sleepy jack

this is the thread where I talk about underrated pop geniuses and the badass albums they made. Read, listen, love.

Richey James Edwards


Yes we know when the Manics formed he could barely play guitar and even three albums down the line he still was far from perfect but genius can be measured in many other ways. Now when the Manics first came onto the mainstream music scene with "Motown Junk" they were good but nothing special and the two albums following that (Generation Terrorists and Gold Against the Soul) were okay but subpar releases that sounded like a combination of Guns and Roses lite metal and The Clash, with pretty interesting lyrics but not enough to really redeem them. Richey had virtually no musical control over this album, at the time the lyrics were half his half Nicky Wires and the music was controlled by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore.

By the release of the Holy Bible though Richey was in control of the musical direction of the band and wrote nearly all the songs except for Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldf allapart and This Is Yesterday. The album was very far from their originally very light releases, it was a testament to Richey's declining mental state and the political themes on it were much more powerful than ever before and seemed a lot less like a gimmick, they were more fierce, dark and introspective than ever before (or after). The lyrics dealt with depression, nihilism, self-mutilation, eating disorders, misanthropy, the holocaust, censorship and full of literal references and historical references. Musically it was frantic, odd and hectic. James wasn't having trouble achieving the sound he wanted but adapting Richey's poems to music often resulted in weird guitar lines and unusual melodies however the result was one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

Suggested Songs: 4st 7lb, Of Walking Abortion, Faster, Die in the Summertime, Yes

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