RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 31/10/2011 6:43:15 PM

tommyjarvis

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From: Caught somewhere in time

I've neglected this thread for a bit (damn you, exams) so let's make up for lost time.

No. 21 - Motorcycle Emptiness

"Your joys are counterfeit, this happiness corrupt political shit"

This is one of those songs that you might expect to be higher up in this countdown, given its status as an undisputed classic (perhaps the earliest Manics song to achieve that status). And yet, I dunno, I like it but I don't like it that much. It's a great tune and one of the first examples of Bradfield's talent on the guitar, with all those wailing solos taken straight out of 80s hard rock, but I just get a bit bored of it. Maybe it's just been overplayed. No matter what else though, I associate good memories with it - the last time I saw the band, James's guitar string broke during the song, forcing him to sing the solo instead. Legend.

In their own words: "The first line, "Culture sucks down words, itemise loathing and feed yourself smiles' - it never occured to us that this was not the stuff that hit singles are made of" (James Dean Bradfield)

Manicness rating: 3/5. Almost leisurely, really.

Obscure quotes & references: Loosely inspired by S.E. Hinton's book Rumble Fish. The line "under neon loneliness" is from a poem by Nicky Wire's brother Patrick Jones, apparently. Nepotism, who'd have thunk?

How many times is the title repeated?: Nine, I think.

How lyrically obtuse is it?: More about empty lifestyles and culture than bikes which have run out of petrol.

How did it do in the charts?: Made no. 17 in 1992.

Get it on: Generation Terrorists (1992)

Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gavcjNniIvk&ob=av2e

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 31/10/2011 10:13:52 PM

matty_b

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Ludicrously low. It's an obvious choice, but still top five Manics for me.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 1/11/2011 7:34:21 AM

rick_7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

Ludicrously low. It's an obvious choice, but still top five Manics for me.

Yeah, this.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 1/11/2011 7:35:14 AM

rick_7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: darko18

Just found out the Manics were signing copies of National Treasures at HMV Manchester today.

The Nicolas Cage film?

< Message edited by rick_7 -- 1/11/2011 7:36:01 AM >

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 1/11/2011 10:04:28 AM

sharkboy

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From: Belfast

Great choice so far (except for Umbrella - never did like the novelty cover concept, even Raindrops did nothing for me) and it's made me listen to the Holy Bible for the first time in months, so thanks for that!

Motorcycle Emptiness is a strange track - it is without doubt a bona fide modern classic and absolutely deserves a place in this chart, but, like a lot of their earlier work, it does feel kinda eclipsed by the later output. I reckon low-20s/high teens is about right.

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Post #: 35

RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 7:20:03 PM

tommyjarvis

Posts: 6609
Joined: 2/11/2005
From: Caught somewhere in time

Nicolas Cage

No. 20 - The Everlasting

"'Oh, you're old', I hear you say, it doesn't mean that I don't care"

Out of the various big hits of the era which marked the peak of the Manics' success (1996-2000), this one tends to get somewhat overlooked. A shame, really - as with Door To The River which was in earlier, this is slow and melancholic but kind of lovely, stretching for epicness as it rolls towards the climax and just about getting there. It's a fair distance from the raucous early stuff but bands do mature and if you're going to shoot for stadiums, then releasing songs that sound big enough to fill them (like this) is generally a good thing.

In their own words: "The title just about sums that song up" (Nicky Wire). A bit harsh.

Manicness rating: 2/5. By this stage the band were in their "grown-up" phase so slow and stately was the order of the day.

Obscure quotes & references: Again, the title is pilfered from a poem by Nicky Wire's brother Patrick Jones. Two in a row!

How many times is the title repeated?: Eight, I reckon (some without the "the").

How lyrically obtuse is it?: The song seems to be about the generation gap and gradual indifference ("I don't believe in it any more, pathetic acts for a worthless cause"). None of which explains what an "everlasting" actually is, though.

How did it do in the charts?: No. 11 in late '98. Given that the single prior to that went to number 1, that could be viewed as a disappointment .

Get it on: This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998)

Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUr5nsAUlYA

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 7:33:06 PM

matty_b

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Sorry Tommy. One of my least favourite Manic's tracks, this one.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 7:49:14 PM

Olaf

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I always find it surprising that they only had one #1 single from from TIMTTMY considering how big they were at the time - I think for the most part none of the singles on that album come close to If You Tolerate This... (if you're able to get over how horrendously overplayed it is, it really is an incredible song), and this is probably my least favourite from it. I do have a considerable soft spot for You Stole The Sun From My Heart, mind.

