It's always a bit strange writing about Greatest Hits albums. They don't have similar kinds of stories as the studio albums do. Of course they may have good personal stories. As a teenager, many of the albums that were in heavy rotation were greatest hits albums. This best of compilation by Manic Street Preachers is somewhat different as I bought it slightly later than Manics were really a thing. The reason I bought this was that I didn't have any individual Manics albums. I always kind of liked the band, but it wasn't, I guess, important enough band to me that I would've bought the albums. Therefore a compilation album seemed like a good way to own some of their best songs. Let's face it, back in 2002 it was still all about owning music. Ever since the arrival of streaming services like Spotify, compilation albums have lost most of their appeal.The first time I ever heard about Manic Street Preachers was back in maybe 1994 at English class in school. Our usual English teacher was away and her son was substituting for her as our teacher. This young man had spent some time in the UK and was very excited about the Manic Street Preachers. He played us a couple of songs. Back then it wasn't perhaps that cool to take music recommendations from your substitute teacher, but I guess something from that stayed with me because I can still remember that happening. Then I forgot about the band for some years until a couple of years later the band became an international super success with songs like A Design for Life and their songs started playing on the radio and television even in Finland.
The album begins with A Design for Life, which is arguably one of the bands most well-known songs. It's always been one of my favourites from them as well. I love it how the song falls to the chorus that's much heavier in sounds than the rest of the song. Motorcycle Emptiness is one of the earlier songs from the band and you can really hear the 80s influences in the sounds. Or maybe it's just early 90s. The guitars kind of sound like guitars sounded in pretty much all rock music around that era. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next is another massive hit song. I remember seeing the music video for this all the time and I remember thinking that the band had changed quite a bit from those times that I heard their songs in English class. La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) also has a very distinct early 90s sound that reminds me of 501 Levi's jeans and round sunglasses. There by the Grace of God has quite electronic sounds especially in the rhythm section. Back in the 90s, this was a no-no to me. As I grew up in the 90s, I was conditioned to hate anything that reminded of the 80s and electronic sounds were just that. I've loosened up my attitudes about that later. You Love Us represents the heavier sound of the Manics. Their earlier albums generally had a lot heavier sound than their later ones, which probably went along with the general sound of the time. Australia has some very catchy melodies and it's also one of my favourite songs. I feel like Australia was very much in the news and in popular culture in the 80s and 90s and since then, you hardly hear anything about them. You Stole the Sun from My Heart is also one of the biggest hits of the band. It follows the known pattern of a lighter verse and heavier chorus that the band uses for most of their songs. Kevin Carter has a groovy beat throughout and I like the darker mood of the song. Tsunami has very carefully produced sounds that seem to scream 90s. The Masses Against the Classes is a prime example of the band's political style. Being someone who doesn't really listen to the lyrics in music, it took me a while to realise just how political all of the Manics' lyrics were. From Despair to Where has nice explosive power. Door to the River on the other hand has a calmer and lighter style. Everything Must Go is the title-track of my favourite Manics album. I like pretty much all of the songs on that album. Faster is the only song on this compilation from the album The Holy Bible. That album seems to be the favourite of quite a few "true" Manics fans. Personally I've never been that much into that album. It kind of lacks the melodies of other albums replacing them with punk sounds. Little Baby Nothing is a strange song for this album. The lead singer in this song is Traci Lords, which makes it sound like some other band's song. Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless) is a song that even know I don't remember hearing that many times. I guess this non-album song is easily forgettable. So Why So Sad seems to be a bow to 60s bands like The Kinks. The style is very much older than in the other songs on this album. The Everlasting is a fantastic song as well. I really like the drama between the verse and the chorus. The album ends with Motown Junk, which is almost a proper punk song.
As the music video, I'm going to recommend here the video for The Everlasting. It's a good example of how the music videos were in the 90s. Walking in slow motion in crowds in the city was one big theme for the videos of that time. And the very "realistic" fire that burns on people in the video is quite something. The video also plays with colour vs. black and white, which was a very common feature indeed at that time. It's somehow quite strange looking at the crowds at the Euston Station in the video now that I've been avoiding crowds for many months because of Covid-19.
I saw Manic Street Preachers live back in 1998 in Provinssirock in Finland. My friend was working at a food stall at the festival and he gave me a huge pint of coffee that I was sipping during the show as I was exhausted by that time having listened to bands all day. Manics were the last performer. After the show we took a train back to Helsinki and I couldn't sleep at all on the train because of all the coffee I had drunk. This is the most vivid memory of that gig.
I rarely listen to the Manics anymore, but I do still like them. This is, I guess, a good description of my whole attitude towards them, since I've always liked them, but it has never been personally that important band to me.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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