Manic Street Preachers - Know Your Enemy
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Free Music Notes for Know Your Enemy
Free Music Review: Coasting on Petrol fumes
Hit: 3 Stars
Gotta respect the Manics for trying to appease every single one of their fans, from the die-hards who believed from day one (myself included, even through the 'Glam' storm of "Gold Against the Soul"), to the new recruits who really dug their softer, more introspective moments on vinyl ("EMG", "This is my Truth..."), but I think I personally would have preferred them to pick a theme or sound for the whole album. As it is, it's far too scattered to be considered truly great.By any other band, this would be a really good LP, except by the Manics' previously set standards. "So Why So Sad" is the best song never written by the Partridge Family (!), "Found That Soul" sounds like a b-side off of "Generation Terrorists", and "Ocean Spray" sounds exactly like the drink it shares a name with TASTES.
Mid-way through the album you can hear Paul Westerburg's Replacements, somewhat--but my favourite tune has to be the straightforward 'Freedom of Speech won't Feed My Children."
"Wattsville Blues" and "Miss Europa Disco Dancer" are fairly atrocious, on the other hand, and probably should have been left off. Since I've heard so many good things about the b-sides from the lead-off singles, I can't for the life of me imagine why they'd want to leave them off.
Most fans will be a little disappointed, but there are enough gems within the swamp to make you feel reasonably rewarded.
Free Music Review: Not particularly amazing
Hit: 3 Stars
Manics never failed to surprise the listeners. Every single album they have produced are really quite different, and Know Your Enermy is by no means the continuation of the dark sullen depression of This is My Truth...; it is a "return to the basics" and the Manics are trying to get that amazing spontaneity or even "randomness" in the Holy Bible and Gold Against the Soul. Some of the songs are typical Manics: Found that Soul, Dead Martyrs, and I don't know if Manics are trying to make parodies of the Beach Boys or Bee Gees in So Why So Sad and Miss Europa Disco Dancer. Wattsville Blues was a complete joke (or it can be complete trash dependening on which way you look at it), I can't convince myself that Nicky Wire was at all serious with that number. The lyrics are rather disappointing really. Bradfield wrote "Ocean Spray" and it was just like some secondary school kids poetry. And the way that the booklet lays out the lyrics as well -- crossing out, corrections, etc. -- makes it appear that Nicky Wire just randomly writes words and phrases which rhyme and are "controversial" or deliberately politically incorrect to annoy other people rather than carefully crafting intellectually. Not a brilliant album at all. Perhaps the worse Manics have done really.Free Music Review: The Manics get revolting again. Sort of.
Hit: 3 Stars
Being a Manics fan in North America is a trial in itself. Little publicity, weak tours, and little appreciation outside the selective circles that embrace them. I may be in the minority that thinks that "Everything Must Go" and "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours" are better than "Generation Terrorists" and "The Holy Bible". KYE is a record that takes influence from all previous Manics albums. Songs like "Dead Martyrs" and "Found That Soul" are drawbacks to their earlier works, while "So Why So Sad" and "Ocean Spray" hint of their more recent, and more successful, works. It is a good album, but flawed. I find that Nicky Wire is showing his age as a songwriter. He still preaches a class war and revolting against the system, but it just sounds daft now. They are not young headbangers, they are thirtysomethings with millions in the bank. I would hate to think that the good Manics songs like "A Design For Life" and "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" are dismissed in favour of lesser songs like "Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children" and "Masses Againt The Classes".
A good record for Manics fans, old and new, you just have to ignore the politics they preach.
Free Music Review: an unholy disappointment
Hit: 3 Stars
How interesting that when so many bands push into the future with their sound, the Manics delve into the past...theirs and ours. And it's a tired past; there's a nice dollup of REM here, a disco tune there, a little Beach Boys influence, and lastly some older Manics. But that last isn't the good Manics of old. No, it's the post-Richey, clanging, neo-juvenile-political, Nicky Wire-fueled Manics.I don't really have a problem with Nicky, but his "political" rantings sound trite and artificial. It's as if they had a meeting and decided to "return to their old sound." Not a natural transition, mind you. The melancholy, beautiful (I know I'm in the minority here) "This Is My Truth Now Tell Me Yours" was obviously a more accurate representation of the new Manics mindset. But part of the promotion for this record seems to involve slagging off that one, so...
Which isn't to say there aren't good tunes here. So Why So Sad, Ocean Spray, and Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children are all great songs. And the rest is far from awful. But it's far from great, too. And if I wasn't already a Manics fan, I would have filed the disc away after one listen. It is because I'm aware of their talent that I keep trying to LOVE the album.
Free Music Review: less than I expected
Hit: 3 Stars
For an ostensibly political band, MSP didn't seem to have much meaningful to say. Their political points seem simplistic and are stated with something less than depth and intelligence. Their views are their views -- this is not a critique of their politics. But I've heard their political points made much more convincingly on other discs. I guess Nicky Wire just isn't the thinker that Richey Edwards was.As far as the tunes go, I've heard better and worse. Some songs are interestingly crafted and really quite attractive; others shouldn't have been released. I thought the disc quite uneven, sometimes trying.
This set seems a sort of step backwards for an important band. It makes me wonder if they didn't lose something more than a band member when Richey went away -- or at least that MSP might have now put a little too much distance between themselves and that formative time to attempt a "return to their roots", as this album is sometimes billed.