Lifeblood

by

Manic Street Preachers

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'Lifeblood' is the Manic Street Preachers most "pop" album. The CD has been getting a mixed reception from the UK press and fans alike, and I don't know why. I found this to be an excellent album. Beautiful and introspective, the album displays an overwhelming sense of melancholy. The group is embracing maturity quite gracefully. 'Lifeblood' features a collection of songs that form a sort of mosaic of emotions reflecting the current state of the world right now. One of collective fear and depression. Who better than the Manics to reflect on that?

The opening track '1985' is one of the groups finest songs. A reflection back on a time when the members of the group left behind adolescence and entered adulthood. An incredible song with lyrics that manage to drop references to Morrissey and Nietzsche. 5/5

'The Life of Richard Nixon' is a jarring track on a first listen, because it doesn't sound at all like the Manics. With a dancebeat background, it has a New Order feel to it. After a few listens, it really grows on you. Only vaugely political, some have suggested that the song is really about the band's former guitarist Richey Edwards who disappeared some ten years ago. 4/5

'Empty Souls' is the second strongest track on the album. A beautiful song with some devestating lyrics. It perfectly sums up the themes of this record. The words are at times almost poetic:

" Exposed to a truth we don't know

Collapsing like the Twin Towers

Falling down like April showers

Colossal endless like a marathon"

5/5

'A Song For Departure' Another awesome track that at times becomes emotionally overwhelming. A beautiful interplay of piano and guitar. 5/5

'I Live to Fall Asleep'-This track has some dark lyrics to it. A very haunting song, perhaps another reference to Richey's disappearance? 5/5

'To Repel Ghosts'-Great track w/ some fantastic guitar work courtesy of Mr. James Dean Bradfield. Awesome. 5/5

'Emily'-Song whose lyrics reference Emmeline Pankhurst, the British Socialist who campaigned for women's suffrage in England in the 1800's. The most political song on the record. 4/5

'Glasnost'-Features some more terrific guitar work from Bradfield and lyrics that try to come to terms with growing older and accepting it. The most 'pop' song on the album. 4/5

'Solitude Sometimes Is'-Another track featuring some really great lyrics on it. It displays a much more 'poppier' sound than the group has displayed in the past. Terrific. 5/5

'Fragments'-This track sounds eerily like U2 at times.

Again strong lyrics:

"Two minutes of silence in a century of screams

Tiny massive hands emphatic lonely soul"

5/5

'Cardiff Afterlife'-A superb way to close off the album.

A stunning interplay of guitar work, strings, and harmonica in the background. A dramatic closer. 5/5

I was just stunned by the reaction in the U.K. towards this record. It seems as if it's either love it or hate it. I don't get that. This is a masterful album. Those who want a return to the days of 'The Holy Bible', well, all I can say is that band disappeared long ago when Richey did. The group since has moved on and refined their sound down to what they call "elegaic pop". Accept it for what it is. I will always look forward to a new release from this group. By far my favorite album from 2004.

Overall 5/5

Lifeblood is a sheeny and impressive, well-executed pop album. It has tunes, immediacy and James Dean Bradfield's vocals shine. But it slips too often towards the middle of the road. Things start well with '1985' which explodes into a vivid, technicolor chorus of heart-swelling proportions, like a better produced version of something from Everything Must Go. Nothing here is quite as good as the opener, however, although there are some notable tracks: 'A Song For Departure' is a yearning track with a textured, yearning chorus, a cousin of "Ready For Drowning'; 'To Repel Ghosts' is a propellent track, one of the few here to get some pace going, that shimmers beautifully; 'Always/Never' grabs the attention with the unprecedented introduction of slap bass, sounding like Low-era Bowie; and 'Cardiff Afterlife' is a spine-tingling lament replete with harmonica and an unsettling, jagged chorus.

Nevertheless, the Manics are becoming a classic rock band. Most of the track mentioned above still have a sort of MOR rock sheen to them. Despite Bradfield's beautiful vocals, they are lacking a passion and intensity. What's worse is that the other half of the album is truly unremarkable. None of the tracks are terrible, but songs like 'Fragments' and 'Emily' sound like B-sides at best. Neither of the singles (the disco-pop of 'The Love of Richard Nixon' or the stadium rock-pop of 'Empty Souls') shine like true Manics classics. The slightly disappointing thing is that the Manics could have made a much better album. Of course no-one was expecting them to make another 'Holy Bible' - that is unquestionably their best album by miles and always will be, and could never be returned to either stylistically or in terms of quality this late into a career. But recent tracks - 'There By The Grace of God', 'Door To The River', 'Everything Will Be', had a complex, electronic feel to them that isn't a million miles away from Lifeblood, but just fall on the right side of the line between graceful and boring.

The relief, on the other hand, is that the Manics haven't attempted to do something they can't. The political polemic, enormously tired by the musically adventurous, excellent at times, but inconsistent and lyrically shambolic 'Know Your Enemy', is largely absent here, with a space made for the music to be important. Equally, the music is never embaressing, as it was at times on 'Know Your Enemy' (and, lest you forget, their first two albums), nor does it attempt to be vitriolic when there is no vitriol left. Indeed, in their mid-30s, perhaps this is the best we can expect from the Manics - they are growing old gracefully. But it just doesn't have the fire of the previous recordings; not only 'The Holy Bible', but even the passionately anthemic 'Design For Life'. Often, the Manics could be any other large-scale rock band, and equally they would appeal to the fans of any of those bands - they have, indeed, joined the catagory of classic rock - not for the kids any more, but for your aunt. This is respectable, clean, impressive and pleasent. But were the Manics ever meant to be any of the above? Isn't it better to burn out than to fade away?