Lifeblood B Sides

[IrelandCalling4]

Lifeblood, one of my favourite Manics albums; Litany is the name I gave my ipod version of the album with its 12 B Sides. Manic B Side collections are albums I listen to a lot.

Any other fans of the Lifeblood B's? Some damn fine tracks - Everyone Knows, Askew Road, No Jubilees, Quarantine...

[Borderliner]

Dying Breeds. An outstanding memorable track <3

[Suicide Aldi]

Dying breeds is terrible. The rest are brilliant though.

[IrelandCalling4]

Dying Breeds is a bit dodgy alright, the other Nicky sung track over the backward backing track is decent though. Overall a good collection of tracks.

[Automatik]

Love that era. Litany was one of my utter favourite tracks for many years (it being, as you state, the working title of the album, only to be demoted to a b-side) and then I made the mistake of setting it as the ringtone on my mobile.

I love Antarctic with its incongruously (considering its lyrical content) thrilled and cheerful wakka-wakka sound, and Quarantine is delightfully upbeat too. I think Marat Sar on here described All Alone Here as 'mystical' and I have to agree (it's achingly beautiful) - and there's Askew Road, which is one of the most touchingly autobiographical songs the band have ever done. No Jubilees the plaintive protest song etc. The opening to Soulmates is glorious. Such an amazing, diverse sound.

It was just a wonderful b-side era that still impresses, moves and delights me every time.

[Automatik]

Of course, there's the God Save The Manics EP from that era too. Always presumed that the three songs included on that (A Secret Society, Firefight and Picturesque) were slated to be b-sides for a third and final single from Lifeblood (presumably Cardiff Afterlife) which never happened for some reason and another - not sure whether the record company or the band pulled it.

[IntlDebris]

The Japanese 2CD edition of this is absolutely brill, great to have them all on one disc. I listen just as often as I do the first album.