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#1
27-02-2011, 22:47
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Secret Histories - the b-sides albums
It's pretty common for Manics fans to prefer various b-sides to tracks that actually made their parent album. Occasionally though it's commented (especially about the SATT b-sides) that the b-sides album would be better than the album they actually released.
Below I've listed the b-sides from the albums that have enough to make up an album, and made up rough track-listings (you can of course make your own). If they were actual albums, what would you think of them? What singles would you have released? And are any of them genuinely good enough to stand as albums? 'Fear Of Motion' 1) Locust Valley 2) Little Trolls 3) Just A Kid 4) Masking Tape 5) Pedestal 6) Fear Of Motion 7) Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel 8) Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel? 9) Morning Sun 10) Groundhog Days 'Litany' 1) Everyone Knows/Nobody Cares 2) Litany 3) All Alone Here 4) No Jubilees 5) Firefight 6) Everything Will Be 7) Picturesque 8) Askew Road 9) Antarctic 10) The Soulmates 11) Dying Breeds 12) Quaratine (In My Place Of) 13) Voodoo Polaroids 14) A Secret Society -Hidden Track - Failure Bound Love Letter To The Future (or Welcome To The Dead Zone) 1) The Vorticists 2) Heyday Of The Blood 3) Anorexic Rodin 4) Morning Comrades 5) Boxes And Lists 6) Welcome To The Dead Zone 7) The Long Goodbye 8) Love Letter To The Future 9) Little Girl Lost 10) 1404 11) Lady Lazarus 12) Fearless Punk Ballad 13) You Know It's Going To Hurt - Hidden track- Ghosts Of Christmas 'Lost Voices' 1) Red Rubber 2) Broken Up Again 3) Distractions 4) Kiss My Eyes For Eternity 5) Lost Voices 6) I Know The Numbers 7) The Passing Show 8) I'm Leaving You For Solitude 9) Inky Fingers 10) Ostpolitik 11) Slow Reflections / Strange Delays 12) Engage With Your Shadow 13) Evidence Against Myself Last edited by Phil C; 28-02-2011 at 00:02. 
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#2
27-02-2011, 23:46
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#3
28-02-2011, 00:01
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#4
28-02-2011, 12:47
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The Manics aren't always brilliant at sifting through their own stuff and working out what's a single or not, so yes there are some complete gems that have been lost. Are the B-ides as albums good enough to stand up as albums? no not really. As a fan it's harder to be objective about a body of work as it is quite possible to be bored of some great music simply due to over-exposure.
So while yes, there are one or two notable exceptions, most songs are B-sides for a reason. I think the biggest loss was not releasing ForeverDelayed as a stand alone single at some stage, it could have been a brilliant release, where as now it's a dusty gem that most people don't hear.
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“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” L.P. Hartley
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#5
28-02-2011, 16:44
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Fear Of Motion = The singles would definately be 'Locust Valley' & 'Masking Tape. The rest of the songs are quite slow to mid-tempo with nothing that would really catch my ear on the radio. My choices are because they're fast, quite loud and both have amazing solos. Personally, if your tracklisting was an actual album I probably wouldn't be enamoured to it as it is full of a lot of sub-par tunes such as 'Little Trolls', 'Fear Of Motion' etc. Litany = I would choose 'Everyone Knows/Nobody Cares' as the lead single because it is the strangest sounding out of the bunch and would definately catch peoples attentions and move opinions away from ' Wow, is that the band that did the ' we only want to get drunk song??'. I would also choose ' A Secret Society' as it sounds like it should have been a single anyway. Love Letter To The Future/Welcome To The Deadzone = Here, I would definately choose ' Welcome To The Dead Zone' as the lead single, it's epic, catchy, beautifully sung. The second single would definately be ' Love Letter To The Future' - fast-paced rocker, great solo and superb lyrics and JDB hasn't sounded like that in a long time on this type of song. The final single would certainly be ' Boxes & Lists'. ' Lost Voices' = I'd choose 4 singles here which would be 'Broken Up Again' as the lead single - I think it would be more successful than Empty Souls which sounded similar but BUA is superior. The 2nd single would be 'Distractions' purely for the cheery nature of the song (perfect radio song) and the sublime solo. The 3rd would be 'Evidence Against Myself' purely as, like 'Distractions', it sounds made for radio. The final single to end the campaign would be 'Red Rubber', a strange but lovely sound to it.
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#6
28-02-2011, 17:43
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#7
24-04-2013, 18:46
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Just coming back to this old threat because I'm sat listening to the 'Send Away The Tigers' b-sides at the moment, and I'm surprised as how much it does sound like a proper album (the track-ordering is slightly different to the one I chose above). Some of the tracks I'd written off as slightly too soft (due to the production) actually have a little more grit than I'd remembered - 'Boxes & Lists' for example. The one song I'd probably leave off is 'Love Letter To The Future' though - too cheesy. But aside from that it actually makes a decent record.
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#8
25-04-2013, 01:35
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So of your version of b-sides albums, I'd say in "Fear of Motion" the song Masking Tape sounds good for a single, Manics like to set the livelier stuff as their singles lately. I might be wrong, but I've got such a feeling. Maybe "Locust Valley" too, for a gloomier kind of single.
And in the second "Litany" album, "Firefight" is definitively the candidate. It sounds like a typical Manics' hit. Maybe "No Jubilees" too might sound as a single.
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#9
28-04-2013, 12:38
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Looking back then, I'd say the best of the below is 'Welcome To The Dead Zone' which gives 'Send Away The Tigers' a decent run for its money. The obvious single is the title track which (dodgy opening couplet aside) is a beautifully melancholic track. 'Heyday Of The Blood' to represent the harder side of the album. 'Morning Comrades' is utterly beautiful but wouldn't work as a single.
Next up is probably 'Litany'. 'Everyone Knows/Nobody Cares' is musically the obvious single, but the title is a bit of an open goal...I personally don't rate 'Firefight' as much as most, but in terms of commercial appeal, it's the track I can most obviously imagine hearing on the radio. 'A Secret Society' would have made a good single but wouldn't represent the album as a whole. Then it's 'Lost Voices'. For me, the singles are very obvious on this one - 'Evidence Against Myself' is very radio-friendly and would make a great summer single, while 'Distractions' has a good pace about it and some simple (and memorable) riffs and a good solo. The album that works least well is 'Fear Of Motion', mostly because they used so many tracks on 'KYE' - two or three of the album tracks would have boosted it a lot. As it stands, 'Masking Tape' is the most commercial option, 'Fear Of Motion' is short, sweet and has a good solo, but the best track is 'Midnight Sun', which could work as an album's final single when it's less about catching people's immediate attention and more about showing the depth of the album.
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