lambchops's Full Review: Know Your Enemy by Manic Street Preachers
Formed in 1991, Welsh band Manic Street Preachers came to be known for their passionate political pop rants early on. Throughout the mid-1990's the band earned a good reputation for their good music but it was impossible to separate the men from their music from their message. The weird and volatile Richey James helped lead them to infamy with bizarre antics and outbursts. Manic Street Preachers earned themselves a devout following.
However, their world came crashing down in 1995 when the mentally ill James disappeared. The remaining four members were left with a handful of songs and the daunting task of following up their three successful albums sans their primary writer and rhythm guitarist. Bassist Nicky Wire was left with the task of writing while vocalist and guitarist James Dean Bradfield, and drummer Sean Moore had to take up the slack. Manic Street Preachers were left in a rather precarious position. The situation made it impossible to continue in the same direction--so much of the music was James.
In 1994 the band's cohesion and vitriol came to a head with The Holy Bible. The remaining trio managed to take five of the James songs and add seven additional Wire songs to piece together an oddly optimistic 1996 release in the form of Everything Must Go. 1998's This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours showcases a band that has come to terms with their loss and the realization that they must continue in their own creative direction rather than dwelling on the past. Unfortunately, Manic Street Preachers faltered on 2001's Know Your Enemy.
Know Your Enemy represented something of a return to form. After two lighter and more hopeful albums, this was intended to mesh their harsh and angry rants with their more recent sanguine sounds. Sometimes the combination works, but all too often it just comes off as an inconsistent album that lacks honesty and cohesion. I really want to like it as Manic Street Preachers definitely came through on other albums, but here I'm just left slightly bored and rather unimpressed. I can't even manage to listen to the album in one sitting. This is the most troubling of all MSP albums.
Found That Soul is a spiky, grinding opening track. The keys paired with heavy percussion and Bradfield's pure, breathy, and distinctly Brit-pop voice makes for one of the more entertaining moments of the album. At the same time I like what I hear--the band's trademark "high and low" delivery as well as fierce pacing work nicely--I still get the distinct feeling that the song tries to hard. Perhaps had the album continued in a particular direction or chosen a muse it would have worked.
What happens after the first song is confusing. Ocean Spray and Intravenous Agnostic are lovely little pop songs. The former is low-key and slowly paced featuring acoustic elements paired with smoothly coy vocals. The Ocean Spray sound is infinitely appealing and highlights why the band's previous album worked. Intravenous Agnostic combines elements from the previous two songs. It is rooted in even-keeled pop but has a spiky, fast pace that makes it in some way even more entertaining than Ocean Spray. Based on the appeal alone of the first three songs Know Your Enemy could have been an excellent album. However from that point on the band falls apart.
So Why So Sad is a fine enough song--by any other band. However by this band it sounds like a parody of The Beach Boys at best and a complete joke at worst. It doesn't work well as a song much less in the context of the album. Let Robeson also would be a fine song if it wasn't for who was singing it. I bring myself to believe that MSP likes what they're doing on this song and this album. Take the band name off of many of these songs, remove the dates, and remove from this album and they are okay. Great? Nope. Fine, though. I also despise the snippets of newsreel and sound bites that are on many of the tracks--they detract from the actual music (regardless of how mediocre).
Wattsville Blues is a fine enough song, but as with the other songs on this album if you factor in the sophomoric take on current politics it just doesn’t work. I really could care less about what MSP say on the album. However that's not the way the band wants it. They want you to listen to ever freakin' word, like it or not. As a result, the album goes from merely mundane to ultimately unlistenable. It's impossible to not laugh at such classic passages as:
…from Intravenous Agnostic
Brutality is needed in capitalist society
Television abandoned my very entity
Nature failed me
But then it made me
We all pray for pluralist babies
…from Dead Martyrs
Dead stars are always the blackest
Dead heroes the living empty
Dead martyrs hang on forever
Dead martyrs always take it further
…from Baby Elian (yes, THAT Elian)
Kidnapped - to the promised land
The Bay Of Pigs
Or baby Elian
Operation - Peter Pan
America
The Devil's playground
As Know Your Enemy plods along I'm offended at times by the absurdity of the whole thing and at other times just disinterested. Miss Europa Disco Dancer splices together disco synthesizer elements and slightly more modern pop. As a whole it goes in one ear and other the other. This is a common feature of the entire second half of the album. The only times it doesn't bore me are the times it is so bad it hurts. His Last Painting is a generic, monotonous, and crappy song. My suggestion? Listen to this album through about the seventh track and then shut it off. The rest of the album is unworthy of attention.
Other particularly bad moments come with My Guernica with a hollow and droning assault on the eardrums. The stereo recording of it is bizarre--percussion only in the left channel and fuzzy guitars and muffled vocals mostly in the right. It's a challenge to digest in headphones. Royal Correspondent is another ugly offering but it's Baby Elian that really speaks to the purpose of this album. MSP goes down in history as the first Western band to play for Cuban dictator Castro. This song is the forced, contrived, and unnecessary statement regarding the band's position on the whole Elian Gonzalez debacle. It's one thing to have an opinion and a whole other to sing about it and jump on Castro's own convoluted cause.
Know Your Enemy is an all-around awful album. Early on, there are some decent moments (especially Found That Soul, Ocean Spray, and despite the stupidity Intravenous Agnostic) but in the end this just is not a good album. If you really want to know what Manic Street Preachers are about look toward their earlier albums. Know Your Enemy is confusing and unnecessary material.
Rating: 1.5/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Found That Soul
02. Ocean Spray
03. Intravenous Agnostic
04. So Why So Sad
05. Let Robeson Sing
06. Year Of Purification, The
07. Wattsville Blues
08. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
09. Dead Martyrs
10. His Last Painting
11. My Guernica
12. Convalescent, The
13. Royal Correspondent
14. Epicentre
15. Baby Elian
16. Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children
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