Various Artists [Rocks Off] This disc appeared way back at the beginning of my Blog [8th January 2010], and here it appears again, it's so good to revisit this disc, these are 20 little slabs of genius, a great uncommercial compilation, full of very different bands, and yet there's a unified thread weaving throughout the album, there's of course very famous bands, but also there's lesser known bands which also fit in perfectly, it's also appealing as an introduction to certain bands that you could check out further, it's now No28 in my all time favourite discs, a truly great compilation album.
This disc came out in the mid Nineties, i like the visual concept also, of a young guy with wayward hair hanging over his eyes [photo by Johnny Boylan], and the lettering uses the idea behind one of those Dymo letter embossing self adhesive strips, nicely differentiating the tracks from the Artists on the back.
On listening to this again today, i so much enjoyed tracks 1-2, 6-10, 12, 15-16 & 18-19, with tracks 9 & 10 the real exceptional highlights, and it's the Manic Street Preachers track 9 'Faster', which really got me going, and its initial spoken dialogue, by John Hurt from the film 1984 by George Orwell,
I hate purity
I hate goodness
I don't want virtue to exist anywhere
I want everyone corrupt...
initially i felt all these spoken dialogues got in the way of The Holy Bible album, but i grew to love them, and now they're an integral part of the songs, and not merely dialogue intros, after the dialogue the music just explodes into action, the chugging guitars and excellent drum work by Sean Moore, the robotic / Dalek type opening vocal delivery is fantastic [0:23], swinging between echo and straight, the chorus is really catchy, with the chugging guitar coming to the fore again [1:13], before the second verse there's the whining siren sound [1:45], this is the same at the start, with the creepy spoken dialogue, but now a lot louder, the best line in the lyrics is at the end of the second verse [2:35], a great delivery,
I've been too honest with myself
I should have lied like everybody else
right at the end, there's a final chant [3:26], and it's really clever right before the very end to drop the loudness in the music and the vocal chant stands out all the more [3:45], and there's a lovely punk sneer right on the last syllable [3:50], a song of real power and angst.
Here's The Manic Street Preachers singing 'Faster' on YouTube.
