1. A Design For Life
2. Motorcycle Emptiness
3. If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next
4. La Tristessa Durera
5. There By The Grace Of God
6. You Love Us
7. Australia
8. You Stole The Sun From My Heart
9. Kevin Carter
10. Tsunami
11. The Masses Against The Classes
12. From Despair To Where
13. Door To The River
14. Everything Must Go
15. Faster
16. Little Baby Nothing
17. Suicide Is Painless (Theme From M*A*S*H)
18. So Why So Sad
19. The Everlasting
20. Motown Junk
Manic Street Preachers. Greatest Hits.
Once upon a long ago, the two would
have been mutually exclusive. Around the time of 1992's debut album
Generation Terrorists, emboldened with youthful arrogance and a purity of
ambition that wanted to rebel against the perceived traditional
career-oriented notions of most acts, the band announced that they would not
outstay their welcome with further releases. Play fast, shine brightly, quit
young.
Such a plan, if ever really a serious one, was of course never seen through.
For all their attitude and anti-establishment posturing (much of which was
undeniably genuine), Manic Street Preachers have remained with us, becoming
as much a fixture of the musical landscape as those they once considered
themselves diametrically opposed to in ideological terms.
From inauspicious beginnings with a brace of largely ignored singles in 1990
and 1991, the Manics then found themselves on a major label (Epic/Sony) and -
courtesy of some fine songs (Stay Beautiful, Little Baby Nothing, Motorcycle
Emptiness) - on the brink of significant commercial success. Even so, few
imagined the band would enjoy much longevity, and the mixed reception
afforded to 1993's second album Gold Against The Soul appeared to confirm
such concerns. They continued to be perceived as outsiders, heading up an
artistic cul-de-sac with their chosen brand of anthemic, impassioned
post-punk rock.
1994's The Holy Bible was desperately bleak and wilfully unconcerned with
serving up chart-friendly material. Critics were impressed, but in truth the
album's reputation has been posthumous, brought into sharp focus and given
perspective by events that would happen shortly after The Holy Bible's
release.
During the band's early years, their spiritual leader was guitarist and
lyricist Richie Edwards, always at the centre of some media controversy of
other but beloved by fans and the "Inkies" end of music press spectrum. His
sudden disappearance in late 1994, never to return, fuelled endless
speculation over the possible reasons, and of the Mainc Street Preachers'
future without the troubled, mercurial Edwards. Surely they were finished?
Of course, things would never be the same, but if anything the adversity
drove them on to greater heights. As the 90s wore on, British guitar music
came back into fashion, and by happy accident the Manics emerged with their
strongest album to date right at the very peak of Britpop's all-consuming (if
shortlived) ubiquity. Everything Must Go was a bruised but glorious
reassertion of intent, acknowledging their loss but resolving to carry on.
The sound was expansive, the choruses were huge and memorable, and a new era
for the Manic Street Preachers had begun.
Consolidation seemed to the name of the game for 1998's This Is My Truth,
Tell Me Yours. Another clutch of magnificent singles were taken from it, but
the album lacked the focus of its predecessor. From their position as
respected major players, the Manics looked unassailable for the rest of the
decade, yet in 2001 Know Your Enemy did its best to return them to the
fringes.
So, in some respects Forever Delayed is ideally-timed to repair the band's
reputation. 18 singles, plus a brace of obligatory new recordings. All the
biggest and best hits (including two UK #1s), but tellingly just one selection
each from The Holy Bible and Know Your Enemy - and only two from Gold Against
The Soul. Many will baulk at the presence of The Everlasting (which even the
band loathe), and the omission of Roses In The Hospital, but Greatest Hits
collections rarely please everyone - it's best to judge what's actually here.
The tracklisting opts for random chronology with an intelligent approach to
running order. Forever Delayed kicks off with the towering A Design For Life,
followed by the widescreen Motorcycle Emptiness, cautionary If You Tolerate
This Your Children Will Be Next and underrated La Tristessa Durera from the
period when Manic Street Preachers singles could expect merely a Top 30
placing at best. Quite some opening salvo.
While it's arguable the second half of the album fails to quite match the
magnificence of the first 10 selections, there are a few gems towards the end
of Forever Delayed, such as The Holy Bible's sole representative Faster and
So Why So Sad; Know Your Enemy's one truly excellent single.
Times and circumstances may have changed for Manic Street Preachers, yet
their trademarks have not. Marxism, gauche lyrical conceits, a continual
underlying rage that expresses itself in varying degrees of clarity. Be it
1992 or 2002, a Manics record is identifiably a Manics record. James Dean
Bradfield's vocals doubtless play a part - quite what he's singing is
difficult to ascertain at times without the aid of a lyric sheet, and Richey
Edwards/Nicky Wire's uncompromised prose plays havoc with meter and phrasing
on several tracks, but nobody has ever sounded quite like Bradfield has done
over the last 12 years of bringing the Manics' worldview to life.
Whether one agrees with them or not, the legacy of Manic Street Preachers
paased down through these songs is not to be scoffed at. Never the most
immediately endearing or easily accessible British band, their original raw
energy has been moulded into mature craftsmanship with no loss of integrity
or blunting of their power to engage.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
