Journal For Plague Lovers - Manic Street Preachers

==Journal For Plagued Lovers== Richey Edwards disappeared in February 1995. He was due to fly to the US; he had been withdrawing £200 a day for the past week or so, checked out the Embassy hotel at seven am, and then drove from London to Cardiff. On valentines day that year, his car got a parking ticket, and three days later was reported as abandoned. It is then assumed he jumped off the Severn Bridge. His body has never been found, but there have been rumored sightings of him all over the world. Either way, on November 23rd 2008, he officially became missing - presumed dead. Richey Edwards was the lyricist behind the Manic Street Preachers, and ...  Read the complete review

When the Manic Street Preachers announced their decision to use the lyrics left behind for them in a 'beautiful, old school Ryman's binder with Bugs Bunny on it' by missing band member Richey Edwards, I, like many other fans, looked forward to this album with some apprehension. Since Richey's disappearance in 1995, the Manics output has changed considerably. The job of lyric writing fell solely on bassist Nicky Wire and, while an excellent lyricist in his own right, he, in his own words, 'could not inspire James in the same way that Richey did... could not push him to the same places'. Nicky's very different lyricism understandably had an effect on the music ...  Read the complete review

The Manic Street Preachers' previous album 'Send Away The Tigers' saw them recapture their glory days with a series of anthemic stadium-rock classics. And while no one could begrudge them more chart success, there was always a feeling of unfinished business hanging over the band, in the shape of missing lyricist Richey Edwards. Richey was officially declared dead last year, and this has perhaps allowed the band to revisit his left-behind lyrics and actually do something with them. It may seem a bit morbid, but there genuinely isn't the sense on this album that they are trying to cash in on the cult of Richey - in fact, it's more of a tribute to ...  Read the complete review

1. Peeled Apples. Opening with the eerie extract of 'You know so little about me: what if I turn into a werewolf or something?', the opening track of the record is an absolute cracker. A sneering, military beat straight out of the Holy Bible school of songwriting combines with a swaggering guitar riff, adding up to possibly the finest track on the record. 2. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time. Possibly the craziest title the Manics have ever come up with, the second track is another beauty. Beginning with a layer of delayed guitar harmonics that wouldn't sound out of place on a U2 record, the song erupts into a cacophony of ...  Read the complete review

MANIC STREET PREACHERS --------- -------- ---------------- Journal for plague lovers. So The Manics for years were one of the top rock/pop groups to come from the UK, first three albums all offered something to show the rest of the world that we could still do rock music as well, with the beautifully tuneful "motorcycle emptiness" you could already see the class in this band. Over the years they changed styles many times, though their earlier input tended to be poppy punk based with a lot of melancholic lyrics which is right up my street!! This was mainly due to chief songwriter Ritchey Edwards, well sadly ...  Read the complete review