OPO - Manic Street Preachers

i don't disagree with that! i just think that one single has everything i ever wanted from the manics -- both songs have such an incredibly tight, compressed, almost claustrophobic sound (in a way they remind me of 'instant karma!' and some of the other lennon tracks from that era), and the lyrics are richey at his skirting-the-edges-of-madness best.

Came here to say exactly what I see I said a decade ago; La Tristessa and Motorcycle Emptiness. Really good singles band; picked up Forever Delayed at the weekend for pennies. No interest in the albums, really.

Under neon loneliness / motorcycle emptiness...

Although choosing those two, I now have Kevin Carter buried in my cerebellum.

https://www.stereogum.com/2014517/manic-street-preachers-this-is-my-truth-turns-20/franchises/the-anniversary/

Wow, I guess I was 10 when this was released

made a huge impression on me, must have listened to it a thousand times

never really came back to it

production is cool on it, very 90s, kinda Orbit-y

I still love all the big blurry overlong slow songs that muck up the album (Be Natural, I'm Not Working, SYMM) even though I'm sure the band considers them some kind of nadir. The production/length/arrangements are very 1998/99 but the sense of depression and disorientation feels real and the melodies are lovely. Hell, even the meta conceit of "SYMM" works for me now. Daresay also JDB's peak as a vocalist and guitarist, if nothing else.

Little Baby Nothing. What an enormous, absolutely uncompromising song.

So easy to make fun of this band, but the joke is often on yourself.

‘Life Becoming A Landslide’...The musical version of a Terrance Davies film...just devastating

motorcycle emptiness

For some reason, reading this (from the NME) made me chuckle:

Frontman James Dean Bradfield can be heard in the opening moments of the album teaser singing the lines “We live in Orwellian times” from the new song ‘Orwellian Times’ ...

I found the typo in this a bit tragic:

The song also featured some political lyrics: “Don’t let those boys from Eaton suggest that we are beaten, no, no, no…can be free and equal.”