers. I love The Manic Street Preachers so much that I can never completely discredit anything they have ever done, as much as some of it most certainly deserves just that. The Manic's have been making very dull music for many, many years now. This Is My Truth is a hopelessly bland record, Know Your Enemy is an average record with a handful of decent tracks on it and I'm not a big fan of Everything Must Go either to be honest. However I too quite like Lifeblood. It's not the kind of music I want to hear from The Manics but for what it is, it's a very decent record. I also think their last one was alright, a major improvement but a couple of awful songs.

The Holy Bible is their peak, and I think It's an absolute masterpiece. You say it ****ed you up, I can actually understand that. The lyrics paint some really sickeningly dark images. I think from a songwriters point of view The Holy Bible is a real success. It's Richeys record (Nicky has said roughly 70-80% of the lyrics on this record were Richeys) and it's beautifully written but also how James actually managed to write music around those lyrics I have no idea, it is essentially poetry- hence the majority of those lyrics being barely audible. It's a good job he can sing fast.

They used to be one of my favourite bands, especially when they released Lifeblood (very adventurous and criminally underrated album). Then they released Send Away the Tigers, which just smacks of pandering to the masses by giving them exactly what they want which, needless to say, is an artistic venture I don't respect.

When you say "pandering to the masses" and giving "them" exactly what they want then what do you mean by "them?"

The general public, Manic Street Preachers fans or the more "old school" Manic Street Preachers fans who have actually heard any of their records before Everything Must Go?

I mean fans of This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours and Everything Must Go - so basically, yeah, basically the newer breed of Manics fans. People who just want catchy, guitar-driven anthems out of them. However wrong I may or may not be (I've only got through Send Away the Tigers once - really not my cuppa tea) that's how I see it.

Don't get me wrong, I love This Is My Truth... and Everything Must Go, but Send Away the Tigers to me seems like a mediocre rehash of the formula behind those two albums.