OPO - Manic Street Preachers

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Have at it. Saying Only Pick One conflicts me, because it's a matter of picking one for a few minutes or hours at a time. At the moment I pick I'm Not Working but only because I am emo now - earlier on today it was La Tristesse Durera, really, it was, but for now only the lush despair of I'm Not Working will do (eep).

― Damian (Damian), Thursday, 2 January 2003 12:57 (twenty-three years ago)

"Faster"

― dave q, Thursday, 2 January 2003 13:04 (twenty-three years ago)

From Despair To Where...

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Thursday, 2 January 2003 13:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm Not Working is dullsville. Has to be something from EMG...I'll pick "Further Away".

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 2 January 2003 13:39 (twenty-three years ago)

"Suicide Is Painless"

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 2 January 2003 14:43 (twenty-three years ago)

It may not be the popular choice, but I'm going with "If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next!"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:12 (twenty-three years ago)

This is the thread where we start the "This is My Truth wasn't total crap, about half of it was quite good" movement.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:40 (twenty-three years ago)

"Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children"

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 2 January 2003 16:45 (twenty-three years ago)

'There by the grace of god'

― Paul R (paul R), Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:09 (twenty-three years ago)

"life becoming a landslide"

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:10 (twenty-three years ago)

"motorcycle emptiness"

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Thursday, 2 January 2003 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

agree with La Tristessa Durera (Scream to a Sigh)

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 2 January 2003 19:26 (twenty-three years ago)

"this is yesterday"

― stephen. s (yaye), Thursday, 2 January 2003 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

"Faster" -- for the opening ten seconds.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 January 2003 21:01 (twenty-three years ago)

From a complete non-fan: Kevin Carter.

― Venga, Friday, 3 January 2003 00:36 (twenty-three years ago)

This mild fan also picks "Kevin Carter".

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Friday, 3 January 2003 01:15 (twenty-three years ago)

non-fan etc blah blah
"Interiors (Song for Willem De Kooning)"

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 3 January 2003 01:50 (twenty-three years ago)

"Spectators of Suicide" for me.

― Charlie (Charlie), Friday, 3 January 2003 02:49 (twenty-three years ago)

La Tristesse Durera

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 January 2003 12:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i cant say i really like them, i find them a bit pompous (kind of like the musical Harold Bishop) but, if pushed...

motorcycle emptiness

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 3 January 2003 12:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Complete non-fan.

Hmmm...

Can I have the chorus of La Tristessa and the chorus of Motorcycle Emptiness? Sod the rests of the songs.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 3 January 2003 14:36 (twenty-three years ago)

the dead one.

― michael wells (michael w.), Friday, 3 January 2003 14:41 (twenty-three years ago)

euww, that looks so harsh on the page. sorry foax was being tongue-in-cheek.

― michael wells (michael w.), Friday, 3 January 2003 14:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Richey's not dead, just missing. Please!

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 3 January 2003 23:34 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

Revive...

Yes

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:21 (nineteen years ago)

i can't believe i picked "suicide is painless."

"pcp."

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 26 August 2006 05:33 (nineteen years ago)

"Faster"

― Pier Paolo Semolina (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 August 2006 12:36 (nineteen years ago)

I would still be inclined to pick "I'm Not Working", I am slightly ashamed to admit. It reminds me of Van Der Graaf Generator in a way.

― LC (Damian), Saturday, 26 August 2006 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

Hahahaha everyone will kill me if I pick Motorcycle Emptiness!!! Hahahahaha which incidentally I wouldn't do. Not sure what my pick-only-one choice would be for these guys. I'll have to pull my cassette out and figure it out one day soon.

― A Cracker Jack On Crack (Bimble...), Saturday, 26 August 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

Meanwhile, has anybody heard the James Dean Bradfield solo record? It's excellent. But the lead single, That's No Way To Tell A Lie, is seriously one of the best songs he's done, and is easily my favorite rock record of the year.

It deserves its own thread, but I'd get depressed by seeing zero comments.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Saturday, 26 August 2006 15:55 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think you'd get zero comments for that but you might get hatred.

Choosing one is quite difficult - should probably give 'holy bible' a listen (my fave will come from that one) before I decide but for now I'll go for "Die in the Summertime".

― xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Saturday, 26 August 2006 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

Soft rock is the new punk! (125 new answers)
OPO - Manic Street Preachers (7 new answers, 30 total)

― dave q (listerine), Saturday, 26 August 2006 18:56 (nineteen years ago)

:-D

― xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Saturday, 26 August 2006 19:01 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe "Elvis Impersonator Blackpool Pier".

