ALBUM OF THE YEAR: REVEALED

Despite very tough competiton from Kasabian (who are already "Best New Band Since Oasis" and might also end up being gig of the year next week), and now having heard 3/4 of the new U2 album (which is great), The Official Album of The Year without any hesitation (at this moment) is the new MANIC STREET PREACHERS album LIFEBLOOD.

First a bit of backstory on my history with this band: I tried to get into them early on when they were new (thanks as always to the NME). At the time (early 90's) they wanted to be as big as Guns N Roses and went so far as to try to be a UK version of them, though their fashion sense was a bit spotty. However, they made good press, as they had a thoughful singer (who often reminded me of a young Tom Whitfleet), an intellectual douche bassist with a big mouth and stupid political views, a drummer who never spoke, and a guitar player/lyricist who was handsome, eccentric, possibly gay or bi, and extremely tortured to the point where he was scary (just seek out his infamous NME interview where he took a razor and carved "4 REAL" into his forearm in response to the interviewer calling them posers. Not pretty). His name was Richey and like the douche junkie Peter in the Libertines today, he was the star of the band (though Richey never was kicked out). I largely ignored their initial albums, even after Richey fucked off and left not only the band, but seemingly the world. Literally. Long rumoured to be a suicide yet occasional "sightings" hit the papers every few years, always without merit. Not a joke, not a publicity thing.

Anyhow, something weird happened after Richey disappeared: the Manics suddently became huger thanks to two excellent rock albums, EVERYTHING MUST GO and THIS IS MY TRUTH TELL ME YOURS. These are two must have albums that deal with serious adult issues ranging from womens rights, to politics, to everything in between. Their sound changed to a more lush pop sound, but their messages were clear. They also got smarter in how they got their views across, making them more personalized and easy for a listener to relate to. People "got" songs like A DESIGN FOR LIFE and YOU STOLE THE SUN FROM MY HEART. With this change, they hit the upper echelon of British Rock music. Megastars. Arenas. I mean, Ian Brown was opening for them! Come on...And guess what? I missed all of this. I read about it, but never got the albums. Thus, and for the record credit has to go to Dan Hamill, who was the original Manics fan and during our our adventures at Gold Street I got to hear THIS IS MY TRUTH and was hooked. I then bought a used copy of EVERYTHING MUST GO and I was a confirmed fan. I was ready for more and eagerly awaited the next release...

Anyhow, after this amazing run of hit records, they, meaning the douche bassist Nicky Wire, who I can't stand, became more outspoken, more political and surprisingly anti-american in the press. To the point of annoyance. Total turn off. He never even spoke about music anymore it seemed like! They even did a song called MASSES AGAINST THE CLASSES, which was pushing it, and then went to Cuba to play for Castro (now even considered by the band to have been a bit over the top). They also became way too conscious of the fact that their original fanbase, now tiny compared to the legions who got into them with EVERYTHING and TRUTH, considered them sell-outs and no longer punk. So in a rare feat where a large band listens to the diehards, the band decided to "got back to their roots" (which never really works unless you're U2) and did a "punk" album called KNOW YOUR ENEMY, which was sonically the opposite of the two previous lush, angelic albums and it fucking backfired. There are two great songs on it, OCEAN SPRAY (a very touching song about a parent with cancer) and BABY ELIAN (about that little Cuban kid, you know that story), and the rest of it is just a huge mistake. I think Dan Hamill liked it. I hated it and so did the masses. To me, it was over.

The album flopped and I feel pretty much killed them to a serious degree worldwide. Thus comes the subsequent hits package, called FOREVER DELAYED, which is actually excellent and shows that even the early period that I didn't like had some amazing moments. It also had a new song, called THERE BY THE GRACE OF GOD, which was, guess what, a "return to form" to the excellent production and musical style of the two hit albums. Suddenly I became excited again, especially when I heard that they were working on songs in New York with Bowie's producer Tony Visconti. That just made sense.

And thus here they are with LIFEBLOOD, a beautiful, romantic, and angelic pop album that sees the trio comfortable with making adult music that is moving and full of, well, life. It also shows them expanding their sound to fit a nice 80's influence as well; there are beautiful keyboard parts, nice piano's etc. It's very warm, very well produced and unlike THIS IS MY TRUTH, exists on a less grandiose level, thus making it easier to feel. And guitarist/singer James Dean Bradfield lets loose on this album with some amazing guitar work and his vocals are amazing.

My biggest problems with this band, they lyrical content, seems to have been addressed as well. Yes it has its political songs (I.e. THE LOVE OF RICHARD NIXON and GLASNOST) but instead of being forced down your throat, they go back to telling history lessons and examining the world we live in. It's done with taste and class and is well written. The album is balanced with wonderful personal songs, in particular the lead off track, 1985, which examines the world in that year and how it compared to the visions of Orwell and Nietzsche. The exclamation point of this whole song is what is mine (and possibly Brandt's) favourite lyric this year: "Morrissey and Marr gave me choice...in 1985". It's brilliant. After being so anti-American for so long, and I know they still are, they do a wonderful song about the victims of 9/11 called EMPTY SOULS which is very well done, and not cheesey and not a ballad. This song, third on the album, is where you realize this album is very very very special. I don't want to get too much further into the album, but it encompasses everything I love about this band. It's touching, the musicianship is excellent, and is everything this band should be doing at this point. Best of all, the closing song, CARDIFF AFTERLIFE, finally addresses Richey head on in an attempt to give some closure to such a a sad loss. Again touching, again without any pretention and truly "4 Real".

In the cover art of their albums, the manics usually have a quote from some philosopher that sets the tone and mood of each album. I always thought of this as pretentious, but when I saw Descartes quote in the front of this album, it said everything about the mindset of this band: "Conquer yourself rather than the world". And they've done it.

Even though they are currently playing arenas in the UK this Christmas (with the excellent Razorlight opening), the album is getting largely ignored or panned by the UK press, mostly because everything is youth oriented and the manics have no direct connection to the current crop of musicians (i.e. the Stone Roses to Kasabian, The Clash to The Libertines etc). My gut tells me that their due will be coming in the years ahead. But these guys were never fashionable to begin with. They never fit in with baggy or with Britpop, and will always be the outsiders...at least until the bands they influenced come to the forefront years from now.

F