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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kind people should never be treated like flies, July 16, 2009
The Manics never moved on after the mysterious disappearance of lyricist Richey James Edwards in 1995. They got married, settled down, and sold many records, but in their music they are forever frozen in time. They revisit Richey on every new album ("Nobody Loved You," "Cardiff Afterlife," "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough"), and still can't let him go. When not explicitly writing about him, they still live in the past ("Forever Delayed," "Underdogs"), and even their "socially conscious" songs are staid tributes to long-dead icons ("Let Robeson Sing," "Emily").
It's not because Richey was so central to the band. He could barely even play guitar. The music had always been written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore, and Nicky Wire had always written half of the lyrics. But, for the surviving Manics, Richey's disappearance was the single most intense event of their lives. Now, it's the most vibrant memory they have, the only one that still moves and inspires them. It may seem exploitative for them to suddenly release an album of Richey's unpublished lyrics, but they can't help it. In fact, it galvanizes them to a creative peak.
Journal For Plague Lovers contains no revelations. But that's because Richey never had time to move beyond the despair of 1994's The Holy Bible. When "Peeled Apples" begins with the lines, "The more I see / the less I scream," it's as if the past 15 years never happened. You're taken back to an old, familiar world: Richey's neurotic loneliness, preserved in amber. There is something...comforting about it.
Unfortunately, it is sometimes painfully clear that the lyrics are made from offhand phrases that he scrawled in the margins of his notebooks. "All Is Vanity" has only one verse, which is repeated twice to make a song. "Peeled Apples" is a set of disjoint, unrelated lines ("the figure eight inside out is infinity," "I once impersonated a shopwork dummy" and something about "Chomsky's Camelot"). Some songs feel thrown together around one central phrase: Richey thought of "joke sport" as a cynical way of describing romance, then hastily came up with some awkward rhymes to make the lyrics, "this joke sport severed / I endeavoured / to find a place where I became untethered."
But! Other songs bring back the Richey we loved. "She Bathed Herself In A Bath Of Bleach" seems to be a quick sketch of a woman whom Richey met during his stay at a psychiatric hospital, and who apparently lost her mind after being cruelly abused by a lover. The best thing about Richey was always his capacity for empathy. Here he conveys the woman's pathetic, touching devotion with the lines, "Empty arms and aching heart / the love she sought through faltering thought / table for two, such a sweet delight / whispers 'I love you, my darling' tonight."
One might expect the Manics to try to bring back the sound of The Holy Bible, but actually Journal For Plague Lovers is much smoother. The real template is Everything Must Go, only without the sweeping strings. This forces the Manics out of their comfort zone. For years, they coasted on a fusion of strings, keyboards and guitars that sounded reliably impressive, even without much musical substance. Journal For Plague Lovers makes them go back to writing guitar riffs and solos. They come up with their best in years. For all that "Peeled Apples" is nonsensical lyrically, it gains incredible force from its jagged, wiry riff and the rhythmic breakdown after each chorus. The distortion on Bradfield's vocals occasionally swallows the words (dig the effect on "the naked lightbulb is always wrong"), adding to the raging noise.
"She Bathed Herself In A Bath Of Bleach" not only has the best title and lyrics on the album, but also the best music. The chorus is explosive, more rhythmic and fist-pumping than "Revol," and the song barely even breaks the two-minute mark! Richey's short, fragmentary lyrics help to make the album amazingly concise. Another song called "Marlon J.D." relies on a nervy guitar line with a beautiful echoing sound. Bradfield's voice attains a sense of fatal melancholy on the ominously cryptic chorus. The hidden track "Bag Lady" has some satisfyingly nasty, aggressive guitar playing, and even a funky bass line from Nicky (hey, about time he learned to play). It is a perfect match for the lyric -- the opening line, "I am not dead, I demand I know my rights, I know my rights" is chilling, the sound of a man with one foot already in the grave lashing out helplessly one last time. All of these songs hold up against anything that the Manics recorded with Richey.
