The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

Whiteout75 said:
Love The Holy Bible. Was pretty late in my discovery of Manic Street Preachers. This was the first album I bought with them in a second hand shop while ”If you tolerate this” rotated on MTV (still a great song, btw!).
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"If You Tolerate This" was my introduction to MSP, for sure. At least knowingly. I had it on a compilation of some sort and put it on a whole ton of mix tapes, but I never actually got around to digging into their stuff, really.
 
Lee Newman said:
12/6/23
View attachment 189720

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible



www.allmusic.com

The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers | Album | AllMusic

The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers released in 1994. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
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Lee Newman said:
Five songs in and I fucking love this.
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Lee Newman said:
This is fantastic and the story of the album is something. I’m gonna end up listening to these guys whole discography.


It recalls so much music that I love… it’s like foo fighters queens of the Stone Age Dead Kennedys Queen and bunch of hair bands got together and it’s filtered through grunge and Brit pop. The damn interstitial stuff is reminiscent of Wu Tang.

I love the politics.

I love the grit.

Jesus I love everything about it.
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So this was a really really important album for me as a teenager. I got into the band with Everything Must Go when it was enormous huge in 1996 and then when I was 16 and had a bit more of my own money, and was obsessed with the clash, as were the manics, I dug back into their catalogue and landed upon this.

It’s really one of those times when everything falls together to allow an artist to create a perfect artistic representation of themselves and where they were. It’s fierce, difficult, intelligent and vulnerable all at the same time. It also stuck out like a sore thumb musically and thematically in Britain in 1994.

Faster remains my all time favourite single by them and this performance on Top of the Pops is still the one that drew the most complaints in the shows 40 odd year run.

 
Joe Mac said:
So this was a really really important album for me as a teenager. I got into the band with Everything Must Go when it was enormous huge in 1996 and then when I was 16 and had a bit more of my own money, and was obsessed with the clash, as were the manics, I dug back into their catalogue and landed upon this.

It’s really one of those times when everything falls together to allow an artist to create a perfect artistic representation of themselves and where they were. It’s fierce, difficult, intelligent and vulnerable all at the same time. It also stuck out like a sore thumb musically and thematically in Britain in 1994.

Faster remains my all time favourite single by them and this performance on Top of the Pops is still the one that drew the most complaints in the shows 40 odd year run.

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Maybe I missing something but what were the complaints about?

Follow up question, James on the ski mask - had he already disappeared?

What an awful thing… to put out this deeply personal album, to be lauded for it, to be on the brink of blowing up (I know they did there, but everywhere) and then whoosh.
 
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Lee Newman said:
Maybe I missing something but what were the complaints about?

Follow up question, James on the ski mask - had he already disappeared?

What an awful thing… to put out this deeply personal album, to be lauded for it, to be on the brink of blowing up (I know they did there, but everywhere) and then whoosh.
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It was James in the Balaclava. The troubles were still going and to people in Britain in that time a man on tv in a balaclava was a member of the IRA delivering some form of awful message or another.

Yeah, Richey wasn’t suited for the fame, publicity and adulation and both struggled with and embraced it from the beginning. He also attracted a certain form of ghoulish curiosity since the “4 Real” incident. Terribly sad for his family and the other 3 as they really were each others best friends.
 
Joe Mac said:
It was James in the Balaclava. The troubles were still going and to people in Britain in that time a man on tv in a balaclava was a member of the IRA delivering some form of awful message or another.

Yeah, Richey wasn’t suited for the fame, publicity and adulation and both struggled with and embraced it from the beginning. He also attracted a certain form of ghoulish curiosity since the “4 Real” incident. Terribly sad for his family and the other 3 as they really were each others best friends.
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Ah… that makes sense, I can see how a fairly radically left band could provoke those thoughts that way. I’ve read Richey James and Richey Edwards in various writings now (like I picked up a book about this band and started reading it & will probably pick up the 33 1/3 on this out of order- this is far and away my favorite discovery of the project so far. Wish I had discovered it sooner/explored their catalog more back in 2010). This album strikes a balance between the likes of Fugazi and Tool that I didn’t know I needed.

Actually, I’d be interested in @Thackeraye ’s take on the band/album. You too @Yer Ol' Uncle D
 
Lee Newman said:
Ah… that makes sense, I can see how a fairly radically left band could provoke those thoughts that way. I’ve read Richey James and Richey Edwards in various writings now (like I picked up a book about this band and started reading it & will probably pick up the 33 1/3 on this out of order- this is far and away my favorite discovery of the project so far. Wish I had discovered it sooner/explored their catalog more back in 2010). This album strikes a balance between the likes of Fugazi and Tool that I didn’t know I needed.

Actually, I’d be interested in @Thackeraye ’s take on the band/album. You too @Yer Ol' Uncle D
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The Holy Bible is amazing. From memory, the US mix of this was different from the original, I think they tried to prettify an album that is virtually impossible to make radio friendly.

This was the album where the Manics clicked for me. Before that I didn’t mind them, but felt they were lesser than their influences. This, and Everything Must Go changed my mind, although I have kind of stopped checking out their newer stuff.

They are also excellent live.
 
Thackeraye said:
The Holy Bible is amazing. From memory, the US mix of this was different from the original, I think they tried to prettify an album that is virtually impossible to make radio friendly.

This was the album where the Manics clicked for me. Before that I didn’t mind them, but felt they were lesser than their influences. This, and Everything Must Go changed my mind, although I have kind of stopped checking out their newer stuff.

They are also excellent live.
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I just got done listening to the US mix, it didn’t sound prettier… it was actually a bit more muscular. I think either mix would have done well in the states in the mid nineties.
 
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