The Holy Bible [us Mix] - Manic Street Preachers

Sony

2004

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Manic Street Preachers

The Holy Bible [us Mix]

About This Album

It's with no small sense of irony that the Manic Street Preachers' riveting, galvanizing classic third album, The Holy Bible, gets its first American release in 2005 as a lavish triple-disc set commemorating the tenth anniversary of its 1994 release. An album that was considered too difficult of a sell in 1994 is now given a deluxe treatment similar to Epic/Legacy's triple-disc 25th anniversary set of the Clash's London Calling -- an implicit acknowledgement that the Manics' high-water mark can sit comfortably next to an album considered one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. To those who know The Holy Bible -- and it's a small, dedicated group of partisans, since it not only didn't see American shores, but didn't sell as well as previous or subsequent albums in the U.K. -- it's a comfortable comparison, but it's not quite an accurate one, no matter how much inspiration the Manics drew from the Clash. London Calling is a sprawling, exuberant celebration, so generous and big-hearted it can't be contained to a single album, whereas The Holy Bible is a bleak, introspective, insular album that's bracing in its darkness. It's not that The Holy Bible deliberately alienates listeners, but that it wears its pain too openly and presents it too vividly to be an easy listen. It can still be a cathartic experience, but it's the kind of experience that doesn't lend itself to everyday listening, which is why the album is oddly ideal for an exhaustive historical reissue like this.

While this set doesn't round up all the existing material from the album's sessions -- the B-sides to "She Is Suffering" and "Faster" are not here, but they can be easily found on the 2003 B-sides/rarities comp Lipstick Traces -- it does present a remastered version of the original U.K. album bolstered by four live bonus tracks on the first disc, followed by the previously unreleased U.S. mix of the album on the second disc, which has two additional demos ("Die in the Summertime," "Mausoleum") and a Radio 1 session featuring live versions of "Of Walking Abortion," "She Is Suffering," and "Yes." To top it all off, the third disc is a DVD containing TV performances from Top of the Pops, Butt Naked, MTV Most Wanted, highlights from their 1994 appearances at Glastonbury and Reading, plus a 30-minute band interview and the rarely seen U.S. video for "Faster" (none of the original promo videos can be found here, but they are all collected on the Forever Delayed DVD). All this material enhances the original album not by providing revelations -- the U.S. mix, unsurprisingly, is a louder, bolder mix that doesn't harm the songs but hasn't aged as well as the tightly wound original mix -- but by illustrating what a singular record this was. In any setting, this is a tense, nervy, visceral experience, and in hindsight, it's positively surreal to see the Manics, lead by James Dean Bradfield in a ski mask, singing "Faster" on Top of the Pops. Only in that brief moment in the '90s, when the record industry was grappling with the impact of alternative rock going mainstream and just as Britpop was hitting its stride, could the Manics release such a dark, difficult album on a major and get it played on such pop-oriented programs.

And then, in a flash, it was over. Richey James went missing on February 1, 1995, and after that The Holy Bible was frozen in amber, forever seen as his last will and testament, just like how In Utero seemed like a suicide note in the wake of Kurt Cobain's suicide in April 1994. After James' disappearance, plans for an American release of the LP were shelved, but in retrospect, it's likely that The Holy Bible -- like some latter-day Manics albums -- would never have had an American release at all. Not only was it too dark, it was too English for a mass American audience, but years later, those things don't seem to matter as much now, and in its tenth anniversary edition it can finally be seen -- and easily heard by American audiences -- as a singular, bracing rock album, quite unlike any LP before or since. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Continued…

Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,4 and 10)