I used to love having Manic Street Preachers knocking around. They were skeletal thin, trashy hell-raisers that stuck yellow tongues out at the hippies and declared, live on the Pyramid Stage at Glasto, that someone should “build a bypass over this shit-hole”. As childish as it was, you’ve gotta laugh.
The first two LPs released by the Welsh rockers misfired, but contained a couple of singles you couldn’t help but enjoy. Then their masterpiece arrived in the shape of the terrifying The Holy Bible. Songs of abuse, death, lust and politics collided with seedy basslines and truly harrowing guitar and imagery. The Richie went AWOL and the weight started piling onto more than just their hips.

Since Richie’s disappearance, MSP have almost become a charity case. Of course, ‘A Design For Life’ was a ludicrously great pop single, but since then the fallout has seen the group go from angry, ridiculous and vital to… beige. I’m not sure how critics (well, mostly Q Magazine which is a bloated hang-out for old men in U2 t-shirts) can follow a band from “Motown Junk” to “If You Tolerate This…” I mean, the clue’s in the title buckos!

Posted by mofgimmers on Wednesday February 27th, 2008 at 1:06 pm