REVIEW: Manic Street Preachers, This Is My Truth Tell Me
Yours
- Tim Kennedy
There are some albums that are hard to review because the motivation is not there - but this is not one of them. This is possibly the album of the year, and definitely the single most important rock band of the 90s. Important not for record sales though they are selling respectably these days in the UK (although they were dropped by the U.S. affiliate Epic, and passed over by at least two other major labels), but important because they are the most intelligent, vital and interesting group for many years.
There has always been a contradiction in the Manics: on the one hand music which blatantly borrows from the past and on the other, lyrics which are quite unlike any in rock history. They aren't the only band to borrow from their mentors but they must be the only band to declare "originality is not important". WHAT they borrow is of great importance however and always reflects what they are trying to say with their invariably sad yet astounding lyrics. James was widely laughed at for calling Nicky a poet the other week in a UK music paper but you know what he is getting at when you read the lyric sheets of TIMTTMY.
The themes are all Nicky's now - none of Richey's (the guitarist and fellow lyric writer who disappeared mysteriously in 1995) words adorn this CD. That means that instead of the searing verbal assault and deadly withering hail of self-hate, the words are more reflective, still cynical/naive but more reserved. James doesn't have to garble them to get them to fit on a line. Nicky describes his insular domestic existence in the Welsh village household he shares with his much-loved wife ("You Stole The Sun From My Heart", "My Little Empire", "I'm Not Working", "You're Tender And You're Tired", and more.) He also rails at the ageing process and the toll that the band's youthful verve is taking - fans or more likely he himself resents the fact that the band didn't simply explode in 1992, and that they are still her slogging away at being rock stars. "The gap that grows between our lives/The gap our parents never had to stop/Those thoughts control your mind/ Replace the things that you despise//Oh you're old I hear you say/ It doesn't mean that I don't care/I don't believe in it anymore/ Pathetic acts for a worthless cause"
"Born A Girl" however reflects an old transgendered theme that the Manics have always worried and chewed at. Nicky of course wears a dress and eyeliner on stage to this day. "There's no room in this world for a girl like me".
This album is more than just a turning from old lyrical concerns - it also features music with a very 1970s prog rock influence. Deep Purple-like riffs may pop up here and there, and the feel of much of the CD is Pink Floyd, circa Dark Side Of The Moon. It has those languid Rick Wright keyboards, lots of space and echo, with quiet, reflective moments counterpoised by bombast of almost inconceivable proportions by this band's original standards. This was a band that wore ripped clothes, posed like the Clash, idolised trash rockers like Dogs D'Amour and called Axl Rose "the most underrated lyricist of his time".
But the truth is this band have always pillaged rock history with no regard for current trends. At the time when Richey was talking about Razzle, the doomed drummer of Dogs D'Amour, that was as 'outre' as can be imagined. Everyone was into Happy Mondays and Stone Roses and acid house. They were reviled at the time.
There is some wonderful, inspired music on this album. Where for example Radiohead are virtuosos, who throw shadows of moody despair, the Manics embody the pain of love and loss - and know too well how to convey this with their music.
The opener "The Everlasting" is a soft rock epic on the surface, but one with a depth that belies that description, and a lovely wall of sound production in the manner of Phil Spector.
"Born A Girl" betrays a wayward guitar backing which is completely bewitching. "SYMM" uses some back masked guitar and has a killer solo that Dave Gilmour himself would be proud of. "You Stole The Sun From My Heart" has a great hook in it which would have Peter Hook standing legs akimbo and doing air bass. "My Little Empire" begins with a lovely understated guitar figure which Jimi might have used. "You're Tender And You're Tired" features some great whistling (!) and a totally mad piano passage. This track is probably the most inventive of the album - a slightly 60s psychedelic outing.
"Black Dog" sounds like Glen Campbell doing Jimmy Webb, and has Nicky visualising himself as the hound in question, faithfully running for his lover. And it actually works, believe me.
"Tsunami" is possibly the strongest song on the CD. It combines a sitar-drenched musical backing and a rip-roaring riff-laden chorus to match their best.
The single "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" is about the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s. The dialectic here is between Nicky's pacifism and his admiration of Welsh farmers who took up the gun to help fight Spain's Nazi-backed fascist coup of the time. Musically it seems to be weak upon initial exposure, with a break beat and strings. It has a catchy chorus though, and its Spectoresque production rescues it in the end.
"Nobody Loved You" is about their lost comrade Richey "Never had the chance to take you home/Now there's no reason/Just another tomorrow/You keep giving me your free air miles/What would I give for just one of your smiles/Just one of your smiles."
The finale - "SYMM" actually stands for South Yorkshire Mass Murder. This song is a highly controversial attack aimed at the Sheffield police, who by their omissions allowed nearly one hundred Liverpool fans to die crushed in a terrace at Hillsborough Football Stadium in 1989, and to this day have not been indicted for their lack of action. "The ending for this song/Well I haven't really thought of one/There's nothing I could ever say/That could ever take the pain away."
This album has all the reasons why this group are mad, bad and dangerous to know. They try too many styles, they dare to be poetic, to be sensitive, and they open their wounds in public. No album has come close in the past few years to the beauty of This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.