Even one step down from these high points, there are many other fine songs. "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time" and "Me And Stephen Hawking" have a more conventional sound -- it feels like the Manics already used those chord progressions somewhere. Yet the bridge in "Jackie Collins" has a lovely cascading guitar backdrop, and "Stephen Hawking" has a memorable break in the chorus, as well as a wryly funny lyric. The title track has another great chorus. In "VSEC," Bradfield affects a childlike, plaintive tone that fits Richey's description of patients at an epileptic colony. Really, the only big weak point is "Pretension/Repulsion," where Bradfield mispronounces the name Ingres.
The last song is sung by Nicky Wire, who cannot sing. Bradfield would have done much better. But, although Wire is tone deaf, he is at least less bad here than in "Wattsville Blues" on Know Your Enemy. And, in some sense, his weak voice actually suits the image of a man who is desperately tired and wants "to go to sleep and wake up happy."
That song sounds like a final farewell. But, even if no more unpublished lyrics remain, the Manics will always come back to Richey. His disappearance left something forever incomplete. Perhaps this incompleteness will lead them to continue making great music, for years to come...
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A career highlight, June 2, 2009
Everyone will be talking about the lyrics left behind by Richey Edwards, but it's the music on Journal for Plague Lovers that makes the album really worth listening. The Manic Street Preachers have long been masters of soaring choruses and catchy hooks, and this album combines the brash hard rock of their younger years with the pop sensibilities culled from their maturity and wisdom. "Marlon J.D.", whose melody was significantly contributed by Nicky Wire, and hidden track "Bag Lady" are some of the best examples of this formula; and are sure to go down as classics. Steve Albini's mix brings to the forefront two of the Manics' best musical assets--James Dean Bradfield's mighty voice and oft-unsung drummer Sean Moore's efforts. May be a difficult initial listen, but repeated spins will be rewarded.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easily one of the top 5 of 2009, June 22, 2009
First of all the music is brilliant. Listening to the album I have found many songs I like including Peeled Apples, Jackie Collins..., Pretention/Repulsion is a powerhouse, She Bathed Herself In A Bath of Bleach, and Bag Lady (The hidden, true, and leagues better closer to the album). Yes, while William's Last Words is supposed to close the album, I think it is awful and usually skip straight to "Bag Lady", you'll see why.
While some lyrics are forced into place, it is in the same way as The Holy Bible and the album makes it work once again. Except in the chorus of Facing Page: Top Left, which while beautiful music feels awkward lyricwise. But then there are songs like She Bathed..., which I believe the song is a success on every level.
She'd walk on broken glass for love
She thought burnt skin would please her lover
To keep love alive and lust beside
Kind people should never be treated like...
Empty arms and an aching heart
I find that lyric to be full of meaning! About the lengths people will go to to be loved, everyone wants a "table for two" but the pain that goes along with it can be awful. Plus the music is excellent.
As far as Peeled Apples I think it is expressionistic and is trying too hard to come up with metaphors, but so what? At least he was trying when so many musicians/lyricists don't even bother. What's interesting is you can make your own meanings, and sometimes that's what makes poetry interesting. For instance the line "Eternity is not a sunrise" in Bag Lady, I don't know what that means, but it challenges you to try and figure it out.
In "All Is Vanity" Richey is talking about how vanity can become an obsession, again a definite message here
Haven't shaved for days
Keeps the appearance of delay
The luxury of one more dye
Pretend humility, the ugly lie
Leaving yourself unshaved to look like you've been busy, and then saying
It's not "What's wrong?"
It's "What's right?"
Because there is so MUCH going wrong that in that mindset something going right is rare. That is incredibly interesting as vanity becomes the only escape, a point existing frequently in popular culture where perfect appearance is the primary path to happiness. Definite depth to these lyrics if you look close.
For some of the lyrics I think they are attempts at being clever through metaphor, but when the lyrics rise above and make a commentary on love or vanity is when the album shines.
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