Where to even start with introducing Manic Street Preachers. The Welsh iconoclasts’ 35+ year history has seen them exist in a constant state of metamorphosis, altering their musical aesthetics across each of their 14 (soon to be 15) albums, whilst retaining their proudly-working class and intellectual worldview and keen ear for populist songwriting. Despite earning an early-career reputation as brash provocateurs, a sense of deep, very-Welsh and profound melancholia permeates even their most pop-minded tracks. Lyricist/bassist Nicky Wire (and former lyricist Richey Edwards, who disappeared in 1995 and is now presumed deceased) have long been obsessed with the pains of aging, nostalgia for home, failed revolutions (the band’s leftist politics are well-documented) and the hollow trappings of the postmodern world.

Across their remarkable discography, the hard–working band (rounded out by vocalist/guitarist James Dean Bradfield and drummer Sean Moore) have explored glam punk, grand alt rock, chamber pop, cold post-punk and even krautrock, endlessly seeking out new avenues to explore, all the while never veering too far from pop accessibility. To date, the Manics have sold more than 10 million albums, had 34 UK top 40 singles, including two number ones and they continue to sell out arena tours across Britain and Europe, although they never truly cracked America. They are one of Britain’s greatest ever rock bands and offer glorious proof that working class music can be intellectual, glamorous and aspirational, in contrast to some of their back-in-anger-looking peers.

Ahead of the release of their fifteenth full-length ‘Critical Thinking’, the following list attempts to rank the Manics’ extensive discography. It’s a tough assignment, given that the band has never put out an uninteresting album. To quote Roger Ebert in his analysis of filmmaker Werner Herzog; “even [their] failures are spectacular”. 

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14. ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ (2021)

It was always going to do a tough call, no matter what album was ranked bottom of this list. Despite its flaws, ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ is hardly a poor effort. It’s a testament to the strength of the band’s discography that an album boasting the exquisitely melancholic ‘Still Snowing in Sapporo’ (the album’s most emotionally resonant cut) and the tender, Mark Lanegan-featuring ‘Blank Diary Entry’ counts as its creator’s least impressive effort. Unfortunately, the Manics’ fourteenth album channels too much seventies piano rock for its own good (‘Don’t Let The Night Divide Us’ being the worst offender) and frequently comes across as a touch naff and uncharacteristically lacking ambition.

Best Tracks: ‘Still Snowing in Sapporo’, ‘The Secret He Had Missed’ and ‘Afterending’

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13. Rewind The Film (2013)

Every Manics album is its own beautiful beast. ‘Rewind The Film’ might be the most distinct; a folk rock/chamber pop effort with strong guest features (Richard Hawley, Cate Le Bon) and a killer lead single in ‘Show Me the Wonder’. However, the band’s well-crafted eleventh album simply lacks enough stand out songs to be deemed a high point in their discography. Regardless, it’s charmingly nostalgic and wistful, mirroring its dreamy cover art; a photo taken on the Wales-England bordering Severn Bridge, which recurs across the band’s imagery and lyrics. This artwork has multiple readings. It symbolises a journey into their pasts, the homesickness the band have frequently sung of (“hiraeth” as it’s called in Wales) and is also the location that Richey Edwards is believed to have committed suicide. Like much in the Manics-verse, meaning is a multi-layered and interlinked thing.

Best Tracks: ‘Show Me the Wonder’, ‘(I Miss the) Tokyo Skyline’ and ‘Anthem for a Lost Cause’

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12. Resistance Is Futile (2017)

A deliberate attempt to recapture some of the “widescreen melancholia” of the band’s 1990’s heyday, ‘Resistance Is Futile’ is a grand pop rock return for the Manics, who, prior to its release, had gone an uncharacteristically-long three years without putting out new music. A lot like the band’s first two albums; it’s big, loveable and messy. Lead single ‘International Blue’ is fabulous, one of the Manics’ great anthems, while the tender ‘Hold Me Like a Heaven’ sees Bradfield put in a  majestic vocal performance. However, a crop of pared-down tracks like the early-nineties punk of ‘Broken Algorithms’ and the straightforward ‘Liverpool Revisited’ are for hardcore fans only. The band’s first post-Brexit/Trump album, it’s a welcome reminder that the Manics’ intelligent pop rock can still provide a humanist tonic to the world’s myriad ills.

Best Tracks: ‘People Give In’, ‘International Blue’ and ‘Hold Me Like a Heaven’

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11. Send Away The Tigers (2007)

Seen by some of the album on which the Manics went full-Radio 2; ‘Send Away The Tigers’ remains the band’s most clear attempt at crafting a back-to-basics rock album with maximum commercial appeal. It’s unfortunately a touch edgeless and relentlessly obsessed with scale, meaning that little of the Manics’ singular melancholia seeps through, other than on a bunch of wonderful standouts. ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’, which reached number two in the UK charts, is an immortal stadium-sized anthem, ‘Indian Summer’ is a delightful epic and the heartfelt tribute to outcasts and misfits ‘Autumnsong’ stakes a claim as one of the band’s finest noughties hit singles. A solid, sometimes great album missing just that bit of iconoclastic magic.