I think it's possibly the anomaly in terms of Manics albums, in that I think all of the best material - IYTT aside - are the album tracks rather than the singles. I'm not hugely fond of it tbh, but stuff like My Little Empire, Nobody Loved You and I'm Not Working far outshines songs like this or Tsunami I find. It's got its own Design For Life or Faster, but not its own Everything Must Go or Revol. if that makes any sense.

< Message edited by Olaf -- 2/11/2011 8:00:52 PM >

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 7:52:22 PM

tommyjarvis

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I'm the other way around - I really like singles from TIMTTMY but wasn't really fussed about the rest of it. Conversely, on The Holy Bible, the singles (Faster aside) are some of the weakest songs on the album.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 8:02:40 PM

matty_b

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Yeah, the singles from THB (Faster aside) were the weakest tracks.

TIMYT... irriates me a little bit. Some great songs on there, but far too much navel-gazing, "woe is me" from Nicky Wire, and SYMM is a simply unforgiveable song.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 8:07:05 PM

Olaf

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Yeah, my analogy kind of breaks down with THB because it's all so good - I'd probably only have two of the singles in my top five for the album (though that said, not considering She Is Suffering one of the best tracks on the album troubles me deeply

). Generation Terrorists and Gold Against The Soul are probably better examples - Little Baby Nothing and La Tristresse Durera are kind of the best things ever, and then you have Motorcycle Emptiness/You Love Us/From Despair To Where/Roses In The Hospital/etc, while a lot of the album tracks on GT are flippin awful. NatWest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds, oh dear.

< Message edited by Olaf -- 2/11/2011 8:13:17 PM >

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 8:19:31 PM

tommyjarvis

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She Is Suffering is a very good song, it's just that there's eight or nine songs on the album I prefer

Nat-West... isn't that bad, is it? I'd agree that a lot of the tracks on GT, especially in the second half, are fairly uninteresting though. Gold Against The Soul is more consistent

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 8:27:35 PM

Olaf

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I don't hate it or anything, it's just that 'NatWest, NatWest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds / Blackhorse apocalypse / Death sanitised through credit' is quite possibly the worst lyric the band have ever written (quite an achievement when you have a lyricist as... er, 'unique' as Nicky Wire). It is a very frontloaded album though, yeah (other than Spectators Of Suicide, and even then the old Heavenly version is better).EDIT and Condemned To Rock 'n' Roll is pretty amazing as well, actually.

< Message edited by Olaf -- 2/11/2011 8:29:27 PM >

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 8:53:54 PM

rick_7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

I don't hate it or anything, it's just that 'NatWest, NatWest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds / Blackhorse apocalypse / Death sanitised through credit' is quite possibly the worst lyric the band have ever written (quite an achievement when you have a lyricist as... er, 'unique' as Nicky Wire). It is a very frontloaded album though, yeah (other than Spectators Of Suicide, and even then the old Heavenly version is better).EDIT and Condemned To Rock 'n' Roll is pretty amazing as well, actually.

I think that's the worst lyric anyone has ever written. Except for My Little Empire, obviously.

I think about half the first album is amazing and virtually all of the second. One of the songs off GT that I've always thought was brilliant is So Dead ("No-one fucks as good as Marilyn/Plastic surgery sure cures your sins" - booyah!), which they themselves dismissed as filler.

I really like Another Invented Disease disease too, even though it's GN'R-lite and has an inverted chorus that they've just nicked off the Stones. Stay Beautiful, Little Baby Nothing, Spectators of Suicide and Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll are all obviously great, but I've also got a soft spot for stuff like Crucifix Kiss and Repeat - they're sort of half-formed and adolescent, but also really heartfelt, spiky and confrontational.

GATS is very underrated, it's probably my second-favourite Manics album after The Holy Bible. It's got a conventional, but really muscular sound that suits the material, and I honestly don't think there's a song on there that's not really, really good. No, not even Nostalgic Pushead. Or Sleepflower. So there. And Life Becoming a Landslide is just fucking immense. On the other hand, I've lived with that record for so long - and derived so much happiness from it at so many times in my life - that there's every chance my judgement is horribly clouded.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 2/11/2011 8:55:48 PM

rick_7

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(PS: Sorry that I never actually reply to the song you've just posted, Tommy. I forgot to write about The Everlasting and now I have to go and deliver a parcel to someone up the road, but keep up the good work.)

