Know Your Enemy 20 scheduled for 2021 release

[Son of Stopped]

Wow I've suddenly got into Studies In Paralysis.
Well the website had the tracklist at 14 and 18 tracks and not the 10 and 12 tracks that seem to be what some of us have got.
There's no real complaint on my end as I've got two Manics albums that I've adjusted to quite well. Trust the site to not make "These tracks only available on 3disc and we can't afford making a separate thread of the standard version" webpage!
I'm happy and sarky. Solidarity really showing its colours now.
Dead Martyrs was originally a favourite and now im wondering the hell's wrong with it?
Don't mind changes.
I miss the DONK DONK from His Last Painting but glad Dead Martyrs and Freedom of Speech etc have some electrics linked.

This is a great release regardless. It's going to mess up so many album rankings for the rest of time however.

[LA ex]

Is Little Trolls not being listed on the track listing but being on CD2 (of the three CD set) a deliberate mistake or a cock up? It's not even a hidden track buried away, it's there as a brand new track 19!

[Routine Builder]

This all sounds like a bad copy and paste job and no one checked or corrected the press release. I do remember the French sites listing CD1 and CD2 as per the 3CD version so I think someone f**ked up early and it cascaded in to everything provided to the retailers.

[Suicide Aldi]

Wow, Door To The River is the Manics album I never knew I wanted! Its really growing on me.

[Europa Gluten Free]

The more I listen to this the band should have stopped overthinking KYE and just accepted there was no problem that there was no big single and they didn’t need anything gimmicky and therefore they should have just released Year of Purification as the lead single and cut the album to 13 songs and just fucked off any stupid ideas about Cuba and just done a UK arena tour and then Europe and then used the next two years for the Greatest Hits and then done a mix of a Send Away the Tigers and Lifeblood type of album.

[Manualex16]

After hearing his last Elián and thinking of how the Manics work(wire has some lyrics that then JDB or Sean write music to) I wonder if there's another demo out there that mixes what in the end are two separate songs.

[Routine Builder]

The are more demo's, Nicky did speak in 2020 of a version of Ocean Spray completely different to the final version (I'm guessing James vetoed that one). To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if there's a couple album's worth of unheard demo's James recorded on this four track/phone over the years.

[counterlanguage]

I haven't posted on here in a very long time - 2013 apparently, but I'm really impressed with the reissue so thought I'd say hi again.

A few thoughts having started to get into listening..

My Guernica sounds incredible, the massive drum sound. That's something about Solidarity tracks - the remix really pushes Sean's contribution forward, there's this great rhythm/drive behind the album that wasn't there with the original. The FTS TLA mix and a few more tracks do the same.. this new drive/energy to it.

You can actually hear Kevin Shields properly on Freedom of Speech. They really did waste his contribution first time round.

I've already started messing with the tracklist. putting Intravenous first almost seems like Wire encouraging you to make up your own version.

We Are All Bourgeois now isn't an album track, but the new version really made me appreciate it more.

Losing the quote off the end of Masses and using an alternative version of the Prufrock line, definitely a good idea. Both always bugged me.

One or two tracks don't work as well in their new form - Intravenous in particular. The original will always be better for me.

SWSS - never liked the original, the Avalanches version was a big improvement but it's still the kind of remix that belongs on a CD single. I wish they'd reworked it again to bring the chorus back in.

Overall, it's a fantastic re-release. A companion not a replacement. At times a taste I did feel like it was a taste of what could have been. Like Europa says above, a big single and less self analysis would have topped that era off really well. But then it's the Manics, so that was never going to happen.

[baleofhey]

Door to a River is still shit.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Someone explain to me why Intravenous Agnostic is first and Found that Soul second? I know they always put the big single second but that is a bad choice.

[Son of Stopped]

Substituted So Why So Sad (So Leave It Alone!) for Rosebud. Then Royal Correspondent replaced with Studies In Paralysis. Added Masses at the end.
My Know Your Enemy playlist when I'm tired of hearing Solidarity or even Door To The River.
Really sorry some not had postal joy. Wonder how social media will respond to b-sidesgate?
We've got their greatest album and answered a great lost album question in Door To The River! Every other argument invalid as they used to say.

[Tim]

Reading this thread and having not received mine yet i'm confused about what isn't included, i thought all the era bsides were on the 3cd version at least. No close my eyes? Shame but i understand why, then again they included masses so they may as well have chucked the bsides on there.

