Manic Street Preachers – Lifeblood (2004)

A short holiday to Cornwall a couple of weeks ago was an excuse to plunder some new charity shops for their CD sections. There's a huge pile awaiting review before they're allowed on the shelves.

In Falmouth, someone seemed to have decided that they no longer like the Manics, and I picked up a few of their later albums at £1 each.

On returning home, I discovered I already had this one, so let's do this first.

At the risk of damning with faint praise, it's a decent enough listen in the moment, with very little standing out and urging the listener to return.

There's a strong start with 1985 and the hit single The Love Of Richard Nixon rocking gently along, followed by the other single from the album Empty Souls, a little more lively. I Live To Fall Asleep has grown on me with repeated listening, but still at the gentler end of the band's output. As is To Repel Ghosts and we slow it right down for Emily. And this low key mood continues for Glasnost, with most of the remaining songs being, as mentioned earlier, listenable without being memorable, up to the finale, Cardiff Afterlife, about lost band member Richey Edwards.

So, at the risk of repeating myself, this is fine, but it's not where I'll be going if I fancy a bit of Manics, and as I bought four more of their albums in this haul, I'm not sure I'm enthusiastic about the rest.

Link to album tracks

3* - a listenable effort, but not a great example of the band's output