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 3/11/2011 9:34:27 AM

matty_b

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quote:

ORIGINAL: rick_7

quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

I don't hate it or anything, it's just that 'NatWest, NatWest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds / Blackhorse apocalypse / Death sanitised through credit' is quite possibly the worst lyric the band have ever written (quite an achievement when you have a lyricist as... er, 'unique' as Nicky Wire). It is a very frontloaded album though, yeah (other than Spectators Of Suicide, and even then the old Heavenly version is better).EDIT and Condemned To Rock 'n' Roll is pretty amazing as well, actually.

I think that's the worst lyric anyone has ever written. Except for My Little Empire, obviously.

I don't know, I still think it has some way to go, "The ending for this song? Well I haven't really thought of one".

Oh, OK. Cheers for that then, Nicky.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 3/11/2011 1:50:46 PM

sharkboy

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From: Belfast

quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

I always find it surprising that they only had one #1 single from from TIMTTMY considering how big they were at the time - I think for the most part none of the singles on that album come close to If You Tolerate This... (if you're able to get over how horrendously overplayed it is, it really is an incredible song),

One of my fondest gig-going memories was standing in line for an MSP gig outside the Ulster Hall one sunday evening and hearing the word go up and down the line that the Manics had got to No.1. Anyone who thinks that means nothing to bands like this should have seen their faces when they walked on stage later

When they played it in the same venue during the JFPL tour, James announced that they will forever associate it with the venue and that night in Belfast.

But, yeah, The Everlasting is a bit poo unfortunately.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 3/11/2011 7:15:00 PM

horribleives

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

I always find it surprising that they only had one #1 single from from TIMTTMY considering how big they were at the time - I think for the most part none of the singles on that album come close to If You Tolerate This... (if you're able to get over how horrendously overplayed it is, it really is an incredible song), and this is probably my least favourite from it. I do have a considerable soft spot for You Stole The Sun From My Heart, mind.

I think it's possibly the anomaly in terms of Manics albums, in that I think all of the best material - IYTT aside - are the album tracks rather than the singles. I'm not hugely fond of it tbh, but stuff like My Little Empire, Nobody Loved You and I'm Not Working far outshines songs like this or Tsunami I find. It's got its own Design For Life or Faster, but not its own Everything Must Go or Revol. if that makes any sense.

The two best tracks on that album by a mile - the former has a defiant, snotty Generation Terrorists/Gold Against The Soul feel to it and the latter always kind of reminds me of Live To Tell by Madonna.
Speaking of Revol, I read a recent interview in NME where the band once again expressed how much they dislike it (musically, that is). Not sure what their problem is - it's a fucking mint tune and was always a live highlight on those fateful '94 gigs.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 3/11/2011 7:27:59 PM

horribleives

Posts: 4183
Joined: 12/6/2009
From: The North

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

quote:

ORIGINAL: rick_7

quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

I don't hate it or anything, it's just that 'NatWest, NatWest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds / Blackhorse apocalypse / Death sanitised through credit' is quite possibly the worst lyric the band have ever written (quite an achievement when you have a lyricist as... er, 'unique' as Nicky Wire). It is a very frontloaded album though, yeah (other than Spectators Of Suicide, and even then the old Heavenly version is better).EDIT and Condemned To Rock 'n' Roll is pretty amazing as well, actually.

I think that's the worst lyric anyone has ever written. Except for My Little Empire, obviously.

I don't know, I still think it has some way to go, "The ending for this song? Well I haven't really thought of one".

Oh, OK. Cheers for that then, Nicky.

Aye, that song in particular made me yearn for how Richey would've tackled it, ie actually adressing the subject, rather than coming up with some lyrics about how he can't come up with any lyrics.
Instead, what should've been a fiercely politcial, incendiary dissection of the brutalisation of the working class becomes a song about writer's block.
Which is a double shame as musically it's better than most of the other stuff on that album.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 3/11/2011 9:14:17 PM

tommyjarvis

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From: Caught somewhere in time

Well I like The Everlasting, even if no-one else does.

No. 19 - Stay Beautiful

"Deny your culture of consumption, this is a culture of destruction"

Last time I saw the band, James told us a story about this song. Apparently they were discussing with their record company what the lead single from the debut album should be. The band were about to nominate this as their preferred option, only for the record company guy to say "I don't really mind what the single is, just as long as it's not got "fuck off" or something in the chorus".

Oops.

Well it doesn't now, anyway. However, whenever this is played live, the crowd are always happy to fill in with the profanity right after the "Why don't you just..." that concludes the chorus. That's the thing about the Manic Street Preachers, you see, always up for interaction with the fans.

In their own words: "Cop out" (James Dean Bradfield, on the removal of swearing from the chorus)

Manicness rating: 4/5. In keeping with most of Generation Terrorists (the original title of this song) this is fairly hectic.

