MANIC STREET PREACHERS - The Masses Against The Classes E.P.

So this is the EP that restores the Manics' credibility. Or so some people would have you think. A limited release in the UK (one day only officially, but just watch those Japanese imports flood in!) if you're reading this then it's gone already. But is it really that good?

Sadly I don't think that  it is. Certainly TMATC would have been a welcome boot up the arse had it initially arrived as part of TIMTTMY but it hasn't and it therefore stands to be judged in the splendid isolation in which it was intended. (Nothing to do with the next album you understand)

Firstly then it's a retrograde step from a band which has rarely stood still, never mind looked backwards. TMATC comes over as something which would have fitted very nicely thank you onto 'Generation Terrorists' - very punky in the vein of that album. But here's the crux - had it been on that album it would have struggled to have been released as a single as it lacks the melodic thrust of much of even GT never mind the indie AOR of 'Everything Must Go'.. Then there's the lyrics - Mr Jones would appear to have been a little pissed off when he wrote this -   "You thought you were our friends, success is an ugly word, especially in your tiny world". Who's he talking about? What's the word I'm looking for? Ah yes - petulant.

The other tracks aren't that special either - 'Close My Eyes' is standard Manics fare, whilst 'Rock and Roll Music' is a very Seventies rocking cover of the Chuck Berry tune. (So it's quite 'Gold Against The Soul' in feel.)

What are we left with then? A respectable single which has suffered from and failed to live up to both the hype of the last six months and  its 'Special Event' tag. Not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination but neither is it the classic some would have you believe.

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