Manic Street Preachers [The Holy Bible]

What an apt title, this is the Manic Street Preachers third album, and it seems that everything they were trying to do was epitomised in this album, their Holy Bible or manifesto, it centres on themes of American consumerism / British imperialism / freedom of speech / the holocaust / self-starvation / serial killers / the death penalty / political revolution / fascism / suicide, sounds bleak as hell!, but is actually in many ways a great reality check, there's swearing on the album, but the whole thing is driven by an incredible Rock sound, deep down it's Punk, after this album they would go on next to record Everything Must Go, their most commercially successful album ever, but i refer to it as 'Everything's Gone'!, it's hard to repeat the caustic sarcasm of this phenomenal disc, one of the greatest albums ever written, plus i think of it as Richey James Edwards album, he's credited with roughly 80% of the songwriting.

The Manic Street Preachers are from Wales, formed in 1986, they're still going strong, on the front cover is a painting called 'Strategy' by Jenny Saville, showing three paintings from different angles of an obese woman, it's revolutionary to to show the track listing on the front cover, but it works greatly, a white background with black lettering, and every 'R' turned around, makes the track Revol make sense, which is of course Lover in reality, or a play on the word 'revolutionaries', which becomes 'loverutionaries'.

All of these tracks hit me, the whole album is so good, but tracks 1-2, 6-9 & 13 were especially good, and i would like to talk about the very best two here,
6 Revol - A political statement, likening love to 'revolutionaries', hence Revol, but of course these Dictators all got it backwards, the first verse lists the Russian six, with each being delivered a damning verdict on their inability to love others, the second verse targets Europe and the rest of the world, with a short introduction, the must just explodes into grunge [0:13+], crunching guitars while Bradfield sings, it really has a powerful magnetism / addiction to it, the chorus is one of those shouty anthem things, lots of German words too, i like the instrumental guitar bridge between the chorus [2:07-2:32], a great little track, best lyric 'Khrushchev - self love in his mirrors'.
13 PCP - The last track on the album, this one starts with a ferocious intro of tribal drums and guitars, but explodes into something so much more stronger and melodic [0:15+], the lyrics have a tendency to be 'preachings' by the wordsmith of the band [no doubt Richey James Edwards], and aren't easy to fit to the meter of the tune, therefore Bradfield has to crunch up syllables at times to get things to fit, plus there's no rhyming as such, in the booklet the lyrics read as a book rather than written in verses / chorus, it can all seem very storylike rather than poemlike, and yet this is the strength of the album, you really have to dig deeper to get something out of it, again the chorus is excellently very anthemic, i like Bradfield's delivery, a nice Punk voice, and just like Revol, there's a short guitar instrumental bridge [2:28-2:40], at the end there's a sort of 'epilogue / denouement' [3:19-3:42], a summation of the songs morals, it ends in Prozac being an amnesiac, and Albert Finney talking about not remembering the first line in Shakespeare's King Lear, best lyric 'Europe's gravestone carved in plastic'.

Republica [Eponymous] 

Now this was a wonderful experience today, this was actually from one of my major searches during 2012, where i sought out new musical Artists, searched through Ebay for possible new albums and directions, and bought this album, and this is its first ever spin, and i'm really pleasantly surprised, i didn't really know what to expect, but my guess was right, a Band in the style of Garbage / Elastica / Sleeper / Echobelly, Skunk Anansie to a lesser degree, but they're fairly electronic in some ways, i really like them, and they certainly have a real sense of enthusiasm and power, great tunes and musical ideas, maybe i need to buy another album of theirs.

Republica are an English Indie / Alternative Rock Band, formed in 1994, they are still going [though they broke up between 2001-2008], they made this album in 1996, and the photography throughout is by Kate Garner, the front cover showing Saffron [Samantha Sprackling] dominating the band line up, in focus while the rest are out of focus, scary hair and eye-shadow, down in some tunnel, a good use of shooting a lower hip shot, and the back cover a blurred shot, the track listing is small and hard to read though, but i like the photos.

