Home
sign up| reviews / member album review |
 content by: member |
|
I never really liked the Manic Street Preachers. Having only been acquainted with their later - more popular work - I associated albums such as 'Everything Must Go' with catchy but disposable pop-rock. As it happens, the Manic Street Preachers lived just two villages away from where I am writing this, in a dilapidated industrial climbing frame of twisted metal and burning rubble. They were always a band that attempted to create music that people could connect with, and yet in my case always fell short of the mark. They were a band that seemed to exhibit more style than concrete substance, a band of surface and no feeling. Others may disagree, but I personally had a lot of difficulty in relating to them, and until recently ignored them in favour of other musicians who seemed to communicate their themes a little more strongly... However, soon I was to find an album that would completely change my perceptions of the band, and offer a perspective on life that no other musical group had ever had the ability to reach. It changed things. Whereas other bands simply touched the surface, with their third record the Manic Street Preachers had crawled under my skin. The were shouting questions in my ears, they were dragging me around my home town and pointing out the details. My home town is a town like many others, all across Britain, suffering from all the same infections. I opened my eyes to the diseases we all take for granted. "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit, and then force it to look in the mirror." - J.G. Ballard (sampled on 'Mausoleum') The Holy Bible, by the Manic Street Preachers. An edgy, acerbic, chilling masterpiece of snarling guitars, bitter vocal samples and infectious hooks. The cover alone demands the attention of the happy consumer, perched on its shelf with Jenny Saville's 'Strategy' centred upon it. Saville's painting depicts an obese woman in her underwear from three separate perspectives. From the very beginning, the album is confrontational: exposing humanity's darker side with a startling honesty. The themes found throughout 'The Holy Bible' are varied, lyrics race from issues of prostitution ('Yes'), American hypocrisy and corruption ('ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforjustonedayitsworldwouldfallapart'), Anorexia ('4st. 7lb.'), the Holocaust ('The Intense Humming of Evil') and a variety of other controversial issues with a rare respect for their true implications. Penned by missing member Richey Edwards before his unexplainable disappearance, the lyrics seem to be a reflection of a tortured soul attempting to express his feelings as accurately and succinctly as possible. The lyrics succeed, not only spitting with vitriol and hatred at the establishment, but also granting a kind of uplifting hope for those who are looking for it. The lyrics are honest and to the point, reflecting a kind of existential angst that continues to saturate our culture. It is an album that points to Sartre, Camus, Orwell, Nietzsche, Plath and Burroughs as its influences and gives voice to the feelings of a dislocated generation. It is an album that challenges the way people think about culture, about society and perhaps most importantly about themselves. It is a work of grace: capturing the ugliest aspects of human nature, hypocrisy and pain in a way that is both poignant and resonant to the mind. It is an album executed with a chaotic sense of precision that expresses a band at the height of their powers, verging on some cataclysmic breaking point. It's not simply dumb sixth form angst, but an intelligent and reasoned nihilistic hatred that is both moving and darkly fascinating. It hammers at the foundations of perception. A cruel, relentless masterpiece of experience, of feeling, of emotion and of humanity. I would not say that 'The Holy Bible' is for everyone. But to those who relate to the themes expressed or the quotes listed: this album could change your life.
 conversations
Read members' comments.
|
 |
related info
 useful links
note: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
see also
books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. talk  collective is closing Thanks to everyone who has supported the site over the years. |
send to a friend
more reviews by this member