MANIC STREET PREACHERS - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours

Possibly the most eagerly awaited British album of the year, but does it live up to "Everything Must Go"? The early signs are promising as a few plays were enough to keep dragging me back to the LP. However it soon became apparent that I had (still have) my favourite parts of the album and the rest ain't so strong.

Opener "The Everlasting" is a promising start, expansive and reflective and is a clear sign early on that this is no EMG #2. Next up is the number 1 single "If You etc etc" which is still disappointing to these ears. The first time I heard this on the radio, it wasn't until it got to the Stranglers bit that I recognised it and it didn't seem that memorable (apart from the Stranglers bit). However it's certainly a grower, but I still expect Hugh Cornwell to join in on the chorus. It seemed an odd choice of a single (without hearing the LP), but after hearing it then it all makes sense, sort of.

The next three songs comprise the most upbeat section of the record - "You Stole The Sun From My Heart" is almost jaunty, whilst "Ready For Drowning" is to my mind the stand-out track, all atmospheric organs and very Seventies guitar breaks. "Tsunami" is the album's pop song but whether it has enough of a hook to work as a single is debatable - certainly replacing the sitars of the record with guitar live beefs up the song significantly.

Thereafter the album dips into fairly bleak territory. The songs are all different but somehow the sum of the parts is somewhat less than the individual songs suggest. Bleak just about sums up "My Little EMpire" and "I'm Not Working" although I do like the former quite a lot. "You're Tender & You're Tired" is probably designed to lift the mood a little but really it only does a little, whilst "Born A Girl" is sadly a bit of a plodder.

"Be Natural" is much better, if scarcely light relief, with James' voice matching the apparently Radiohead-like instrumentation. "Black Dog On My Shoulder" is another piece which plods along to no great effect before "Nobody Loved You" musically at least lifts proceedings. An obvious single (on an album with very few of those) it's the album's most raucous moment and probably the closest in feeling to EMG.

The album's closing track "SYMM" has been controversial both for its content, albeit being lyrically very vague, and for not being very good, a real downer for a controversial track. It just doesn't quite pull it off musically, never ominous or sad, instead coming over as quite resigned .

The album's a bit better than this review to date would suggest. Yet again the Manics have defied everyone and come out with an album which sounds very different to any other they've released. In terms of quality it's comparable with "Gold Against The Soul", very good first half, a bit dull in the second. It's also not very commercial. But it's major problem is it's length. Barely seven weeks after purchase and this is an album I still listen to a lot, but not all the way through, indeed I find it very hard to listen to in the one sitting. As a forty-five minute LP it would have been great, but as released well... a lot of the tracks are reminiscent of the EMG singles B-sides. A 6/10 LP this time.

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