Obscure quotes & references: Can't think of much here, really.

How many times is the title repeated?: Zilch

How lyrically obtuse is it?: So-so. It's more of the general disgust at modern culture and empty consumerism, I think.

How did it do in the charts?: Made no. 40, making it their first top 40 hit (albeit just). On re-release in 1997 it did even worse.

Get it on: Generation Terrorists (1992)

Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM_oov3dU6A&ob=av2e

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 3/11/2011 9:23:05 PM

matty_b

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Good track.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 7/11/2011 6:49:04 PM

tommyjarvis

Posts: 6609
Joined: 2/11/2005
From: Caught somewhere in time

No. 18 - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

"No, you won't make a mess of me, for you're as blind as a man can be"

By 2007, it looked as though the Manics were a spent force. It had been nearly five years since they'd released a greatest hits album and in the interim, all we'd got was a poorly-received album in 2004 and a couple of mediocre solo albums. As it transpired, however, the break was what was needed to rejuvenate the band and resurrect their career. With Send Away The Tigers, the group stripped away the flab and created an album of pure pop gold. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough was the ideal lead-off single: an instantly catchy, sunny song with Nina Persson (of The Cardigans) on co-vocal duties suddenly made the band worth caring about again. James sings with just as much energy as his co-star, while even Nicky gets to sing a line ("I could have written all your lines"). For the first time in God knows how long, the group sounded like they were actually enjoying themselves.

In their own words: "That's the reason we're here now. Working with Nina was just a moment of true perfection' (Nicky Wire)

Manicness rating: 4/5. It's not as vitriolic as the early stuff, but it's simply bursting with energy.

Obscure quotes & references: They've gone all meta here: the line "You stole the sun, straight from my heart, from my heart" is an obvious reference to their earlier hit. The line "Trade all your heroes in for ghosts", meanwhile, is a tribute to Pink Floyd's classic Wish You Were Here

How many times is the title repeated?: Five.

How lyrically obtuse is it?: Doesn't the title say it all?

How did it do in the charts?: No. 2, kept off the top only by the Beyonce & Shakira collaboration Beautiful Liar. Hence the pic of Shakira above. God, I love her.

Get it on: Send Away The Tigers (2007)

Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_OnFHJou4o&ob=av2e

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 7/11/2011 7:45:24 PM

matty_b

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Great song. The "I could have seen for miles and miles" line really gets to me, for some reason.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 9/11/2011 3:15:58 PM

Buddy Ackerman

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quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I wouldn't worry, I can't imagine anyone's top 25 Manics songs being troubled with anything from Lifeblood or Know Your Enemy.

Not even a top 100.

My favourite band of all time. And although I know why some (OK, a lot) of fans dislike Lifeblood I love it, especially since Send Away the Tigers came along and showed it was just a one-off divergence for the band and not their new style. As individual tracks they don't hold up against other manics classics but my top 25 would include at least Solitude Sometimes Is. (In fact I've met them a couple of times and LIfeblood is one of the albums I got signed, although I did mention that I bet they didn't get asked to do that very often).

Know Your Enemy - one or two tracks aside - is a poor effort. A bizarre hybrid of their more commercial stuff for the fans they picked up during the Everything Must Go/TIMTTMY era and noisy, messy punk tracks to prove something to their older fans. With it's lack of focus and extended track listing it came across as a piss poor attempt to replicate Generation Terrorists but missed by a very wide margin.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 9/11/2011 3:18:40 PM

Buddy Ackerman

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quote:

ORIGINAL: horribleives

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

quote:

ORIGINAL: rick_7

quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

I don't hate it or anything, it's just that 'NatWest, NatWest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds / Blackhorse apocalypse / Death sanitised through credit' is quite possibly the worst lyric the band have ever written (quite an achievement when you have a lyricist as... er, 'unique' as Nicky Wire). It is a very frontloaded album though, yeah (other than Spectators Of Suicide, and even then the old Heavenly version is better).EDIT and Condemned To Rock 'n' Roll is pretty amazing as well, actually.

I think that's the worst lyric anyone has ever written. Except for My Little Empire, obviously.

I don't know, I still think it has some way to go, "The ending for this song? Well I haven't really thought of one".

Oh, OK. Cheers for that then, Nicky.

Aye, that song in particular made me yearn for how Richey would've tackled it, ie actually adressing the subject, rather than coming up with some lyrics about how he can't come up with any lyrics.
Instead, what should've been a fiercely politcial, incendiary dissection of the brutalisation of the working class becomes a song about writer's block.
Which is a double shame as musically it's better than most of the other stuff on that album.

