Manic Street Preachers
This is My Truth Tell Me Yours
[Virgin]
Rating: 9.5
It's been a hard road for the Manic Street Preachers. When they formed
back in 1991, the cheeky band from Blackwood, Gwent, Wales, had the gall to
claim they would become the biggest band in the world and then break up. Well,
time has proven them at least partly right. Now beloved throughout the U.K. as
the "nation's band,"-- Oasis having lost the plot and forsaken that role with
Be Here Now-- they are very much of the musical establishment, while
remaining a potent force of artistic and political conscience. It's just that
they've finally overcome their Clash obsession and turned inward with lyrics
that aim more at the personal and mundane aspects of everyday life, as opposed
to their earlier grand, political sloganeering.
Weathering the disappearance of original primary lyricist Richey Edwards, the
band has not only thrived, but also grown in new directions. This is My Truth
Tell Me Yours is the first set of Manics lyrics written solely by bassist
Nicky Wire. Wire's self- professed domestic obsession, which takes its extreme
form in his love of what the British call "hoovering" (or "vacuuming," for the
less Anglophile among you), differs drastically from Edwards' grand neuroses.
Essentially, Wire paints with much smaller brushes, focusing on self,
relationships and family while penning the Manics' most emotional and personal
set of lyrics ever. Yet the personal is still informed by the political. The
record's anthem, "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next," is inspired by
volunteers of the International Brigade who battled the Fascists in the Spanish
Civil War. Meanwhile, "S.Y.M.M." reflects Wire's feelings about the Hillsborough
Disaster, where 96 people died at a British soccer game.
Supporting Wire's powerful lyrics, the Manic Street Preachers play with
virtuosity and conviction. James Dean Bradfield's voice has never sounded
better-- he's evolved into one of the best rock singers around. The band's
music is also the most far- ranging of their career, incorporating a broader
instrumentation that includes non- typical rock instruments like the sitar,
melodica, omnichords, and organ. For example, "Ready For Drowning" possesses
a moody, almost classical- sounding organ with some of the most intriguing
harmonic shifts ever penned by a rock musician.
The Manic Street Preachers are also one of the few groups capable of integrating
orchestral instruments in a way that still produces great rock music (check out
the cello in "My Little Empire"), always avoiding the schmaltzy elevator music
that can result when some rock musos get a hold of an orchestra. Meanwhile, they
manage to infuse some quite dour lyrics with some of the most haunting melodies in
rock this side of Radiohead. Bradfield and Moore seldom choose the obvious chords,
arrangements and melodies, resulting in music that is heads- and- tails above almost
any band on the planet. I'd say it's my album of the year so far, but I picked it
number one last year. (It actually came out in the U.K. last fall.)
-Sarah Zupko