― Pier Paolo Semolina (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 August 2006 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

i've heard a few tracks from the JDR solo and they were surprisingly excellent. i haven't paid that much attention to the manics in a long time but every time i do hear a new song i'm impressed by how good they still seem. and this is coming from someone who hated most of "this is my truth" (at least at the time, might like it more now) and stood by the earlier stuff. whereas almost all of that stuff seems tired now (save "motown junk" and THB) and something like "know your enemy" sounds shockingly fresh and exciting.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 26 August 2006 19:10 (nineteen years ago)

and something like "know your enemy" sounds shockingly fresh and exciting.

I could not agree more. That record got a lot of grief but it's one of the best sounding rock records I've heard in years. I don't really get too wrapped up in their lyrics, so I could take or leave its militant politics, but boy oh boy does it rock.

In fact, I'd like to change my OPO from Yes to Epicentre.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Sunday, 27 August 2006 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

MOTOWN JUNK.

― RoxyMuzak© (roxymuzak), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

oh god, or "PCP"

― RoxyMuzak© (roxymuzak), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

a few from know yr enemy (offhand, i remember liking "let robeson sing" and the elian gonzales one). that would be my opo album, no question. also, ifwhiteamerica.... despite the silly title. and "black dog on my shoulder." one of those.

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

it's hard to pick just one. Today it's the remix of "Let Robeson Sing" for the awesomely hellish Ian Brown rap ("rocking in Havana like a manic street preach-ah"). Tomorrow- "Everything Must Go"

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Sunday, 27 August 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

Morley! You're back! :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 August 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

the motown junk 12" (all three songs)

― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Sunday, 27 August 2006 22:26 (nineteen years ago)

doin' it for the Manics, Ned :)

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Monday, 28 August 2006 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

enola/alone

― Charlie Howard, Monday, 10 December 2007 12:28 (eighteen years ago)

That's a really good shower song! :)

― Morley Timmons, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 03:51 (eighteen years ago)

"All Surface No Feeling"

― Simon H., Tuesday, 11 December 2007 04:23 (eighteen years ago)

"4st 7lb." I actually dug out The Holy Bible a few days ago, and while about half of the songs stand up just as well now as they did for me when I was a horrible little goth shit, the others...not so much. "Revol" has the most embarrassing lyric in the English language. And to think Nicky Wire only got worse with age...!

― Telephone thing, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 05:22 (eighteen years ago)

I know, right? That solo album is icky :(

― Morley Timmons, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 05:38 (eighteen years ago)

I had a unrequited crush on a girl in high school (crazy, huh?!), and a few months ago I found a mixtape I had made for her, and it had two Manic Street Preachers songs on it, and I was like "Ohhhh...now I see what the problem was..."

― Z S, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 06:46 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

amusing early letter to the press over at the always awesome Letters Of Note
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/03/we-are-suicide-beat-of-non-generation.html

"We are the suicide beat of the NON-GENERATION. Our suicide reality will strip down everything before it (given the chance) because we know where our anger comes from, and are not afriad to write about our generation directly." etc etc

― zappi, Friday, 11 March 2011 17:06 (fourteen years ago)

I have had "Motorcycle Emptiness" stuck in my head for three days now.

― ENBB, Friday, 11 March 2011 17:08 (fourteen years ago)

Faster. Towers over anything Nirvana did.

― Chap With Wings... Five Rounds Rapid (Doran), Friday, 11 March 2011 17:58 (fourteen years ago)

Was playing the double-punch of "Die in the Summertime"/"The Intense Humming of Evil" last night.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 March 2011 17:59 (fourteen years ago)

I always loved this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGYnEtqU8u8

I am probably going to be ridiculed for this, but when it first came out, I thought it sounded like Cheap Trick covering a Scorpions song... Still do!

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Friday, 11 March 2011 23:26 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

Wanted to introduce my 15-yr old son to this band, as he keeps playing Green Day albums, and the obvious choice to play him was Faster

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Saturday, 9 March 2013 17:20 (twelve years ago)

How does that get received? I can't imagine I'd've been too happy about that when I was fifteen.

― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 9 March 2013 17:55 (twelve years ago)

Democracy Coma

― OutdoorFish, Saturday, 9 March 2013 17:59 (twelve years ago)

4st. 7lb

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 9 March 2013 18:07 (twelve years ago)

I have had "Motorcycle Emptiness" stuck in my head for three days now.

