[review] Manic Street Preachers // National Treasures

Celebrating the release of National Treasures – The Complete Singles, Tympanogram’s resident Manic Street Preachers enthusiasts pour through each individual offering on the vast collection…

Motown Junk

BRENDAN: For a first single, it’s a great intro to the Manics: anthemic, derivative and catchy. It’s definitely below the heights of their glory days, but Motown Junk is as much of a curiosity for being their first single as it is a solid, Clash-inspired listen.

RHYS: I don’t think you could ask for a more perfect career start. Although the band have moved a long way away from ‘Motown Junk’ musically, it still perfectly encapsulates what they’ve been about from day one. One of my personal favourites – immense, incendiary and iconoclastic.

Stay Beautiful

BRENDAN: A moment from the early Manics that never grabbed me. Most of the material from Generation Terrorists and Gold Against the Soul gets filed in my mind as being excessive, Guns N Roses schlock rock.

RHYS: I wouldn’t agree with the schlock-rock label (though they did support Bon Jovi once), but this is a pretty forgettable Manics number. This whole collection has got me thinking which tracks could have made better singles, and there were plenty on Generation Terrorists better than this.

Love’s Sweet Exile

BRENDAN: A great temptation for me to skip tracks. There’s nothing special in Love’s Sweet Exile to keep my ears happy.

RHYS: I think this is one of the early tracks which suffers the most from the use of a drum machine rather than real drums. Never understood that decision!

You Love Us

BRENDAN: The first sign of things to come, and the first great song on National Treasures.

RHYS: A Manics classic, and perfectly placed on an album like this – a compilation straddling two decades by a band who have never conformed yet have ended up cult national treasures.

Slash N’ Burn

BRENDAN: For all the energy and verb-iness of the title, Slash N’ Burn feels like it’s the measure of par for the Manics.

RHYS: Always thought Graham Coxon ripped the riff off of this for ‘There’s No Other Way’…

Motorcycle Emptiness

BRENDAN: If You Love Us was the first great song on National Treasures, Motorcycle Emptiness is the first Supernova hit. Motorcycle Emptiness tosses a vast, expansive sadness into a sweeping rock anthem.

RHYS: THIS IS WHERE THINGS STARTED GETTING REALLY GOOD. As already mentioned, the Manics have come along way for three chord glam-punk to orchestral rock, but ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ shows that they’ve always had the capacity to write massive, communal sing-alongs.

Suicide Is Painless

BRENDAN: Supernova number two. I usually have to listen to their take on the M.A.S.H. theme twice in sequence. James Dean Bradford can wail, and he simply takes control of the song.

RHYS: This shows off just how mentally good James’ voice was back in the day. Massively under-rated rock vocalist!

Little Baby Nothing 

BRENDAN: Supernova number three. When Traci Lords tears in with “My mind is dead/everybody loves me/wants a slice of me/hopelessly passive and compatible,” I’m sold every time. The lyrical resolution of the song is the first time on National Treasure that they merge their Marxist materialism with ridiculously awesome rock referencing, “You are pure/your are snow/we are useless sluts that they mold/rock and roll is our epiphany/culture, alienation, boredom and despair.” They use big words and have big ideas, but they are simply a fucking great band!

RHYS: My personal favourite Manic’s track. It’s just MASSIVE. James Dean Bradfield has admitted that he wanted something that would sound like The E Street Band, and he succeeded. Aside from the musical brilliance and lyrical genius though, this track proved the Manics really were 4 REAL. Plenty of bands might criticise sexual exploitation, but how many get an ex-porn star to duet with them on a song about it? Rock and roll. [Note from Brendan: great use of 4 REAL!]

From Despair to Where

BRENDAN: My favorite song from Gold Against the Soul. Another great song.

RHYS: A song the band have been critical of from an album the band have been critical of. However, it’s another of those massive choruses that they just can’t avoid writing. The band’s feelings towards the song have warmed again recently, due to the sheer love this song has amongst fans. Not hard to see why either!

La Tristesse Durera

BRENDAN: Probably the most appropriately Manic song title. I’ll take the van Gogh reference further than I’ll take the song, though, but it’s still very listenable.

RHYS: Artful, tragic, culturally relevant. Everything the Manics are good at. Never will you hear such a great song about a war medal. And the chorus will stay in your head for days. DAYS I TELL YOU.

Roses in the Hospital

BRENDAN: Roses is probably the first time in the sequence of National Treasures that the Manics step out on a sonic limb, so it’s a welcomed change of pace from the “pure rock” of the collection so far.

RHYS: True, a slight sonic change in the song’s opening, and one of the band’s poppier moments, but it has one of the most euphoric (somehow?) last 60 seconds of any indie rock song ever recorded. You can hear the influence of The Clash all throughout this collection, but probably nowhere more than where James Dean Bradield is howling “RUDI RUDI RUDI CAN’T FAIL!”

