Know Your Enemy 20 scheduled for 2021 release

[Borderliner]

I like all KYE songs.
Just one complaint: Freedom of Speech should've been longer

[Europa Gluten Free]

Controversial, but the run of songs on the second half of the album is one of the strongest on any Manics album. Capture the era perfectly.

[ForeverDelayed.com]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

Controversial, but the run of songs on the second half of the album is one of the strongest on any Manics album. Capture the era perfectly.

My favorite half for sure. Take out Royal Correspondent, and it is a great running order of great tracks. Songs like baby elian, my guernica, epicenter, dead martyrs are criminally underrated in my opinion.

[Glyn]

Here's my go at 2 separate albums with a rock/other split

FIDEL
1 Found That Soul
2 Ocean Spray
3 Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel
4 Intravenous Agnostic
5 Locust Valley
6 Wattsville Blues
7 Dead Martyrs
8 My Guernica
9 The Convalescent
10 Baby Elian
11 Freedom of Speech Wont Feed my Children
(Hidden Track : We Are All Bourgeois Now)

DOOR TO THE RIVER
1 Door to the River
2 So Why So Sad
3 Let Robeson Sing
4 The Year of Purification
5 Pedestal
6 Miss Europe Disco Dancer
7 Fear of Motion
8 Royal Correspondent
9 Little Tolls
10 Epicentre
11 Just a Kid
12 Groundhog Days
13 Masking Tape
(Hidden Track : Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel)

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by Glyn

Here's my go at 2 separate albums with a rock/other split

Glyn, had to quite you for reference but my take:
EDIT: And had to edit post about half an hour later because I thought I'd spelt QUOTE and forgot existence of His Last Painting. It's School homearse all over again.

First Album

1.Locust Valley
2.Found That Soul
3.Ballad of the Bankok Novotel
4.Intravenous Agnostic
5.Pedestal
6. The Year of Purification
7. Dead Martyrs
8. My Guernica
9. The Convalescent
10. Just A Kid
11. Wattsville Blues
12. Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children

Second album

1. Let Robeson Sing
2. Baby Elian
3. Epicentre
4. Ocean Spray
5. Door To The River
6. So Why So Sad
7. Groundhog Days
8. Royal Correspondent
9. Fear of Motion
8. Little Trolls
9. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
10. Masking Tape
11. We Are All Bourgeois Now
12. His Last Painting

Or have I got the first and second side of the second album mixed up?

[Glyn]

The tricky ones to categorise for me are Pedestal, Just a Kid, Baby Elian, Ocean Spray and Groundhog Days. All have moments of either loud or dissonant guitar but none are completely full blooded rock songs. Will be interesting if they do spilt it out (or if they at least publish what their original tracklist plan was) to see how they would have cut those ones up.

[Europa Gluten Free]

SOLIDARITY
1 Found That Soul
2 Masses Against the Classes
3 Ocean Spray
4 Intravenous Agnostic
5 The Convalescent
6 Epicentre
7 Dead Martyrs
8 My Guernica
9 Baby Elian
10 Freedom of Speech Wont Feed my Children
11 We Are All Bourgeois Now

DOOR TO THE RIVER
1 Door to the River
2 So Why So Sad (Avalanches Remix)
3 Let Robeson Sing
4 Year of Purification
5 Close My Eyes
6 Groundhog Days
7 Fear of Motion
8 Little Trolls
9 Masking Tape
10 Just a Kid
11 Wattsville Blues

I really like my Solidarity tracklisting. But found it hard on side 2 of Door to the River.

Love this era. Saw a Rolling Stone quote from a review from the time that said the album was dull and there was not one redeemable song... that is the whole point of the KYE era!

[ForeverDelayed.com]

The talk about this album these days made me order the original UK vinyl pressing. Still sealed and all, but what a record, what a time to be a Manics fan

[Europa Gluten Free]

Originally Posted by ForeverDelayed.com

The talk about this album these days made me order the original UK vinyl pressing. Still sealed and all, but what a record, what a time to be a Manics fan

Where did you get it from? From Discogs?

[ForeverDelayed.com]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

Where did you get it from? From Discogs?

Yes! New US seller, sold it to me for $25. Mint condition. I already had two of the music on vinyl Reissues, but I just had to have this.

[IntlDebris]

I love SWSS and hate the Avalanches remix. I had no idea there was such strong support for the remix.

[darkanddivine]

I'd hope for zero tracklist tinkering. Not because the album doesn't need a tinker (it really does) but because the band know it's imperfect, and that confusion is arguably part of its charm.

That said, I think they could take a cue or two from the re-issue of In Utero, where Steve Albini completely remixed that album (which brings a modern hard rock sound into that album.) With the band admitting that they deliberately kept things rough and ready, it would be an interesting exercise to see what KYE could have been like if they'd spent some serious time actually mixing the thing.

[tomd2103]

Originally Posted by Glyn

Here's my go at 2 separate albums with a rock/other split

FIDEL
1 Found That Soul
2 Ocean Spray
3 Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel
4 Intravenous Agnostic
5 Locust Valley
6 Wattsville Blues
7 Dead Martyrs
8 My Guernica
9 The Convalescent
10 Baby Elian
11 Freedom of Speech Wont Feed my Children

Not far off what I think the album should have looked like (in my humble opinion of course). Would add a couple of the other album tracks in place of the B-sides, but think a shorter, 'sharper' album would have been just right.

Wattsville Blues has always been a bit of a strange one for me. Think it was immediately written off at the time because of Wire being on vocals and it is probably more of a B-side, but it is one I go back to.

[darkanddivine]

I still think along the same lines as my random babbling from 4 years ago.

Originally Posted by darkanddivine

I remember the buzz leading up to the album with that Intravenous Agnostic clip on the website. The whole thing was very cool, and there was a sense that the band were heading back to a bare bones rock album. Obviously it was bare bones in many ways, but not in a 10 rock bangers kind of way.

Of course, it is what it is for a reason and it all forms part of the story of the Manics. Not everything can be perfect, and sometimes going down a different path keeps things interesting. Miss Europa fits on no MSP album ever frankly, but it is bloody brilliant on its own.

I think the interesting thing about this whole era is that the band, seemingly, went into the album wanting to make a definitive move away from the sweeping sound of EMG/TIMT. In one sense, KYE was most definitely job done. But the unfocused nature of it led to them not particularly liking it, which in turn led to them making Lifeblood which they like even less.

[tomd2103]

Originally Posted by darkanddivine

I still think along the same lines as my random babbling from 4 years ago.



I think the interesting thing about this whole era is that the band, seemingly, went into the album wanting to make a definitive move away from the sweeping sound of EMG/TIMT. In one sense, KYE was most definitely job done. But the unfocused nature of it led to them not particularly liking it, which in turn led to them making Lifeblood which they like even less.

Still think deep down they wanted to go to back to basics, but also didn't want to let go of the commercial success they had experienced in the past few years. Therefore, KYE ended up a bit of a confused kind of album.

The knives were definitely out in the music press at that time for any of the bands associated with 'Britpop' (which the Manics always seemed to be for some reason) and I think the kicking they took for KYE shook them a bit.

Lifeblood is a whole other story and I still think they made a couple of big errors which made things worse for them around that time.