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Objectivity (x3). I try to keep it but this may be the exception. Cue biased fanboy ramblings.

I have tried to write a review of a new Manics album before, upon the release of Send Away the Tigers, two years ago this month. I couldn’t get past my dualistic feelings towards the band. Loath as I am to make lists, The Holy Bible is my favourite album. As you probably know, it was the last album made before the disappearance of Richey James Edwards, guitar mimer//co-lyricist//band core. Since he walked away from his life/died, each album has sounded staler than the previous, the band incomplete and tired. The hype surrounding Send Away the Tigers focused on how it was the Manics returning to their earlier selves. I really don’t hear it. It’s an OK album, but it’s not in the same league as Generation Terrorists, The Holy Bible or any of those early 90s b-sides. The failure to match said hype, combined with my natural pessimism, made me cringe when the band announced they were making an album with lyrics left to them by Richey. I did not want this to be like a posthumous Tupac album, spliced together from leftovers and scraps.

(Apologies for prioritising context over the album itself)

‘Peeled Apples’, the album opener starts promisingly, with a quote from Christian Bale in ‘The Machinist’. Whether it is his Welshness, his intensity or the fact he played Patrick Bateman (subject of the Manics’ greatest b-side), Bale is the perfect choice. Indeed, in a recent interview, Nicky Wire has said they would want nobody else to play Richey in a biopic (hopefully this is not a prelude to an announcement). The lyrics are violent, eloquent and oblique, mirroring the contradictions which made the Manics as important as they once were.

However, they have had isolated great songs in the past 15 years, so I refused to hope for too much. As it is, the rest of the album follows suit. In the excitement surrounding Richey’s ‘presence’ on the album, it is easy to overlook that the rest of the band have pieced the lyrics together and crafted 14 excellent songs (or 13 and ‘Facing Page: Top Left’, I’m undecided still). Considering the basis for many of these songs was written before New Labour, girl power or Euro 96 (insert mid- to late-90s cliches here), it’s strange how undated they sound. I won’t embarrass myself by talking too much about the music, but I suppose it combines the esotericism of The Holy Bible and the polish of Everything Must Go. I don't like having to describe music.

Much has been made of the album, in particular ‘William’s Last Words’, being Richey’s suicide note. I can’t say I hear this, as most of the subject matter is following on from The Holy Bible. Yes, there is finality in parts but their debut single was titled ‘Suicide Alley’. It actually feels like a part in an ongoing serial, not a final chapter, to use a poor literary metaphor. I never thought I would place a new Manics album in the same bracket as their first or third, but…

Now just retire.

Joe Keggin