Gold Against The Soul - Manic Street Preachers > Reviews > Manics strike gold

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money

Advantages:	Some great tunes, nice vocals
Disadvantages:	too short at only ten tracks

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - GOLD AGAINST THE SOUL
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Well Im sure most readers will have heard of the Manic Street Preachers, the band has had a fair few top ten singles and albums over the last few years, with singles such as 'A Design for life' and 'Everything must go'

The four Members of the band were all born in a small mining town in Wales, this is where all of there working class political leanings come from.
As this was such a small area the group all knew each other since their school days, and all grew up with a love for rock music and groups like the Clash, which shows on some of their songs.

The band formed at the end of the 80's, and released a few singles/EPs such as the rare 'New Art Riot', 'Suicide Alley' and the brilliant 'Motown Junk'

Then came their first album in 1991, the good if overlong 'Generation Terrorists', this album contained some very good songs, but also contained a lot of fillers.

Before the release of that album the group were often quoted as saying that they were going to release one million selling album then split up, luckily for us music fans they didn't follow up this threat.

BAND MEMBERS
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At the time the band consisted of four members,

James Dean Bradfield - Lead Guitar and Vocals.
Sean Moore - Drums.
Nicky Wire - Bass and Backing vocals.
Richie Edwards - Rhythm guitar and backing Vocals.

James and Sean wrote all of the music for the album, as the other two members couldn't play their instruments very well, in fact during gigs they would often leave Nicky's Bass Guitar unplugged!

Nicky and Richie where the bands lyrical geniuses, with Richie providing most of the bands bleak and gloomy sounding lyrics.

Sadly in 1995 Richie disappeared, and to this day no-one knows what has happened to him.

THE ALBUM
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This was released in 1993, and is the bands second album.
It contains 10 songs and clocking in at a decent 43 minutes.

The album didn't contain too many top chart singles, and this meant that people disregarded this as a poor album, which is very wrong as you will see from my review!

Track One - Sleepflower.
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This opening song is just a perfect way to start an album, with its instant rocking guitar riff, which will surely get you playing the old air guitar for a few hours!
The drums also are very evident on this tune, with some very loud crashing drumming that really fits with the crunchy guitar riff.

The lyrics are about Richies problems with insomnia, which is something i can relate to, and about how anxious and scared he gets when he is lying awake at night.
As with most of Richies lyrics these are very deep and personal and also quite poetic in a dark gloomy way.

The way Richie's lyrics work would make any of these songs hard for most people to sing, but in James Dean Bradfield they have a singer that can fit almost any words into a tune and he does it with style on this song.

"I feel like im missing pieces of sleep, A memory fades to a pale landscape, you were an extinction, a desert heat, a blind illness of my anxiety"

Track Two - From Despair to where.
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This starts with just James singing the opening few lines over a lightly played guitar, then suddenly a crash of drums and were into another nice rocking tune.

The song features another one of James's trademark catchy guitar licks and is another song that will stay in your head until late next week!

James's vocals are top notch on this tune, from the quiet and meaningful early vocals to the louder more passionate chorus, where he really lets his lungs do some serious work.

This was also one of the singles released from this album.

"I write this alone in my bed, I've poisoned every room in the house, the place is quiet and so alone, pretend theres nothing worth waiting for"

Track Three - La Tristesse Durera.
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Another single, this starts with a quiet drum and bass intro, then James comes in with some nice vocals which reach some very hard notes.

Musically this is quite different from the previous two songs, the band state that they wanted something the fans could dance to, so the tune features a nice drum beat, some infectious bass playing and a nice little repeating guitar pattern.

Vocally this is another fine performance by James, showing again that he can reach notes which would be difficult for most singers, whilst also sounding believable and passionate about the subject matter.

The title of the song was taken from Vincent Van Gogh's suicide note, and means The sadness will continue.

"Life has been unfaithful, and it all promised so so much, I am a relic, I am just a petrified cry"

Track Four - Yourself.
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This song opens with a grinding intro, which soon kicks in a sort of metal sounding riff, with some very fast paced drum playing backing up the chuggy guitars.

The music is all very atmospheric and almost claustrophobic sounding, and really fit well with the lyrics.

Vocally James shows us again how to sound passionate about a subject, with some of his vocals coming across quite angry sounding, quite how he doesn't damage his vocal chords is beyond me!