Usually it takes a few listens before i start to 'get' an album, each time liking it more and more, but this hit me hard on the very first listen, virtually all the tracks were wonderful, but especially tracks 2, 6 & 10, and it's these i would like to talk about,
2 Bloke - A nice chugging intro, that opens out nice and louder with a beat [0:18+], and then satisfyingly even louder still [0:32+], wailing guitars come in, and a nice electronic bleeping keyboard [0:46+], Saffron's vocal delivery is really quite cockney [the band are actually from Windsor], and i just love that bubbly synth as it comes in and out, the chorus just explodes nicely [1:44+], when the second verse comes in [2:13+], it's almost KraftWerk in it's electronica, the synths really work overtime in driving the whole thing, there's a nice instrumental outro [3:54+], though the ending is a little repetitive, favourite lyric 'Fax me lunch Mr 9 to 5'.
6 Drop Dead Gorgeous - Great speed guitar at the beginning, and Saffron pushes the cockney to the limit, one of their most famous songs, and the chorus is so catchy [1:08+ & 2:11], loud and very lyrical, unlike the verses which are quite robotic, the end is singing the chorus again and again, favourite lyric 'Get out, you're walking'.
10 Holly - Similar to track 2, there's a low key intro, which then nicely explodes into a hard beat [0:14+], with a nice percussive clang going on in the background, again the chorus nicely ups the volume [1:08+], a really nice noise, great drumming, the second verse is more intense [1:37+], the fast beat more in your face, yes play real loud, i kept inching up the volume control to achieve maximum power, favourite lyric 'And sweet sweet Marilyn, a streetwise heroine'.

Red Hot Chili Peppers [Blood Sugar Sex Magik] 

I haven't listened to this for ages, it's one of those discs that's buried in my collection, that only just scraped in with 'worthiness', and over the years has been on the fringe, but today i realise how very good it is, it uses a creative way with Rap [generally i don't like Rap], but it mixes it with Rock, the whole thing sounds like the RHCP were having fun and made up the whole thing as they went along, but you can also see how cleverly worked out each song is, the whole thing's very funky, and surprisingly it's got a lot of music on the disc [74 minutes], with 17 tracks, lots of albums fail because they have too much music on them, tracks of dubious quality can ruin an excellent album of 40 or 50 minutes of great tracks, but not here, everything's worthy of being on the album. 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American Band, they've had different line ups, and i guess this represents their middle period, they formed in 1983, and they made this album in 1991, the front cover shows the four band members with reptile tongues, each shows a head side profile in black & white, there's a lovely symmetry to the whole thing, with one word from their band name, and another from the album name, that creates four singular 'duo' names, hmmm, does it mean something?, the back inlay shows the track listing written out in handwritten pen, it actually works really well, nice and individual.

Well the tracks which really got me going were 4, 13 & 16, and here's a short synopsis of each, with links to YouTube to check out the songs.

4 Funky Monks - As the title suggests, a nice funky track, i love the way the second Vocalist repeats everything that the first one sings, and the chorus has a falsetto singer pronouncing 'you are all alone', very nice, the songs seeps of Funk.
13 Apache Rose Peacock - Another funky tracks, i love the chorus, the lead singer, he switches from a sort of Rap to singing more lyrically, it's fantastic, a toy piano comes in in the background [1:54-2:14], now i like that, it's very subtle, i love the way they use so many verses. 
16 Sir Psycho Sexy - Lovely track dripping in Funk, the Vocalist really lets go, great bubbly bass, and the falsetto backing singers singing 'Sir psycho sexy', the second verse is excellent, explicit lyrics, but it's the delivery that counts, and the way he sings 'automobile' is tremendous [2:07], xylophone comes in in the instrumental interlude [3:18+], a nice use of instruments unusual, the track lasts for over 8 minutes, and there's a long instrumental jam at the end.

Tennis [Laundromat] 

Here's something different, a disc i bought on Ebay a while back, it looked really good, though the Band name is a bit naff, but this is how i delve into a lot of new music, if it looks really good, then i'll buy it and give it a spin, it's hard to pinpoint their genre, but i would say a sort of Punk Rock, maybe an EMO Band, it's short on quantity, nearly 34 minutes, but it's made up for in quality, a good dose of something different today. 