Best Tracks: ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’, ‘Indian Summer’ and ‘Autumnsong’

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10. Postcards From A Young Man (2010)

It’s rare that an album places its three lead singles (and best tracks) right at the start of its track-listing. Described by the Manics, in typically erudite fashion, as “one last shot at mass communication”, their tenth album ‘Postcards From A Young Man’ opens with three of the band’s finest latter-day (if 2010 counts as such) songs. Each are sweeping, string-filled epics, with the title track deserving particular praise as a soulful, classic Nicky Wire ode to his younger, better days. Though few other cuts live up to this trio, the whole album courses with energy and joy, whilst sacrificing none of the band’s trademark melancholia. ‘Auto-Intoxication’ is worth highlighting; a gem of a deep cut that fuses the band’s glam and post-punk polarities with thrilling élan.

Best Tracks: ‘Postcards From a Young Man’, ‘Some Kind of Nothingness’ and ‘Auto-Intoxication’

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9. Generation Terrorists (1992)

Placing the Manics’ debut ‘Generation Terrorists’ being relatively low on this list is a semi-big call. Let’s look at the good stuff first. ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ is not only one of the band’s best songs but one of the best songs of the 1990’s. To paraphrase band biographer Simon Price: it’s six minutes long but you never want it to end. ‘Little Baby Nothing’ is similarly wonderful and has aged brilliantly. All the big tracks like ‘Stay Beautiful’ and ‘You Love Us’ are great. Nothing on this sixteen track monster feels like a clear failure, however it has its ups and downs. The likes of ‘So Dead’ and ‘NatWest–Barclays–Midlands–Lloyds’ are fun but far from exceptional glam punk. Regardless, ‘Generation Terrorists’ palpably oozes charm and this brash, whip-smart and glitter-dripping iteration of the band has proved to be timelessly endearing.

Best Tracks: ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, ‘Little Baby Nothing’ and ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’

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8. Journal For Plague Lovers (2009)

We’re now approaching top-tier Manics territory, where rankings get trickier and compelling arguments could be made for albums to be placed higher than they are. ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ is a terrific post-punk/power pop record; a considerably-less harrowing sister album to the band’s masterpiece ‘The Holy Bible’. Utilising the work of two late geniuses in the shape of remarkable posthumous lyrics from Richey Edwards and production work by Steve Albini, these powerful, Pixies and Joy Division-channeling 13 tracks close with one of the band’s most poignant cuts: ‘William’s Last Words’. Sung by Wire, it’s a calm-headed, almost-shockingly sweet final word from his dear departed friend that will have even the most casual Manics fan tearing up.

Best Tracks: ‘All Is Vanity’, ‘Virginia State Epileptic Colony’ and ‘William’s Last Words’

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7. Lifeblood (2004)

Ah ‘Lifeblood’. Prior to its recent reevaluation, the Manics’ seventh studio album was, upon release, either derided or disregarded. Over the years, even the band members themselves spoke of their unhappiness with this cold, downbeat collection. Bradfield has described the album as “slightly virtual and disconnected, and inorganic”. He inadvertently hits the nail on the head here. The album’s dejected nature now reads as a fascinating and provocative inversion of the bland arena rock of then-massive acts like Snow Patrol and Keane. It sharply mirrors the post-9/11 western mood, when cracks in the neoliberal world were appearing: see ‘Glasnost’’s metaphorical invocation of the breakup of the Soviet Union. A fascinating, deceptively complex album that ends with one of the band’s most poignant tracks; the beautiful and rain-soaked ‘Cardiff Afterlife’. 

Best Tracks: ‘The Love of Richard Nixon’, ‘To Repel Ghosts’ and ‘Cardiff Afterlife’

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6. Gold Against The Soul (1993)

Another Manics album that was received with little warmth upon release, time has proven the hardcore fans that immediately loved ‘Gold Against The Soul’ right. Yes, it’s as much of an aesthetic jumble as its predecessor, shifting from the bolshy cock rock of ‘Roses in the Hospital’ to the miserablist grunge of ‘Life Becoming a Landslide’ to the it-shouldn’t-work-but-actually-slaps funk metal of ‘Symphony of Tourette’. The production is so maximalist it’s practically avant-garde, with the band supposedly using twenty-five drum mics on ‘Life Becoming A Landslide’. However, fan favourites like ‘Sleepflower’ as well as all-time classics like ‘From Despair to Where’ ensure that ‘Gold Against The Soul’ soars, whilst hinting towards the darkness that would soon envelop its creators.