"Your ritual everyday, a mild shower soak in aftershave, best clothes do your best, look in the mirror go on, belittle yourself"

Track Five - Life Becoming a Landslide.
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This was another single from the album, although it only reached number 36 in the charts.
which is a bit of a shame, if the band released it now it would surely make the top ten.

The song again starts with a slow intro, with James singing some quiet vocals over a plucked guitar piece.
Soon the song starts to pick up the pace a little, with some simple drums coming in, then suddenly the tune gets a lot more rocking, with a crunchy chugging guitar riff which really takes over the music and gets your head nodding about like one of those car windscreen ornaments.

The vocals show both sides of James' voice, during some points it is quite and tuneful, whereas during others he really puts a lot of effort and energy into them.

"My Idea of Love came from, a childhood glimpse of pornography, though there is no true love, just a finely tuned jealousy"

Track Six - Drug, Drug Druggy.
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This is probably one of the only tunes I actually skip, as it doesn't really offer anything new and doesn't really sit as nicely on this album as some of the other tunes do.

Its not a bad song, but it just lacks that little something that lifts it above just being an average album track.

The song is about the bands hatred of the drug culture that followed the Madchester scene, with bands such as the happy mondays and stone roses.

Musically its a fairly simple guitar riff which is well played, but not very memorable.
The drums are also simple and do a good job of keeping the tune together.

James' vocals are not really up to his usual standards on this, and some of the lines don't fit quite like they should.

"I need a reflection to prove I exist, no more sunshine, I am a victim of designer blitz, no more sunshine"

Track Seven - Roses in the hospital.
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Probably my favourite song from this album at the minute, this was another one of the singles and reached a respectable number 15 in the charts.

This song is fairly poppy sounding and has a nice simple guitar riff which plays throughout most of the song.

James' vocals are really good on this song, with some nice quietly sung parts during the verses, and then he kicks into a very catchy chorus which instantly buries itself into your head to pop out at those strange moments that catchy choruses always seem to appear at.

James finally gets to let his voice rip out after three and a half minutes of the song, with a nice section where he keeps repeating the words forever delayed over and over, this sounds great, and it also has a reference to one of my favourite clash songs, Rudi cant fail.

"roses in the hospital, try to pull my fingernails out, roses in the hospital, I want to cling to something soft"

Track Eight - Nostalgic Pushead.
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My other favourite song on the album, this is a masterpiece of rock, and really should be heard by any fan of the genre.

The song is about how there is no inventiveness in music and how everyone is still copying the bands from the 60's.

The song opens with a cool drum beat and a few well picked guitar notes, it soon builds into something a bit more special.
Soon the song has a really infectious riff playing in the background.

But where this really hits is with the vocals which are brilliant and very anthemic, James' voice hits some very nice notes whilst sounding passionate about the subject.

just after the chorus is a section that sounds like its being shouted through a megaphone, and gives a cool effect, which really fits well in the song.

"So cool the new sound of the decade, thinks its so fresh not a post Elvis still, All taste is nothing old pictures blowdried, rebellion it always sells at a profit"

Track Nine - Symphony of Tourette.
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The album looses a bit of its shine with the last two songs, which are not up to the quality of the previous 8 songs.

This song is about tourettes syndrome, which is a condition which causes the sufferer to involuntarily swear or shout etc.

Musically it is a bit disjointed but still quite rocking. With some well played guitar and a steady driving drum beat forming the main body of the music.

James' vocals don't really have the same quality as on previous songs, but they do tend to have quite a lot of effects placed on them, which means they are not as clear as earlier songs.

"Stutter, stutter, says the little boy, I wanna blow a hole in my head, I swear what this world wants to hear, Trapped in what we know as truth syndrome"

Track Ten - Gold against the soul.
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This the title track on the album could have been a lot better, it is very well played and has a nice riff holding the tune together, but in the end its just a bit boring and doesn't offer anything new to the cause.

The song is one of the more political based songs on the album, and is about not trusting the conservative party.

This would have probably been a much better song if the production work on it was a bit better, it seems a bit like the vocals were pushed back a bit far and the music never sounded quite as crunch as it did on earlier songs.

"Working class cliches start here, either cloth caps or smack victims, gold destroyed, destroyed the soul"

OVERALL
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So as you can probably guess I do recommend this album, Especially if you are new to the band and want to hear some of their earlier output.
But be warned its not as radio friendly as their modern stuff, and does contain a few swear words and some quite deep lyrics.

I would also recommend 1994's follow up album "The Holy Bible"

check out the bands website at

www.manics.co.uk

thanks for reading.
Kyle