[theplague]

Could someone help me to find where/which post that clarifies which songs that have been remixed, or only remastered?

[Vancouver]

If memory serves, the main tracklistings for Solidarity and DTTR are the tracks that have been remixed.

[Marat Sar]

Big impressions dump incoming!

First things first: switch out Found That Soul to 1 and Intravenous Agnostic to 2 -- more natural this way; key change to We Are All Bourgeois is better -- and the whole thing is near perfect. An exceptional display of self-awareness and historic correction. A rerelease better than the damn Giles Martin Sgt Pepper mix. Shows the Manics themselves are always their own greatest experts and hagiographers.

Hard to say which is better but Door to the River certainly is a very very special collection of music. And Solidarity too -- a socialist rock album with no ballads, not a single one.

God save the Manics indeed.

Track by track take-aways from Door to the River (as I've mostly been listening to this)

1. Year of Purification is an intelligent choice for opener, doesn't give too much away. An understated but welcoming number that lets the rest of the album shine yet has plenty to offer on its own. I wish the mix was a bit better layered, but it's still pretty good and a clear improvement over the original -- as is every mix on DTTR.. The middle eight here sounds the best, the suddenly angry mini rant, especially the "little shit-kickers" melody cuts cleaner than the original. I like how, from here on, each mix gets wider spatially, from Ocean Spray to the colossal SWSSS, like curtains opening slowly. This trick is used by the War on Drugs and many other well-mixed artists on their opening trios. Not giving away the whole space immediately. Good the Manics are wising up to it. A respectable 7.5/10

2. Ocean Spray is still an impeccable nr 2 and one of their all-time greats. The mix is definitely improved. The guitar in the chorus is markedly better, joining the right flank loud and clear. Gorgeous tone on that. The post chorus rock-down has a really nice touch too: a drum pounding in the far-left channel. Nice taut drum sound to balance the guitar in the right. This sixties style flourish (drum in one channel) prepares the stage for the era-specific antics of SWWS to come. Notice how Ikeda's voice in the coda is much clearer in the mix, sounds like he says: "oh everything, say it!" in English. 9.5/10

3. The So Why So Sad remix works stunningly well, its technicolour hologram bleeds into the rest of DTTR and elevates the album's concept greatly. I gotta say, the damn mix on this is godly, the soundstage as wide as anything I've ever heard. Half song, half spatial sound collage -- with those audience sounds and extreme stereo effects, little instruments wandering around the stage, a lone violin even, near the end. A bold choice that pays off in a major way. Thought I'd hate it but it's a highlight and utterly DIVINE on headphones. Even at 5 minutes it doesn't get old. 9/10 (if taken separately -- 10 as a sequencing choice and for its effect on the rest).

4. Door to the River is almost as good. No muddy strings and sleepy underwater mix to get in the way of the serene majesty of JDBs voice in its prime. So stark and simple. The little acoustic guitar licks before the choruses are super tight, the vocal being more prominent makes the lyrics more direct and effective: "the people you love hold on" especially. Drums remind me of Doors Slowly Closing, enjoyably rigid, adding a post punk element that keeps it from getting sugary. 8/10

5. Rosebud is a lost classic, a sweeping piece of TIMTTY perfection with KYE guitars and a great, great mix. The little guitar chugs in the right channel are juicy. The guitar solo flies and then some. The way JDB delivers "no trespassing ove-eer / a man's life" is one of my all-time favourite deliveries from him. Single worthy structurally, vocally, lyrically and production wise, could have been the single of the DTTS album instead of SWSS. "So pick the petals apart now -- Put them together, don't ask me how" is also a great little impossible instruction. The tape drag and hiss in the start makes for a great intro. I can't resist mixing the teaser trailer's quote to the start of this -- "They were confused / They were looking for the source of their initial rage / a rage against an invisible enemy" sounds emotionally appropriate and a female voice fits DTTS. But that's just me needlessly fiddling with what's already perfect. 9/10

6. Just A Kid finds a perfect slot in the sequence, finishing a flawless run from Ocean Spray to this. The mix is a sidegrade since the original is already very good -- but there's nothing wrong with sidegrades. The guitar chords left and right in the chorus are great, nice little rhythm on the electric guitars, with a tiny keyboard element. Didn't notice this on the old mix. This sounds like TIMTTY b-sides Prologue to History and Montana/Autumn/78 further developed, a passage between TIMTTY and KYE era. DTTS album in general is an ingenious segue between those two. I adore both, so you can imagine how happy I am with this. Love the summer/autumn theme of the lyrics on DTTS too, to which JAK adds. 8.5/9

