[darkanddivine]

It’s a great question.

For me, I have a top 5 which includes the undisputed 2. The other three are Lifeblood, JFPL and Truth. And actually, it’s a really close call for 3rd place because all three are worthy selections.

You can’t mention Truth without considering the context it was made in. The most obvious factor in that context is the fact that it’s the first album without Richey. But perhaps more interestingly, it’s the 3rd stage in a musical journey that had seen them move from writing songs like PCP in 1994 to I’m Not Working in under 4 years. That, and given the fervor around the old fans vs new fans argument, you have to say this was a ballsy move to a bunch of fans likely expecting EMG2 or THB2.

In many ways, JFPL is that EMG2/THB2 album. But the album suffers these days, just in terms of pure visibility. The band clearly have a difficult time reconciling this album, and so it doesn’t get much airtime. That said, it’s a brilliant blast, and example of the heaviness of MSP’s sound when they want to go full throttle. It’s the best album they’ve done in the last decade, and will probably go down as their last great rock album as time passes.

Lifeblood is fascinating, not least because it offers a glimpse at what could have been. MSP could have abandoned all pretences of being a “rock” band, and developed a cold, electronic, detached sound. As we now know, the band now see this as an awkward, false representation of themselves rather than something more positive. But if you take the surrounding material (beginning with Door to the River, and ending with the God Save The Manics EP) as they floated from KYE in 2001 towards SATT in 2007, there is actually about 2 and a half albums-worth of great material that came from the Lifeblood-ish era.

Ugh. So picking one is HARD. All three were bold, experimental and different from the “standard” MSP sound which is what makes them so fascinating.

I’m tempted to say JFPL, because it’s the album so many of us wanted them to make. But then again, Truth is bigger than the sum of its parts, and it’s nice to see it gain recognition through the re-issue. But I can’t help but think that Lifeblood offers something more as time goes on, even though you can make a strong case that the other two albums are objectively better. In the same way that people enjoy cliffhanger endings, the fact that we never got to hear them develop a sweeping ForeverDelayed style sound to perfection means that Lifeblood interests me the most, despite its imperfections.