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Old 05-11-2010, 13:02
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Flint Flint is offline
Winterlover
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: UK
Age: 35
Posts: 6,712
Another one of my favourite albums of all time.

This is where it all actually began for me. Tolerate was the first Manics song I heard and I loved it instantly. This was somewhat surprising because at the time my music listening habits consisted of various eurodance one hit wonders and everything that was slow got an automatic rejection from me. So for a moody rock song to really catch my attention was... unexpected. I got a CD-R copy of the album through my sister's then-boyfriend and I can't say I fell in love with it at the time. I mainly enjoyed the faster songs and left the slow stuff, bar Tolerate, alone. That CD-R did stay in my collection for a long time though and I did give it surprisingly frequent listens and I even began enjoying the moody moments. It was a catalyst enough for me to eventually grab EMG from a bargain bin and later on KYE which then turned me into a fan. Rest is history.

These days I adore it to the point that it's one of my close favourite albums in the world. The sound and style are immaculate. It contains the best set of lyrics in the band's entire history, and this includes SYMM which I think is not only a brilliant idea (to try and say something about an event that shocked you so much you don't know how to put it into words) executed well but the chorus, the only point in the entire song where Wire is actually able to articulate all the jumbles of feelings he has inside him about the song's subject, that chorus is one of the angriest Manics lines in its sheer bluntness. James is on top form, it's one of his best vocal performances, and holy fuck the instrumental performances - if there's any single proof that James has genuinely brilliant skill as a composer and songwriter, Truth is it because of all the flourishes and details involved. The soundworld of the album is simply put impressive. It's clearly an album where the band is at the top of their game. It's impressive throughout. It has such a gorgeous atmosphere too - EMG still had tones of Richey over it and Truth was their first completely independent trio album, and you can tell it did weigh on the band's minds. It's introspection put into music and distilled into beauty.

And I see someone already touched up on this but I do genuinely sneer at the people who see it as EMG 2 or an attempt to copy the hit success of that album. It's a comparison I've never understood - they sound nothing alike for one. And whereas EMG was a very extroverted album, Truth is the moment where you sink into your own soul and mind in a dark room. Not only lyrically (it's pretty much Wire's version of The Holy Bible in terms of lyrics) but musically too - things like Born a Girl, I'm Not Working, Be Natural (this song doesn't get praised enough, absolutely gorgeous), My Little Empire and SYMM are far, far away from the string-hits of EMG and in their reclusive nature pretty much different from anything else in the band's work too.

I'd ramble more (look at what you lot have started!) but I've honestly got some uni work to do so I'm going to cut this short. But it's essentially 12 of some of the best songs in the world, and Tolerate which is the greatest piece of music I've heard in my life and which never fails to send shivers down my spine.

Fucking immense b-sides period too. Prologue to History is probably their defining statement in terms of distilling their whole ethos into one song, Valley Boy is a legend, Black Holes for the Young is the band's best duet, etc.
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