Tennis are a sort of an Indie Band, with some Punk leanings, maybe we can call them IndiePunk, they brought this album out in 2003, i'm sure they're American, there is another American band called Tennis as well, but don't get them mixed up, they seem more popular, this is a 3 piece Band [Greg Tuohey = Vocals & Guitar, Kris Bauman = Bass, and Jochen Ruekert = Drums], their surnames sound Dutch, like i said, i bought the disc because of the front cover, it's an excellent concept [photography by Joet T], pictures throughout are of a Laundromat, including close-up pictures, all couched in a fluorescent green lighting, the Band logo is excellent also, a great visual product.

The two tracks i enjoyed the most were 5 & 6, here's a synopsis of each,
5 Friend With Benefits - Nice Drum & Bass vibe at the beginning, the drums are nicely complex, and well recorded [0:00-0:22], but it's only further into the track that the lead guitar comes in [1:12+], which helps to open out the track nicely, with only a trio Band you're always going to have a limitation of instrumentation, but it works well for Tennis, i like the way that the opening returns towards the end [2:04+], best lyrics - 'I just fell like a bitter man into the slippery arms of a lie', some inventive guitar work, and the track develops quite an intensity towards the end.
6 Pure Evil - A more poppy track, fairly heavy guitars, the lead Vocalist isn't a perfect singer by far, there's a slight tendency to sing out of tune, i only notice the excellence of the opening when it returns for the second verse [1:26-1:39], a nice infectious bass vibe [1:53+], and the intro comes back at the very end as the outro [2:48-3:15], yes i admit that it's not a great album [at least not on this first listen], but i excited me enough to enjoy and Blog it today.

You can hear the first 30 seconds of each track on the AllMusic website.

Various Artists [Happy Buzzer - Volume One] 

Here's something very very special, a one off disc that i made myself!, yes the history of this disc is that i used to buy second-hand 'Various Artists' discs, and then find just one tremendous song on it, and not liking the studio album that the track came from, what to do?, well make your own compilation disc!, i would buy CD singles also, in the end all the tracks i liked added up to a full discs worth, that's when i recorded my own disc, culled from 19 different discs, this is truly the cream of songs that i couldn't do without, most of the Artists are unknown, except one or two, also i had to design some artwork for the thing, and a couple of pieces of card from cereal boxes were ideal, and i had some transfers to rub on, i decided to call it 'Happy Buzzer' as the two words were in the track listing, in retrospect i would have called it 'Buzzer Freak' now, but i'm in love with this album, i termed it 'Volume One' because there was going to be a second volume, but it never materialized, it's an eclectic mix of off the beaten track and off beat stuff, of course the theme is it's all Bands rather than Soloists, the whole thing works together so beautifully.

I put this disc together in 1998, the visuals are brilliant, each letter on the front cover is written over haphazardly with a colour marker, it gives it a nice rainbow feel, the track listing on the back has tightly spaced letters, divided up by the track listing in a circle, the whole thing just feels great, but the music is out of this world.

