Manic Street Preachers Destructive Alienating Cultural and Despair Filled Tracks POLL RESULTS

Yes! Closest they got to their stated early aspirations imo. I wish they'd really gone for it, promotion-wise - it could've been a startling #1 in 1992.

29. The Everlasting (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [4 votes, 83 points, 1998]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeU_qC5tBOE

28. Peeled Apples (from Journal For Plague Lovers) [4 votes, 85 points, 2009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4mL_YAJG_c

The Everlasting is one of the songs that the band themselves famously hate. Surprised it's this high.

really shoulda voted for Suicide is Painless, they own that song AFAIC

I thought I liked it 'til I relistened for this poll, but I couldn't even get through it. It's not bad, it's just boring.

I always loved Suicide is Painless - I think that was the first thing I ever heard by them - must've been about 11? The Everlasting = Mum's favourite.

xp that was

Their 'Suicide Is Painless' is the definitive version imo. Was extremely disappointed when I heard the original.

I hope "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" shows up - very similar in tone and execution to MASH and definitely one of their most poignant moments since it was their first release after Richey's disappearance.

Suicide is Painless somewhat let down by the structure - very short verse/very short chorus, repeat * infinity. Also I do not endorse the message, somewhat glad it wasn't a startling #1.

they certainly had a fixation on morbidity. I'm surprised the hordes of emo kids circa 2006 didn't latch onto early Manics in a big way.

somehow I hadn't heard their version of "Raindrops..." yet. It's really lovely. They ought to have done a whole "American Standards" record back then, imagine the backlash!

Ha yes, their contrarian antennae failing them there

27. She Is Suffering (from The Holy Bible) [4 votes, 91 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYNwr58V1Pg

26. Prologue To History (b-side to If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next) [5 votes, 92 points, 1998]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Q3SR9x5W0

Prologue to History is my favourite Manics B-side. Better than most of TIMT - and a much stronger look at their own history than The Everlasting - but would never have worked on that album.

I do not endorse the message

"My name is ledge and I do not endorse this message."

"I don't WAN-na beee/A prologue to his-to-ryyyy"

A b-side I actually know!

That is the best new-to-me track I've heard so far.

There was a pretty great four-song set by them on a spinoff of C4 show Naked City circa 1994. 'She Is Suffering' was one of the four iirc. I had it taped and watched repeatedly - terrific performance and nice touches like Richey having to attend to technical issues on his guitar whenever James decided to sling his own aside for a verse.

It was called 'Butt Naked', I remember now, and disfigured by a horrible cartoon of a descending arse whenever the credits showed. Why oh why have such crap graphics? It can't've been funny ever.

25. Slash & Burn (from Generation Terrorists) [5 votes, 99 points, 1992]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8a1WEjLqUw

24. No Surface All Feeling (from Everything Must Go) [4 votes, 109 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldINetLTaA

Yup, love No Surface, All Feeling. There's a long line of resignation and passivity running from, where, maybe This Is Yesterday onwards, which I assume is Wire's work because it gets expanded amplified with diminishing returns once Richey bows out. No Surface All Feeling's really good with it though, it's touching and quite tender.

yeah that was my #9. verse is over passive maybe but the chorus + guitar line make it. then they rock out yeeeaaaaahhh.

Okay last ones for today. Not sure if i'll be continuing tomorrow as have to attend a funeral but we'll see...

23. P.C.P. (from The Holy Bible) [6 votes, 110 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN5AxvjTJhQ

22. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier (from Everything Must Go) [5 votes, 111 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54L_ZU2QIpc

21. Roses In The Hospital (from Gold Against The Soul) [6 votes, 118 points, 1993]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkgzOBV08DI

PCP! Yes! I am more familiar with the live version I had off one of the Volume comps. But still, what a way to end an album.

At the risk of banging on yet again about questionable lyrics on The Holy Bible - yeah I'm sure you can guess my comments re: PCP. I relegated it to 19th place, a bit harsh in retrospect, it is a great album closer if you ignore the dailymailisms.

Roses... suffers from the balls-out rockism prevalent on GATS (n.b. do not cf. my earlier comment re: no surface all feeling)

PCP is amazing. I think it's universally underrated solely due to being a double a-side with Faster, so there's this assumption that one must be not that good somehow.