Life Becoming a Landslide

BRENDAN: I never warmed to this song. Another tempting choice to skip through, especially considering the next track begins the Holy Bible selections.

RHYS: I love the chorus, but it I was once told to imagine Barry Manilow singing it, and since then I’ve never been able to take it as seriously as other Manics songs…

Faster

BRENDAN: Supernova number four. Faster is one of the better songs off the Holy Bible, which is easily their best record and one of the best records from the 1990s.

RHYS: Often rated as the best Manics track, the lead single from ‘The Holy Bible’ really proves that the Manics are a cut above your average indie rock band. Never before – or probably since – have such bookish reference points like George Orwell and Harold Pinter sounded so alive or so rock and roll. This is where the golden age begins on this collection, and where they started earning its title.

Revol

BRENDAN: The Manics sure do love to drop names… and it works well in Revol. I think this might be the first song in the collection featuring a strong vocal part from Nicky Wire.

RHYS: It takes a lot to write a song which one by one dismisses some of the greatest political minds of the 20th century. But Richey and Nicky did it. The song’s real meaning is as mysterious today as it was back then, but when it’s as perfect a single as this, who cares?

She Is Suffering

BRENDAN: Certainly a great song, but it brings up the obvious dilemma of this collection. How do you put out a singles collection with only three songs from the Holy Bible?! I could swear that Yes was a single… [Note from Brendan: Nope. I was totally wrong on that; there were only three singles off the Holy Bible. Yes, 4st 7lb, Of Walking Abortion, Mausoleum, Archives of Pain, Die in the Summertime, and IFWHITEAMERICA… all could have been great singles.]

RHYS: I wish ‘Yes’ had been a single! Or ‘Of Walking Abortion’ or ‘4st 7lb’. This is the dilemma of all singles compilations though, but I find singles compilations often inspire me to re-examine album tracks as well!

A Design for Life

BRENDAN: The first (great) selection from the post-Richey Edwards era. Considering the loss of such a primary force in the band, it’s interesting that Everything Must Go and This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours were such great albums. But they ended up becoming one of the biggest acts in the world, and certainly the biggest group from the old country not to get a real foothold in the States.

RHYS: There’s nothing even resembling a falter or misstep as the compilation moves out of ‘Holy Bible’ territory. Looking back at the singles covered thus far, the opening line of this track – “libraries gave us power” – is proven emphatically true.

Everything Must Go

BRENDAN: I love, love, love the chorus. A great song!

RHYS: Alongside ‘A Design For Life’, ‘Everything Must Go’ points forward to the sweeping, orchestral rock sound the band would adopt several years later. It’s truly inspiring to think that the band could still write tracks like this in the year’s immediately following Richey’s death.

Kevin Cater

BRENDAN: Supernova number five. Just a great, tragically sad song. Sean Moore’s drum work is the highlight of the song. As Rhys points out below, this is the last time this album we get something from

RHYS: I think this was Richey’s darkest moment. His posthumous lyrical contribution to ‘Everything Must Go’ is the last we hear of Richey on this compilation, seeing as ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ had no singles. And it’s a fittingly tragic, biting way for him to bow out of the Manics’ singles legacy.

Australia

BRENDAN: Supernova number six. A great, surfy jam. Not a supernova, Rhys?! Bah, I say… take another pill, brotha!

RHYS: I wouldn’t call it a supernova by any means, but it’s enjoyable. It has a special place in my heart though, as, when I started getting into the Manics, I realised that ‘Australia’ was the theme tune to little known UK Nickelodeon sitcom ‘Renford Rejects’. If that means something to you, please comment below to make me feel less alone…

If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next

BRENDAN: Supernova number seven. Maybe a little preachy, but they are the Manic Street Preachers… Also their most stadium friendly hit, probably why it seems a tad flat for Rhys. I do absolutely love some of the lyrics! [Note from Brendan: This was their first #1 hit, right?]

RHYS: Supernova, agreed. This will be on any Manics compilation as a matter of course, but I’ve never really fallen in love with this song. In amongst the other cultural time-bombs on the compilation, this one has always seemed a tad flat to me.

The Everlasting

BRENDAN: This was definitely a song that I put on a mix tape for my father, given his fondness for U2. He liked it. It is what it is.

RHYS: A title inspired by Blur’s ‘The Universal’, it scales similar orchestral heights. Probably someone’s favourite.

YOU STOLE THE SUN FROM MY HEART

BRENDAN: A good song. It kind of gets lost in the shuffle of more important hits or songs about headier subjects. A good time all around!