So on this listen, the tracks i liked the most were 1, 4-5, 7-8 & 11, and here's a synopsis of each of these tracks,
1 Flyscreen - Choppersquad - The opening track, i purposely put this as the opener, a short pithy Punk song, i take it it's about a 'gang' of young kids on their bikes, the drums have that sharp smack to them, there's a wonderful sneer to the whole song, best line, 'we stopped to throw some bricks in the canal'. 
4 Slowburn - Flesh And Bone - A nice Grungy track, the opening attack of guitars and drums are great, after that it's a soupy mix, including the vocals, it never lets up to the end, i like the shout of 'yeah' at the end of the first chorus [1:13], after a slight let up, the drums really hit hard [2:27+], the vocalist is almost shouting, love it, best lyric is right at the end 'we're just flesh and bone', almost sarcastically spoken.
5 Uncle Violet - Crushed Velvet - A real druggy song, these guys sound like they were high when they recorded it, very Psychedelic indeed, about making drugs out of mushrooms!, weird instrumentation and timings, a good tune is pushed aside for the gain of sheer monotony, the vocalist is so 'who the hell cares anyway', the bit i love the most is the chorus, 'ooohh ooohh ooohh - nana nana nar', and each of these keeps coming back louder and louder, 'ooohh ooohh ARGHH - nana nana NAAR!', there's an extended sort of guitar jam in which takes it to the outro.
7 Rusty - Ceiling - More lyrical than most, a lazy beat on the drums, but it's that hard thud in the background which makes the track, almost as if the drummer couldn't care less, strong American accent, developing into anger at moments, nice use of crunchy guitars, the ending is inspired, half a verse [4:01+].
8 Campfire Girls - Homework - A nice twang on the bass guitar as an intro, but when the song gets going with riffing guitars [0:09+] it's a great moment, there's a nice guitar jam in the middle, that's gets stronger and stronger [1:49-2:08].
11 Stigmata A Go Go - Riotkeeper - Another really strong lyrical track, a fairly trebly recorded track, but it's got a nice riff throughout from the high guitar, with muffled vocals, which tend to growl angry in the chorus, there's an extended instrumental interlude in the middle [1:35-2:05], where the guitar and drums show off their wares, and at the end there's a nice instrumental jam [3:08-3:52].

Lou Reed [Magic And Loss]

I once talked to a friend about this album, and he said that he found it so depressing, i can understand that, at first glance it's all about cancer, suffering, death, loss, regret, hopelessness etc, but when you really get into the mind of Lou Reed, there's another side to the coin, and i find it's more about irony, humour, acceptance, nostalgia, strength, and ultimately magic, it's a concept album about two dear friends of Reed that died of cancer, surely the album should be called 'Loss And Magic', the loss comes first, and then the magic afterwards, but maybe there's a deeper reason to put magic ahead of loss!, it's a dry almost monologue of an album, if you know the style of Reed, you'll know what i mean, it's an album that has slowly but surely got me nodding in the affirmative, not a great album, and i don't own anything else by him.

Lou Reed is now 70, born in Brooklyn in America, he recorded this album in 1991, the front cover shows a photo of Reed [by Louis Jammes], looks infra-red on the plants, and washed out, with lettering in red around the edges.

More than usual, i enjoyed so many of the songs, i can laugh at 'Harry's Circumcision', and feel Reed's confusion with 'Magician', but my favourite track is Dreamin', it's a swirl of synthesizer organ, with gentle electric guitar, i love the way Reed rocks back and forth between singing and talking, 

Here's Lou Reed singing Dreamin' on YouTube.

Manic Street Preachers [The Holy Bible]

Here's one of the greatest albums ever recorded, and fittingly titled The Holy Bible, i can't believe this is only the first time this appears in my Blog, it's a massive album, a phenomenal statement by the band, and a farewell from Richey James Edwards [missing - probable Suicide], more than anything the music veers away from the MSP's earlier Alternative Rock albums, and moves more into Punk Rock territory, after this album they would move toward melodic Hard Rock, the lyrics are 80% from Richey James Edwards, and he is full of vitriol for the serious problems of the world, it can be quite a depressing read, but... the music and the enthusiasm behind it makes it somehow a truly enlightening statement, this album is my 11th favourite disc out of roughly 1650 discs that i own, that's major, every time i listen to this album i marvel at the sheer inventiveness of each of the tracks, the Manic Street Preachers would never make another album remotely as good as this one again. 

The Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh band, formed in 1986, and still going strong today, they recorded this album in 1994, the front cover is a painting called Strategy by Jenny Saville, a thought provoking piece of artwork, the track listing is actually on the front, a clever inventive little idea, it sort of completes things. 

Just about every track was so superb, with tracks 3-4, 6-7, 9, 11 & 13 really stunning, out of this i found track 3 Of Walking Abortion to be especially enlightening, not one of my usual favourites [usually 6, 9 or 13], and it was good to seriously listen to this track, and find a new appreciation for it, and to hear things that i've never really noticed before, 

Here's the Manic Street Preachers singing Of Walking Abortion on YouTube.