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BuzzJack Music Forum _ Indie, Rock and Alternative _ Classic Album #5

Posted by: AntoineTTe 28th August 2014, 09:46 PM

JoeiyGiEthU

At the stroke of midnight this album will be 20 years old. If anything it's getting better.

It's a harrowing, relentlessly grim examination of some of man's greatest atrocities and sufferings. Lyrical themes focus on the holocaust, the death penalty, abortion, anorexia, serial killers, suicide.

For the first time James Dean Bradfield would not edit Richie Edwards' lyrics to fit conventional song structure. It was to his credit that the music was as compelling as lyrics.

It's not littered with anthems like your typical Manics album - and to be fair there isn't much that you'd hear the milkman singing either but JDB still manages to fill quite a bit of melody into the twisted frames of these songs - especially Faster and Yes.

I remember saying I'd never love it after I'd heard it. Now it's my favourite album of all time. It had risen to my third favourite and then the US mix was released in 2004 pushing it to the top. The sound is even more vile and evil.

It may not have the mercurial guitar work of OK Computer, the massive cultural impact of Nevermind or the sheer sing-a-long-ability of Definitely Maybe but it's still in the hearts and minds of many fans as the greatest album of the 90s.

Posted by: Brett-Butler 28th August 2014, 09:47 PM

I bought this album last year and still haven't taken it out of its shrink wrap. One of these days I will be ready for it.

Posted by: AntoineTTe 28th August 2014, 09:49 PM

Tomorrow is a good day for it.

Posted by: richie 29th August 2014, 12:32 PM

Not bad at all. Faster and PCP was a great split single.

Their fall from here was HUGE! It demonstrates, more than anything else, how important Richey Edwards was to the band...lyrically but stylistically too.

Posted by: AntoineTTe 29th August 2014, 01:49 PM

It was only a comparative fall. Had someone else made Everything Must Go it would probably have been a career peak.

Posted by: مدهش* 29th August 2014, 07:48 PM

I have respect for this album. I kind of rate it more than I actually enjoy it if I'm honest.

Faster and 4st7lb are my favourite Manics tracks though so it's worth listening to for those alone.

Posted by: Severin 2nd September 2014, 04:56 PM

Favourite album of all time. It's the one where they finally coalesced into something beautiful. Tragically they flew too close to the sun and burned.
Every album since has been a disappointment for me. It was the last time they actually felt vital.

Posted by: AntoineTTe 26th September 2014, 12:57 PM

So - the tour of The Holy Bible sold out in 20 mins. I did not get tickets. They may perhaps add new dates but this is speculation based on the fact that they left one day gaps between gigs.

Posted by: AntoineTTe 12th December 2014, 04:07 PM

Trying to get hold of the vinyl edition of The Holy Bible 20. No luck so far