― ENBB, Friday, March 11, 2011 5:08 PM (1 year ago)

What really annoys me about the video for 'Motorcycle Emptiness' is that the time shown on the clock on the ferris wheel in the background keeps jumping backwards and forwards.

― Half of these sound like rappers. (snoball), Saturday, 9 March 2013 18:19 (twelve years ago)

When I was in Tokyo I thought of making a trip to Yokohama to see it, but thought better of it as it seemed a bit indulgent. Yokohama's meant to be pretty good though.

― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 9 March 2013 18:24 (twelve years ago)

The hilarious thing about the Motorcycle Emptiness is James Dean Bradfield trying to put himself in this "rock god" role (which was par for the course for the Manics in those days), when he looked about 12.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 9 March 2013 18:27 (twelve years ago)

He had some fluff going on in fairness

― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 9 March 2013 18:30 (twelve years ago)

From Despair to Where. I think I based a five year obsession on them on this one song. That and Little Baby Nothing.

― ailsa, Saturday, 9 March 2013 19:06 (twelve years ago)

Not really tunes I'd ever thought would inspire devotion

― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 9 March 2013 19:07 (twelve years ago)

Little Baby Nothing is amazing

― OutdoorFish, Saturday, 9 March 2013 19:17 (twelve years ago)

'Life Becoming A Landslide'...as good as song that's ever been written on the fragility of the male psyche....

― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Saturday, 9 March 2013 20:36 (twelve years ago)

'From Despair to Where' is abt the only one i can stick these days

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, 9 March 2013 20:52 (twelve years ago)

the 'faster'/'pcp' single is def their high point imo.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 9 March 2013 21:01 (twelve years ago)

I disagree. The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go are both equally strong records IMO, even though they're obviously different records. They still managed to put out Journal For Plague Lovers and Send Away The Tigers, too, both of which I'd rather listen to than the first two.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Saturday, 9 March 2013 21:19 (twelve years ago)

i don't disagree with that! i just think that one single has everything i ever wanted from the manics -- both songs have such an incredibly tight, compressed, almost claustrophobic sound (in a way they remind me of 'instant karma!' and some of the other lennon tracks from that era), and the lyrics are richey at his skirting-the-edges-of-madness best.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 9 March 2013 21:29 (twelve years ago)

six months pass...

Came here to say exactly what I see I said a decade ago; La Tristessa and Motorcycle Emptiness. Really good singles band; picked up Forever Delayed at the weekend for pennies. No interest in the albums, really.

Under neon loneliness / motorcycle emptiness...

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 30 September 2013 10:29 (twelve years ago)

Although choosing those two, I now have Kevin Carter buried in my cerebellum.

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 30 September 2013 10:42 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

https://www.stereogum.com/2014517/manic-street-preachers-this-is-my-truth-turns-20/franchises/the-anniversary/

Wow, I guess I was 10 when this was released

made a huge impression on me, must have listened to it a thousand times

never really came back to it

― niels, Monday, 17 September 2018 10:15 (seven years ago)

production is cool on it, very 90s, kinda Orbit-y

― niels, Monday, 17 September 2018 10:15 (seven years ago)

I still love all the big blurry overlong slow songs that muck up the album (Be Natural, I'm Not Working, SYMM) even though I'm sure the band considers them some kind of nadir. The production/length/arrangements are very 1998/99 but the sense of depression and disorientation feels real and the melodies are lovely. Hell, even the meta conceit of "SYMM" works for me now. Daresay also JDB's peak as a vocalist and guitarist, if nothing else.

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Monday, 17 September 2018 12:53 (seven years ago)

one year passes...

Little Baby Nothing. What an enormous, absolutely uncompromising song.

So easy to make fun of this band, but the joke is often on yourself.

― Mule, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 12:12 (five years ago)

‘Life Becoming A Landslide’...The musical version of a Terrance Davies film...just devastating

― X-Prince Protégé (sonnyboy), Tuesday, 7 April 2020 13:46 (five years ago)

motorcycle emptiness

― brimstead, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 20:27 (five years ago)

one year passes...

For some reason, reading this (from the NME) made me chuckle:

Frontman James Dean Bradfield can be heard in the opening moments of the album teaser singing the lines “We live in Orwellian times” from the new song ‘Orwellian Times’ ...

I found the typo in this a bit tragic:

The song also featured some political lyrics: “Don’t let those boys from Eaton suggest that we are beaten, no, no, no…can be free and equal.”

― djh, Friday, 14 May 2021 19:58 (four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.