I like SYMM's musical qualites - it has a great haunting quality - but there's something extremely cringeworthy about the way "Jimmy McGovern" is forced into the lyrics.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 9/11/2011 3:48:19 PM

matty_b

Posts: 12856
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Buddy Ackerman

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I wouldn't worry, I can't imagine anyone's top 25 Manics songs being troubled with anything from Lifeblood or Know Your Enemy.

Not even a top 100.

My favourite band of all time. And although I know why some (OK, a lot) of fans dislike Lifeblood I love it, especially since Send Away the Tigers came along and showed it was just a one-off divergence for the band and not their new style. As individual tracks they don't hold up against other manics classics but my top 25 would include at least Solitude Sometimes Is. (In fact I've met them a couple of times and LIfeblood is one of the albums I got signed, although I did mention that I bet they didn't get asked to do that very often).

Know Your Enemy - one or two tracks aside - is a poor effort. A bizarre hybrid of their more commercial stuff for the fans they picked up during the Everything Must Go/TIMTTMY era and noisy, messy punk tracks to prove something to their older fans. With it's lack of focus and extended track listing it came across as a piss poor attempt to replicate Generation Terrorists but missed by a very wide margin.

I still reckon there's a good 10-12 track album to be found in Know Your Enemy. Not a 16/17 one, though.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 9/11/2011 4:03:37 PM

Buddy Ackerman

Posts: 210
Joined: 2/10/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: matty_b

I still reckon there's a good 10-12 track album to be found in Know Your Enemy. Not a 16/17 one, though.

I agree. It will still have the odd filler or oddity (Miss Europa Disco Dancer is definitely the latter but I wouldn't get rid of it) but it would be a much stronger album for losing a third of its tracks.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 9/11/2011 7:05:55 PM

tommyjarvis

Posts: 6609
Joined: 2/11/2005
From: Caught somewhere in time

Gold Against The Soul makes its debut:

No. 17 - Sleepflower

"Fragments crawling like cobwebs on stone, blows away the safety only a sleeping pill knows"

Where does the flower sleep? In a flower bed, presumably.

Words cannot express how delighted I was when the band opened with this song the last time I saw them. The lights went down, the band walked on, everyone cheered and Bradfield launched straight into the instantly recognisable opening riff, one of the best he's ever come up with. I screamed out "Yes!" and started headbanging like a complete moron.

With good reason too, this one rocks hard. More polished than most of the debut album but no less energetic, this is one of the most underrated songs from perhaps the group's most underrated album. No sleep is had when this comes on.

In their own words: "Nobody seems to be able to get to sleep without artificial aid these days - whether its alcohol, pills, or even exercise programmes." (Richey Edwards)

Manicness rating: 4/5. Here we have the band in rock mode - memorable riff, lengthy solo, loud chorus, the works, with only a couple of pauses for breath in the middle.

How many times is the title repeated?: It's not, I don't think

How lyrically obtuse is it?: Seems fairly clearly to be about insomnia.

How did it do in the charts?: No single release, this one.

Get it on: Gold Against The Soul (1993)

Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGYnEtqU8u8

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 9/11/2011 7:48:47 PM

matty_b

Posts: 12856
Joined: 19/10/2005
From: Outpost 31 calling McMurtle.

Aye, great track.

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RE: You Love Us: The Top 25 Manic Street Preachers Songs - 9/11/2011 9:41:21 PM

Angelus

Posts: 719
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Black Mesa

She Bathed Herself In A Bath Of Bleach - Very good. Not my favourite song from Journal, but still a great blast of a tune.

Motorcycle Emptiness - Way too low. It's fucking immense and is always nothing less than magnificent whenever the band play it live. Works well as an opening song, a mid-set highlight or an epic finale.

The Everlasting - "The world is full of refugees, they're just like you and just like me..." Yeah, cheers Nicky. That clunker aside, it's quite pleasant. In no way is it better than Motorcycle, though.

Stay Beautiful - Alright, who doesn't enjoy shouting "Fuck off!" along with this? A lovely glam-punk racket of a single. As far as the quotes and references go, isn't the "Destroyed by madness/anxiety is freedom" ending a nod to Ginsberg and Kierkegaard?

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough - Damn fine tune. Nina Persson sounds great alongside James.

Sleepflower - Oh yes. My favourite song from Gold Against The Soul that isn't one of the singles. Love that riff. However, I've seen the Manics live seven times now and not once have they played Sleepflower. The fuckers.

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