7. His Last Painting, another flawless sequencing, not one sequencing off on all of DTTS. JDB's vocals trailing away in the end are great, perfect reverb on those too. I love how it he goes low, a Kurt Cobain-like sound. The screeching sound of those guitars is great too. Not a "big song" on this album but perfect for what it is, and probably a grower. Also, notice how one song is about painting and the next about singing. A lot of thought has gone into making the lyrics fit in these neat little ways. 7.5/10

8. Let Robeson Sing has always been a great song taken separately, but on KYE it for some reason it annoyed me a bit. Its exuberance was oddly boring after SWSS, like: okay, we're getting "happy" now, I don't believe it. Here it's more earned, the ending of HLP leads into it, the two back-to-back songs about art are a good conceptual duo too. Nicky's backing vocals rub against JDB in a lovely way, adding sincerity and a nice low baritone hrum. The clearer mix makes his pre-chorus "a voice to believe in" pop better. All throughout the album Nicky's presence is aided by the cleaner mix. He keeps the punk edge on this KYE, even as the mixes get more polished. Also, this is another song that ends in applause, like SWSS. This is an intentional Sgt Pepper throwback and further "sixtiefies" DTTS. That said, I wish the mix was a tiny bit more layered as I do with Year of Purification (Robeson's speech, for example, could pop more). Great song but not incredible. 7.5/10

9. Groundhog Days is a surprise highlight. Talk about a perfect transition. Appears like coronets through clouds when those picked guitars come. I really hope they learn from this and give some more old b-sides a similar glory treatment -- because this is one of the best moments in their discography, strong candidate for best penultimate track. I pretty much never listened to the original b-side, but with this mix (and in this slot!) it's gone from nothing to almost everything. What a simple, emotional lyric about living. What an immense chorus, what great mix on that. Nicky's speech is good too, just swooshes along -- and the whole thing ends in a groovy 60s coda. ("Happy black days here comes the summer" -- poinless as a b-side, great in the running order). This is as detailed and full as anything they've ever done. And now a word about JDB's voice -- ca turn of the millennium, this man could've sung the phone book and turned it into a classic. (On Archives of Pain he almost literally did.) Here he's immense, as good as DTTS even. What plaintive, dreamy glissandos in the chorus: "Anymore" / "Like before" And the gravel on "waking up agAAAIN". Crispy clean perfect vocal production from Eringa too. The "Groundhog Days" concept always rubbed me wrong on its own, but on this album the 90s golden summer hue of that movie's pallet fit ideally into the big picture. Also, the second song about movies (along with Rosebud) -- nice theme. Songs about XX century paintings, films and singing. 9/10

10. Epicentre. I love that DTTS has only 10 tracks. Nice, short and sweet, keeps everything in focus. The ending comes exactly at the right time. Epicentre really benefits from not being on the same album as The Convalescent. Those two -- both great songs, but very similar -- totally cancelled each other out, turning the second half of KYE into a real challenge. Here, as a closer, its epicness is correctly employed. I'm ready to be worn out by it. It's a set closer and works well as that. The mix is vastly improved over the original which was a real shrinking violet, shrunk into oblivion. Here the piano chords are well EQ-d and the rhythm guitar and drum interplay is much cleaner. Even the title "Epicentre" -- at the crossroads of the two albums -- is well placed. (In my order DTTS definitely comes first, before Solidarity). This still isn't my all-time fav or anything, but it's a great closer to a truly strange, selfsame, conceptually whole album. 8/10.

---------

Honeymoon effect, of course, but right now I think even without Solidarity -- just DTTS alone -- is my nr 5. After 1. Lifeblood, 2/3. TIMTTY/THB and 4. EMG. It's a little weaker than EMG, lacking its grand historic context. But stronger than Futurology. A markedly better version of Rewind the Film's mixed acoustic concept, without a single dud on it -- and some of their greatest moments in Ocean Spray, Rosebud, Just A Kid and perhaps also Groundhog Days. The 60s theme elevates the whole thing, injecting a specific, golden hued magic that defies words. One I've loved for almost twenty years now -- and find in full focus under a well-placed microscope in this frankly glorious reconceptualization from the greatest working band left on our doomed planet.

It's an 8, an 8.5 or a 9, time will tell. It's a real album, and could have stood on its own were it released as such in 2001. It's so good I've only listened to Solidarity twice, although that's also excellent.