Manic Street Preachers rate their singles.

[Eldritch]

There's an interesting article in NME where Manic Street Preachers look back on their singles catalogue:

01. Faster
02. A Design For Life
03. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
04. Motorcycle Emptiness
05. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
06. Motown Junk
07. The Masses Against The Classes
08. (It's Not War) Just The End Of Love
09. The Love Of Richard Nixon
10. Suicide Alley
11. You Love Us
12. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
13. Found That Soul
14. Kevin Carter
15. Ocean Spray
16. Some Kind Of Nothingness
17. Roses In The Hospital
18. Love's Sweet Exile
19. Let Robeson Sing
20. You Stole The Sun From My Heart
21. Australia
22. Stay Beautiful
23. Postcards From A Young Man
24. Everything Must Go
25. Tsunami
26. Indian Summer
27. Theme From MASH (Suicide Is Painless)
28. This Is The Day
29. From Despair To Where
30. The Everlasting
31. Slash'n'Burn
32. Life Becoming A Landslide
33. Autumnsong
34. Strip It Down
35. Little Baby Nothing
36. Empty Souls
37. So Why So Sad
38. She Is Suffering
39. Revol
40. There By The Grace Of God


Pretty interesting. There By The Grace Of God is however one of my fave MSP singles.

[Patrick Bateman]

Motorcycle Emptiness is my favourite.

[Syncratic]

Yeah There By The Grace of God might be my favourite. I really hated the last couple of albums and singles though.

[Patrick Bateman]

http://www.nme.com/nme-video/manic-stre ... 2102604001

[Syncratic]

There's some cringeworthy ones on there. Mainly the ones where they pretend to be revolutionaries. (Although Revol is good fun) Let Robeson sing might be their worst, along with Your Love is Not Enough. In an alternative universe Miss Europa Disco Dancer was released with an Efiiel 65 remix.

Actually they've made much better b-sides than most of those singles. 'Dead Trees and Traffic Islands' is one of my favourites.

[Patrick Bateman]

I still far prefer them when Richey was around. Nicky Wire's hard-on for commercial success is endearing in small doses but ultimately makes them a far less interesting group. I love Richey's cut-up lyrics too. Kevin Carter is a f*** amazing suicide pop song.

[Eldritch]

I love Manic Street Preachers but don't actually listen to their records that much. I don't like James Bradfield's blustery voice and their rockist tendencies, but they come up with great songs every now and then and are consistently interesting -- which is a rare quality in a pop/rock band these days. I did like Postcards From A Young Man though; I preferred it vastly to awful Send In The Tigers and the frankly unlistenable Journal For Plague Lovers (the lyric booklet is a keeper though).

I think Patrick is too hard on Nicky, since anybody writing the lyrics he does with the charts in mind is frankyl deluded. I think MSP's greatest moments are indeed the ones when their often impenetrable lyrics and impossible aesthetics are combined with a chart-conquering tune. I don't really for The Holy Bible at all.

I for one will miss them when they are gone.

[Syncratic]

I really wanted them to do a pure electronic album. In part to see them doing something in a field that might be unfamiliar to them. When they are on form, musically and lyrically they are at the top of the game. If you compiled a mix collecting your favoruite singles and b-sides you'd have an impressive playlist that would challenge the greatest hits of any acclaimed band in the world. It's obvious from their interviews that they love pop music and being part of the 'game'.

I think they'll come back with something different after this.

[Patrick Bateman]

I was watching that bastard Kissinger last night and this kept playing in my head. I still can't work out how they had three consecutive number two singles as recently as 2004-05 and now they can't even get in the top forty. They really f*** the charts up.



I'm looking forward to hearing Rihanna's opus upon Chairman Mao though.

[Eldritch]

I really wanted them to do a pure electronic album. In part to see them doing something in a field that might be unfamiliar to them. When they are on form, musically and lyrically they are at the top of the game. If you compiled a mix collecting your favoruite singles and b-sides you'd have an impressive playlist that would challenge the greatest hits of any acclaimed band in the world. It's obvious from their interviews that they love pop music and being part of the 'game'.

I think they'll come back with something different after this.

I would love an electronic too, but considering how dismissive they have been about Lifeblood I can't see it happening. Postcards From A Young Man really was the end of an era: they have said that they'll go away for at least two years and then come back for the "third and final great phase".

[Eldritch]

*deleted double post*

[Eldritch]

I was watching that bastard Kissinger last night and this kept playing in my head. I still can't work out how they had three consecutive number two singles as recently as 2004-05 and now they can't even get in the top forty. They really f***** the charts up.

That was especially baffling considering that Lifeblood was a flop and Postcards a moderate success.

[Patrick Bateman]

Call On Me kept it off the top spot.

http://www.chartstats.com/chart.php?week=20041030

It fell to 22 the following week. Halcyon days actually; the chart barely changes these days unless Rihanna and/or David Guetta have a new song out.

[Syncratic]

1985. Should have been a single.

[Eldritch]

1985. Should have been a single.

Definitely. To Repel Ghosts would also have been a better choice from Lifeblood than Empty Souls. My fave lost Manics single must be The Girl Who Wanted To Be God though.