Nono, no mix can save the stupidest manics lyric ever :-)

The best version of Baby Elian is actually the live version at Cardiff Coal Exchange.

I had Freedom Of Speech between Just a Kid and Door to the River and removed it because of thy lyric too. I thought I would be missing it, but no. I really like the tracklist now, the album makes some noise and then brings a bit melancholy towards the end. Not as good as 90s of course, but really suprisingly not bad. And DTTR without strings has grown on me!

I need more time with it but it's an impressive reissue despite some odd decisions that still make it kind of a sprawling mess, i like to think that's intentional to keep it within the spirit of the original.
I've never been that fussed on the avalanches remix of so why so sad so i would keep the original and i don't think groundhog days belongs on door to the river at all.
Found that soul absolutely must open solidarity, i don't get the thinking behind that but solidarity sounds amazing on the whole.
What confused me, until i realised, is all the b-sides and different versions being stuck on the end of each album when they should have just put them on a fourth cd.
I absolutely adore the convalescent so it was disappointing to hear the truncated outro.
I think it's inspired to end solidarity with miss europa disco dancer and the guitar sounds particularly good on it.
That's what i appreciate about the reissue, it all just sounds punchier and clearer and not like they're intentionally trying to make it sound like it's playing through a broken cassette to be as far removed from truth as possible.

How many copies did KYE sell in the first week in 2001?

Must have been six figures?

Why do you think its stupid? Just curious as its an interesting subject and I like to hear peoples takes on it.

Didn’t get my physical copies yet, but can’t get enough of this. Sounds fantastic in the car.

The first week sales back then were just under 70,000. I bet they'd love for that to be the case these days for their albums!!

I just think they misused the case for some really stupid attacks on America. My mother's a social worker and there are often crazy cases with no good solutions when both parents are alive and the three parts all live in the same town. In this particular case so many other crazy things were involved, so it's clear the child unfortunatelly suffered a big time. The lines like "America the devil's playground, the connections to Bay of Pigs etc....and my favourite Cuban boxers still win... I bet guys don't have any idea, what sports means and how it is misused in a non-democratic land like Cuba or for example Russia or China. I do, because my country was occupied by Russia for 40 years (out of interest we were forced to sponsor Cuba almost all the time) and it was the same here. To celebrate victories of sportsmen from such countries is crazy times 2 (I save crazy times 1 for proffesional sport alone :) ) Jarmila Kratochvilova still holds some records I believe :-D

And... to write songs celebrating Cuba hating US, to play Cuba etc. that's all really stupid, considering what kind of regime is there. If they wanted to do something for the people like they said at the time, they should have played a gig for the cuban dissent exile.

I seriously hope, guys are on the right side in the Ukraine war and won't realease a new single with the russian flag on it. :-)

A funny thing comes into my.mind: a regional czech politician made some photos in RIF T-shirt. When asked about that on twitter, he replied: "yes, I'm a hardcore fan. Yes, I know, I know." The second part was there to stop the following question about if he's aware of such things we are discussing now. :-)

Oh we won't be seeing backwards R's for a fair bit, I'd imagine

I get the love for door to the river (album) but solidarity fucks, even though it's probably front heavy and the track order is frustrating - found that soul needs to open it. Not to mention the cutting down of the convalescent outro and the hamfisted editing on guernica.
The booklet gives the kind of context for door to the river (song) that makes me appreciate the removal of the strings, whereas before i was feeling bereft over their removal. Still, i've never felt that precious about the track anyway despite being one of the few people to hear its first play.
Robin turner also suggesting it was james' decision to scrap the two album concept originally? I was always led to believe it was sony who put a stop to that. Go figure.

I find these edits annoying too. Apart from that I really don't get the ommision of the vocals in the last chorus of Dead Martyrs. It doesn't sound like an instrumental part of the song. It sounds like some accidently muted the vocal slave.
But the new mixes of all three songs are really great, especially Convalescent.

Yeah James says the same thing in the recent NME interview.

The band have always said that Sony never interfered in any thing they ever wanted to do, so I always thought it was Wire that shit himself but in this case it was James.

I don't really know if the two album thing would have made much of a difference. There was no big single. So Why So Sad is an awful song on every level. Thinking about it now, Year of Purification seems a good first single choice, but again that's only with hindsight and distance in how it encapsulates the era in some ways.

Ultimately I think it's the distance from the songs and the era and being a bit wiser in terms of how to make the songs better is what makes the reissue so good, rather than the fact they have finally sorted them into two albums.

I remain sceptical, i remember the whole fuss about the lead single off lifeblood being an executive decision so if they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them then fair play.
There is this misconception about the manics that it's james who is the experimental one and wire the conservative but it's the other way round, always has been. Their solo material gives strong evidence to that.

Than you so much for taking the time to write this fascinating and detailed reply. I really enjoyed reading it, and I now fully understand why you feel this way.

Thank you, and respect.

Now I'm wondering how much irony is there :-)

I don't get the fuss you guys make about stuff like Brian Warner's tasty little ass or Baby Elian. As cringeworthy as the former might seem today, it was clearly written tongue-in-(ass) cheek and could even be perceived as ironic.

As for the latter - I always though Baby Elian was written from the perspective of some die hard Cuban commie, hence the (perhaps exaggerated) lines like "America - the devil's playground." I mean, I get the band's sympathy towards Cuba but I'd never accuse them of being blindsided to the atrocities that took place there. They're not your average naive and dumb celebs y'know?