Albums 101: Manic Street Preachers, The Holy Bible

#002.The Manic Street Preachers.The Holy Bible



Overview:

There was a time when the Manic Street Preachers were not spending their Sunday nights performing on Strictly Come Dancing. There was a time, circa 1994 when they were probably the most individual, outspoken and polarising British band in existence. This is the band who appeared on Top Of The Pops wearing IRA style paramilitary uniforms. I don't remember this because I was about three, so I'm guessing you won’t either but it happened, and it was a track of this album that they performed.

The Holy Bible is probably one of the bleakest, most emotionally excruciating albums ever made. Most of its lyrics were written by Richey Edwards, the bands depression suffering, alcoholic rhythm guitarist and provides a frankly quite disturbing insight into his mind. Edwards, who disappeared at the start of 1995 and has never been seen since, has become synonymous with the ‘damaged’ lyricist stereotype. That alone should give you an indication of where this album is coming from.

Yet for all the bleakness and desperation this isn't the depressing sadfest it might be. The themes range from the intensely political to the intensely personal and the combination of distorted, half-glam half-punk guitars and the a sort of twisted poetry in the words creates an album that is both brilliant and mind opening in the same measure.

The Album:

'You can buy her, this one here, this one here, this one here...everythings for sale' is the first line you will hear when pressing play on the album and as the track, 'Yes', blossoms into life, you know exactly that this is not your average 'alternative' album. It's a vicious attack on consumer culture and all that jazz, the kinds of thing you'd expect to here in a record made in 1977, not 1994.

There is no letting up, Edward's turns his lyrical wrath to America next, 'Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart' (yes, it really has no spaces) is possibly one of the more critical song title in history and the song itself is no 'Live Forever' either, 'Morning, fine, serve your first coffee of the day. Real privilege, it will take your problems all away'. The Holy Bible doesn't let up as it progresses, sound clips from radio and film bookend song after song that rails at everything from 'the nation’s moral suicide' ('Of Walking Abortions') to '6 Million screaming souls' a reference to concentration camps ('The Intense Humming of Evil', the closest the album comes to a slow song…). The Manics have always been known for being strongly opinionated and up to their collective throats in literature and pop-culture and more than any of their other albums this shines through; the sheer weight of references and hidden meaning scattered through the albums lyrics, both obscure and obvious, is slightly mind bending.

The music doesn't relent either. Sure this isn't a 'heavy' album in the way you might describe say, Slayer (and Slayer are my no means the heaviest of metal bands) but there’s something oppressive about the simple guitar, bass, drums combination. James Dean Bradfield somehow combines vocal duties with speeding up and down the fret board like a sort of glam-punk demon coaxing out hooks and riffs in equal measure. This isn’t the full blown studio padded record that the Manics started to release towards the end of the nineties. The Holy Bible was recorded in a small studio with a single engineer and virtually no outside influence, and it shows in the music in nothing but a good way.

As the tracks go, you'd pick 'Faster', 'Yes', 'Ifwhiteamerica...' and 'Revol' as stand outs, but there is one track, '4st 7lb' that in my opinion outstrips not just them, but virtually everything else the band ever released.

If you're not into disturbingly honest portrays of emotion in songs, look away now. Edwards, an anorexia sufferer, wrote the song as an account of a teenager suffering from the same disease, although listening to it through even once you can't help but think that he might have been putting himself in those shoes more than a little. Buzz saw guitars and the lyrics that manage to be bleak and slightly beautiful at the same time ('I want to walk in the snow, And not leave a footprint, I want to walk in the snow, And not soil its purity') combine to make something quite brilliant and unforgettable.

That being said, you could probably sing the praises of every track on the album, not just those I've mentioned. Overall though, this is a real old fashioned album. Some of the songs are brilliant, some are good, but only if you listen to the whole thing together will you truly get the idea of what’s going on. Go out, buy it and listen. I challenge you not to be a little bit changed by the whole thing.

Further Listening:

Journal For Plague Lovers, Manic Street Preachers. Written using the lyrics Richey Edwards left behind when he disappeared, the closest the Manics came to a Holy Bible pt2.