RHYS: One of the few singles where the Manics write about something that’s not emotionally harrowing or socially significant. An obligatory band number about hating life on a tour bus; so one of the most light-hearted singles here. Cracking riff!

TSUNAMI

BRENDAN: Weird song. Even for the Manics.

RHYS: A pretty average Manics track, which sadly belies its freaky source material.

THE MASSES AGAINST THE CLASSES

BRENDAN: Lead-in from Chomsky? Check! Infectious rock? Check! Overt political riffing? Check! Supernova number eigth.

RHYS: A searing return to their early sound, which will slap you awake if you’re listening to this collection in one go. Punchy, powerful and political. Looking at the charts today, I really can’t believe that this was the first new #1 of the 2000s in the UK!

SO WHY SO SAD

BRENDAN: A ridiculously catchy wall of sound.

RHYS: An admirable venture into Phil Spector-inspired pop, this I think is where the departure from full on rock and roll began for the Manics.

FOUND THAT SOUL

BRENDAN: Eh. Nothing great. This song makes me wish they would have made Freedom of Speech Won’t Feed My Children or Miss Europa Disco Dancer a single for Know Your Enemy.

RHYS: The worst track on here.

OCEAN SPRAY

BRENDAN: Another deeply sad song. I guess you can only keep your lead singer and guitarist away from writing a song for so long… Definitely worth the wait!

RHYS: The first appearance of James’ lyricism on this collection or in Manic discography! It’s a heart wrenching one too, about James’ mother dying of cancer in hospital. A very tender moment in the midst of their normal socio-political vitriol.

LET ROBESON SING

BRENDAN: A great song, but one that I have always had trouble enjoying. Doubly odd, considering my admiration for Paul Robeson.

RHYS: If you’re listening to this in one sitting, you’ll be really conscious of the increasingly poppy tone of these singles at this point. But it’s FAR from a bad thing.

THERE BY THE GRACE OF GOD

BRENDAN: Not a personal favorite of mine…

RHYS: Never sure what I made of a Manics single that references Marilyn Manson…

THE LOVE OF RICHARD NIXON

BRENDAN: Yeah, it’s electro. Deal with it. This song almost single-handedly got me through Election Day 2004. I absolutely love this song! Amazing how George W. Bush can make Richard Nixon look good.

RHYS: Well this is where it happened. The Manics “went electro”. Not remembered well for the most part, and rightly so. But this song is actually pretty darn good, and, as a positive appraisal of Richard Nixon’s presidency, reminds you that the band aren’t just cardboard cut-out lefties.

EMPTY SOULS

BRENDAN: Yeah, I’ll echo Rhys here. You expect more from bands like the Manics when they tackle something like 9/11, but I think normal result is to be disappointed. Bands like the Manics tend to do well when writing about the Gibbons sisters, the International Brigade, Richard Nixon or whatever… but writing about something as it happens and pulling it off in a meaningful way is a rare talent indeed.

RHYS: The 9/11 response track, uncensored this time around. The second single from Lifeblood, it isn’t, like ‘The Love of Richard Nixon’, actually that bad. Lyrically though, I find it a bit disappointing. A band like the Manics taking on a topic like 9/11 feels as if it should have resulted in a bit more.

YOUR LOVE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

BRENDAN: I’ll take a song with Nina Persson any day of the week!

RHYS: ANTHEM ANTHEM ANTHEM!

AUTUMNSONG

BRENDAN: Great song!

RHYS: ALSO AN ANTHEM!

INDIAN SUMMER

BRENDAN: A good song.

RHYS: James was right. This does sound a lot like ‘A Design For Life’.

(IT’S NOT WAR) JUST THE END OF LOVE

BRENDAN: A very good song.

RHYS: It’s interesting comparing this last set of singles to the first few on this compilation. Sonically, you couldn’t be further away. But, 20 years on, the band sound just as urgent and passionate as when they started.

SOME KIND OF NOTHINGNESS

BRENDAN: Amazing the Manics have stayed fresh for as long as they have. Ian McCulloch plus James Dean Bradford equals winning…

RHYS: This does sound a bit like Meat Loaf. But I bloody love Meat Loaf.

POSTCARDS FROM A YOUNG MAN

BRENDAN: Yeah, another great song. Seems trite to keep saying that, but there’s not a lot more I can say… National Treasures is –if nothing else– a vast collection.

RHYS: Triumphant, rebellious, theatrical. Sums it all up boys.

THIS IS THE DAY

BRENDAN: Could this really be the end?

RHYS: An odd choice for a “goodbye for now” single and a Greatest Hits finale, perhaps. But this is the sound of a band having fun. And, after 20 odd years and a singles legacy as exhaustive as this, what more could you really ask for?

BONUS: Here’s the unofficial video for the never-was-a-single track “Yes:”

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