Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible (1994)

The Manics' third album passed me by at the time, as had the previous two, but it's another one often seen cheap in charity shops etc, and this is probably where I picked this up.

It was produced at a time when guitarist and lyricist Richey James was struggling with severe depression which manifested itself in a number of self-damaging behaviours, and at times, this comes through the album's lyrics. However, they aren't always sung with complete clarity (is that deliberate or James Dean Bradfield's style?), although the anger comes through in the delivery. It was also the last album before Richey's disappearance.

It's what you'd expect, a collection of high energy songs, punctuated by short spoken word extracts of political significance, with some working better than others. Opener Yes is a solid start, and the following tracks follow, listenable without being outstanding, until the slower She Is Suffering, which sounds stronger. Archives Of Pain has a compelling loud chorus, and a decent middle eight, and the energy continues into Revol, but it's quite ordinary until the fantastic Faster, a full on rocker. But this is the last one to make me take notice until the final song, P.C.P., a decent thrash to conclude the album.

This feels like an album carrying a lot of baggage, or perhaps that's just 20/20 hindsight. Where they hit the spot, it's genuinely exciting, but there's much here that doesn't.

Link to full album

3* - a decent enough album, but sometimes feels like statement over substance