Funny, I never really paid attention (nor do I think I'd have understood) the lyrics or message behind them when I was a teenager. Bradfield spits out the words in such a strange meter close aural inspection's really quite impossible. But reading these back now, it's kind of clear they're the rantings of a well-read psychopath. I think it's lyrics like this that separate the '90s from the 21st century - being proudly and truly irreverant definitely felt like more of a thing back then than it does now.

It's their Penny Lane, is what I'm saying.

PCP is in my ears and in my eyes...

ledge, don't you think that the Holy Bible's various attacks on liberal orthodoxy from a working-class socialist perspective deserve a little better than to be called "Daily Mailisms"? It's such a complicated album, politically - the whole point is to explore the points where left and right meet, or overlap, or become meaningless distinctions. It doesn't always make total sense (the Brady Bill line) but kneejerk Daily Mailisms they ain't.

I wonder how many more Holy Bible tracks will be in the Top 20.

I tried hard to not make my ballot The Holy Bible thirteen + 7, but on reflection I should've given in

The Daily Mail is right some of the time, but always for the wrong reasons, so ... I don't know, I thought I was going to be able to finish that sentence

^ hybrid Richey/Nicky lyric

reading the lyrics of 'pcp' now it's hard to see them as a right-wing rant, unless you view all criticisms of political correctness as automatically right-wing. lines like 'systemised atrocity ignored/as long as bi-lingual signs on view' seem just as radically left-wing in their p.o.v. as anything the manics ever wrote, as does 'learnt censorship, pro-life equals anti-choice.'

The problem with attacking liberal orthodoxy via political correctness is that it's largely a straw man, and ok creating that figure is not solely the daily mail's responsibility, and nor does being anti pc automatically make you right wing - it does make you more likely to be a credulous windmill tilter though.

"systemised atrocity being ignored as long as bilingual signs on view" - has this actually ever happened?

being

With respect, I don't think you understand the song. There's nothing strawmannish or credulous in PCP. It's not a stretch to argue that in the early 90s the left was more concerned with identity politics and language than the more old-left ideas that interested the Manics - the phrase "pyrrhic victory" is the key. You're acting like nobody's allowed to criticise political correctness lest they turn into Jeremy Clarkson.

Well, maybe I have a knee-jerk reaction to knee-jerk anti pc reactions, and maybe I'm misremembering the glory days of the loony left. But really you don't think there's anything straw man sounding in the song at all?

Individual lines yes, but not in the round. There's all kinds of messy, contradictory ideas going on in that album and I think it needs to be taken in that spirit rather than holding up individual lines. Especially as it's quite hard to pick apart a Richey lyric.

Like you, I hated kneejerk PC-bashing in the 90s, as I do now, but I don't that's what's going on here.

weird conflation/ confusion of macro and personal politics doesn't aid in untangling those lyrical contradictions IMO (not that I'm suggesting anyone's trying to do that!)

Sorry, that probably doesn't make sense! What I mean is that the contradictions aren't easy to untangle given the dubious parallels Richie was sometimes making between the personal and the political.

For my part I always read it as wider than PC, being more about all types of excusing inaction through false priorities. Unlike you I have lots of time for PC bashing, unless done by the Mail, because whatever the theory, the sole significant practical effect that I can see is to mask the real issues. Hence its being the target here, because it's the clearest example of diversionary tactics.

The 'bilingual signs' line is about Bosnia I think btw, I doubt it's a reference to Wales.

xp Agree 100%

catching up on today backwards. agree with IK there on PCP, it's the modern political fixation on surface over substance. like elsewhere on the album the lyrics do leave a bit of a gap for you to fill in. it's a great song, i enjoy the mentalness.

no surface and elvis are a couple of the better EMG tracks. i thought about diddling my ballot because it seemed harsh to have nothing after THB but it's more of a reflection of just how good the earlier tracks are.

bought the 12" at the time but never particularly liked roses, even when i really really like GATS. slash and suffering too low, obv. lol @ everlasting, just terrible. grace of god hardly better. dead trees is v good, not far off my ballot, think i only had one EMG track higher. don't know prologue to history, will check that out when i get home.

that should be really really liked GATS - past tense sadly