Garry Nelson's Left Foot
Well-known member
Why? It's an excellent album. Not my personal favourite but not far off.
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The Manic Street Preachers
- Thread starter mejonaNO12 aka riskit
- Start date
Why? It's an excellent album. Not my personal favourite but not far off.
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
because there's pet sounds, off the wall, dark side of the moon, 45s and under, the bends, the queen is dead, a night at the opera, stone roses, the white album, oxygene, aegetis byrjun, view from a basement on a hill, dummy, life's too good, reading writing and arithmetic, it takes a nation of millions, parallel lines, substance, after the gold rush, this is the sea, ghetto style, foxbase alpha, 101, closer around in the world. That's why.
Simon Morgan
New member
Agreed 100%
Wilka
Well-known member
Garry Nelson's Left Foot
Well-known member
Yes, but musical taste is subjective, no? Personally, of the albums I've heard that you've listed the only one that I might consider to be better is the stone roses. So why someone saying that The Holy Bible is the greatest album ever is a 'frankly laughable' comment is a bit bemusing for me.
Buzzer
Languidly Clinical
- Oct 1, 2006
- 26,121
Fair point and I did say earlier that it was all subjective but THE BEST ever? I don't think I could name a top 100 best albums let alone the best.
I'm listening to the Holy Bible right now and yep - it is a great album but it does sound like a prelude to Everything Must Go which I much prefer. The thing that really grates about them for me is their self-righteousness, their anti-Americanism (they're a rock band FFS. Without America they wouldn't be in a band!) and their humourlessness. The Smiths, Suede, Pistols, Clash - all up their own arses but has any band ever taken themselves so seriously? And not just one member like in U2 but all of them. Wire, Bradfield, Richie Edwards.
As you say, though - it's all subjective
Wilka
Well-known member
As you say.... it's all subjective. As far as America stuff goes yeah you could say they are anti-American in some songs (Baby Elian, Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart) and there is no denying they do pick up on anti-american stuff in more than one song. But at the end of the day Gun'n'roses are one of their biggest influences so to say "they're a rock band FFS. Without America they wouldn't be in a band!" is pretty true.... without Guns'n'roses they wouldn't be in a band....
As for you other point on taking themselves seriously I can see why you would think that but I don't agree.... from Nicky Wires notes on the new albums: I'm Just A Patsy is along the same lines. No-one has given us credit for a sense of humour since This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. When you get big, you can get po-faced and serious, and we've been guilty of that. But if you know us as people – I mean, look at what I wear onstage! I understand why people think we've got no sense of humour, because we were just so bizarre and ridiculous when we started that we could get away with anything.
Imperial Bodybags is another view of America. We castigate Americans as thick, evangelical idiots and it's unfair. So the song is just about the obvious - when an American soldier comes home from Iraq in a coffin, his people feel it just as bad as anyone else's. Not everyone is an American Idiot. It's also about the massacre of the Russian royal family in the Bolshevik revolution. I've spent half my life believing that was a good thing. As you get older you wonder if it's just one evil replacing another. And the song is pure rockabilly – Brand New Cadillac and The Stray Cats' Runaway Boys.