the lyrics editing...

[Phil C]

Just wanted to chime up on this. I agree to an extent that some of the lyrical editing was heavier than I expected, but the way I look at it is that the lyrics as printed in the special edition represent Richey as an individual poet/lyricist. The words as sug represent Richey as a part of Manic Street Preachers. Which is only fitting - they were written to be sung and to make songs out of them. If that means editing them then the band are absolutely right to do so - especially as the original versions have been made available. As has been said, we know the Manics lyrics get edited (Nick has said that 'Design For Life' was originally much longer and James edited it down) and we don't get to see that process.

That doesn't mean I agree with every edit. 'Doors Closing Slowly' for example has lost its best verse for some bizarre reason - 'The merciful cast the last stone' verse is lovely. But overall for all we know what's happened on 'Journal' is what happened on their other albums, but behind closed doors.

On a slightly different note, I prefer the way Nick pasted the 'DCS' and 'All Is Vanity' lyrics together for 'Picturesque' as they fit well together - better than the way Richey pushed together the vanity bits together with the bits about wanting no choice. So, there's a severe edit that was for the benefit of the lyrics.