Best Tracks: ‘From Despair to Where’, ‘La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)’ and ‘Yourself’

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5. Futurology (2014)

The Manics’ great late-period triumph ‘Futurology’ was the second release to come out of a remarkable one-two punch of intense creativity. Dropping less than a year on from sedate chamber pop effort ‘Rewind The Film’, ‘Futurology’ is a far more successful experiment that channels krautrock, new wave and late European modernist aesthetics into a head-spinningly ambitious late-career near-masterpiece. From glorious pop rock bangers in ‘Walk Me To The Bridge’ and the underrated title track to bizarre kraut-tronica instrumentals ‘Dreaming A City (Hughesovka)’ and ‘Mayakovsky’, even in the brief moments when ‘Futurology’ goes a bit off-piste you can’t help but be knocked clean out by the Manics’ bold, resplendent vision.

Best Tracks: ‘Futurology’, ‘Walk Me To The Bridge’ and ‘Between The Clock And The Bed’ 

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4. Know Your Enemy (2001)

‘Know Your Enemy’ being so high on this list is potentially its most contentious placement. This album garnered a mixed-to-positive reception upon its release, with many feeling that the sprawling runtime (16 tracks initially written as a double album; one side heavier and one more gentle) made for an unfocused collection. While this response is perhaps understandable on first listen, 24 years later, the Manics’ sixth album now looks like one of their pound-for-pound finest hours. There’s barely a dull moment on here, from powerful rock tracks in ‘Baby Elian’ and ‘Dead Martyrs’ to fun experiments (check out the disco banger ‘Miss Europa Disco Dancer’) to more tender fare like ‘Ocean Spray’. A 2022 reissue reconstructed the album to be closer to the band’s original vision, but the 2001 version is already near-perfect. A fiery, thrilling agitprop masterclass.

Best Tracks: ‘Ocean Spray’, ‘Dead Martyrs’ and ‘Baby Elian’ 

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3. This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998)

We’ve reached the masterpiece-only section of the rankings. By 1998, the Manics were one of the biggest bands in the UK, headlining festivals and beating their many enemies at award ceremonies. ‘This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours‘ feels like the band saying “fine, we’ll make another accessible album of anthemic alt rock, but it’s going to be as existential and, of course, deeply melancholic as anything we’ve done before”. The likes of ‘The Everlasting’ and ‘My Little Empire’ are some of the saddest tracks the band have ever written, whilst fascinating gems like the magical ‘Ready For Drowning’ and Smashing Pumpkins-esque ‘Nobody Loved You’ use layers of metaphor to explore the Manics’ own complicated history. The only bum note is closer ‘S.Y.M.M.’, but even that constitutes a fascinating failure. A spell-binding, grown-up record that courses with deep emotional intelligence.

Best Tracks: ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’, ‘Ready For Drowning’ and ‘Nobody Loved You’

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2. ‘Everything Must Go’ (1997)

Asking a Manics fan which of ‘Everything Must Go’ and its haunted predecessor is the band’s best album is a Sophie’s Choice-style dilemma. Their 1997 return is one of the most inspired reinventions in the history of British music; a widescreen alternative rock masterclass of pitch-perfect pop songs (four singles reached the top 10 of the UK charts) that sacrificed none of the band’s intelligence or soul. Every one of these 12 tracks is fantastic, but it’s the titanic anthem ‘A Design For Life’ that will likely go down in history as the band’s finest song. Across its three-and-a-half minutes, Wire’s pared-down, immaculate lyrics speak volumes about Welsh identity, to the point that “libraries gave us power” has now entered the popular Welsh consciousness. A glorious, perfect album and one of the best releases to come out of the nineties UK rock explosion.

Best Tracks: ‘A Design For Life’, ‘Enola/Alone’ and ‘No Surface All Feeling’

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1. The Holy Bible (1994)

It couldn’t be anything else. Not only the Manics’ best album, ‘The Holy Bible’ stakes a firm claim as one of the darkest and most exhilarating albums ever made. Built on a relentlessly claustrophobic production style, the gothic-leaning punk/alt rock of ‘The Holy Bible’ is a turbo-charged bedrock upon which the horrors of Richey Edwards’ head are cracked open. Few albums in history have ever revealed as much about the warped headspace of their creator, ranging from ‘Of Walking Abortion’’s profound nihilism to the harrowing anorexia diary ‘4st 7lb’ to the painfully sad prostitution imagery of ‘Yes’. ‘The Holy Bible’s most enduring track ‘Faster’ sums up the album’s air of impending collapse, journeying from vainglorious proclamations (“I am stronger than Mensa, Miller and Mailer”) to brutal self-reflection (“I’ve been too honest with myself/I should have lied like everybody else”). A stone-cold masterpiece whose willingness to stare too-deeply into the void will change the way you see the world.

Best Tracks: ‘Yes’, ‘4st 7lb’ and ‘Faster’

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‘Critical Thinking’ will be released on January 31st – it can be ordered online.

Words: Tom Morgan
Main Photo: Alex Lake

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