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Know Your Enemy

Manic Street Preachers - Know Your Enemy Audio CD

A fair review of the Manic Street Preachers "Know Your Enemy" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Manic Street Preachers reviews here, or go back to the Manic Street Preachers tabs.

Band: Manic Street Preachers
Title: Know Your Enemy
Rating:

Release Date: 2001-04-24
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Found That Soul 2: Ocean Spray 3: Intravenous Agnostic 4: So Why So Sad 5: Let Robeson Sing 6: The Year Of Purification 7: Wattsville Blues 8: Miss Europa Disco Dancer 9: Dead MArtyrs 10: His Last Painting 11: My Guernica 12: The Convalescent 13: Royal Correspondent 14: Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children

Know Your Enemy
Some songs sound like it could be inspired by the Beach Boys, whilst others sound like the rough rock music from their formative days as a group. Know Your Enemy is a an album that mixes all kinds of genres and the end result is that one ends up listening to a very strange album. We also get a disco song on this very eclective album. The song "Let Robeson Sing" is a shameless propaganda song that sounds like a failed highschool project with trite lyrics. I agree with Allmusic but I think 3 stars is a more fair assessment then to give it 2 stars. All the lyrics are included and we do get a list of whom plays what on the album. 3/5.

Just brings heart disease and bootleg clothing
After This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998), the Manics were the biggest band in England. Fortune is a harsh mistress. After Know Your Enemy, they were instantly painted as unhip, floundering has-beens. This was partly due to unlucky timing. The album's release coincided with the garage-rock revival of the early 2000s, when earnest skill was out, and minimalist hedonism was in. (Does anyone still listen to The Vines?) But if the songs had been better, Know Your Enemy could still have survived, thanks to its harsh, abrasive guitar sound. The real reason why it failed was because, sadly, it wasn't that good.

The biggest problem is the abundance of loud songs that all sound the same. The album is much noisier than even Everything Must Go, but all of the raucous songs are based on very simplistic, basic guitar rhythms. The riffs in "Intravenous Agnostic," "Dead Martyrs," "My Guernica" and "The Convalescent" are all very similar, and sound like the first thing you'd learn upon taking up guitar. You have undoubtedly heard these rhythms before in countless songs going back to the sixties. But that, by itself, would not be enough to sink the album -- rock and roll is forgiving, and allows a lot of rote repetition. What's worse is that these songs are all really long. "My Guernica" lasts five minutes. It is immediately followed by "The Convalescent," which lasts six. If the band played them as two-minute punk blasts, that might have worked, but eleven consecutive minutes is way too much.

Secondly, the production is weirdly non-descript. "Miss Europa Disco Dancer" is one of the best songs on the album. The music is much more creative than in the loud numbers; as the title suggests, the band was going for a disco/dance vibe. But a dance song needs a powerful drum sound, deep bass, and clean keyboards. This production blends the instruments together to the point where the song actually sounds kind of similar to the loud tracks. The song is still very good, but when the Beach Boys pastiche "So Why So Sad," the REM imitation "The Year Of Purification," the disco song, and the noisy guitar thrashes all seem to blend together, that's a problem.

Thirdly, the band just didn't have a lot to say. As of 2009, this is the only Manics album that does not mention Richey Edwards in any way. It doesn't feature any lyrics written by him, and it doesn't have any songs about him. But that only puts the band into torpor. After Richey disappeared, the Manics have not been inspired by any topic other than him (hence why Journal For Plague Lovers, where all the lyrics are culled from his last journal entries, is excellent). Without Richey, all that interests remaining lyricist Nicky Wire is neurotically describing his minute physical sensations ("broken blood vessels line my cheeks"). But he also has to uphold the band's reputation for outspokenness, so he writes a reverent, earnest, and slightly boring song praising civil rights icon Paul Robeson, in which he wonders, "can anyone write a protest song?" This serves as a substitute for actually writing one. Granted, in "Baby Elian" Nicky tries to take on a more topical issue. . . but the fact is that by the time the album came out in March 2001, that issue was already resolved, and became old news.

To compensate for this lack of heart, the band tries a bunch of things at random. Nicky sings on "Wattsville Blues," and the result is horrible, the single worst song in the Manics' catalogue. It doesn't help that the lyrics deal with the thrilling subject of how Nicky is bored in his suburban home. Conversely, James Dean Bradfield tries his hand at writing lyrics, in "Ocean Spray. " This turns out much better than Nicky's foray into singing, because Bradfield had always been the band's main musical force, so even if the lyrics are a little formulaic, his performance can carry them. But it does show that the album was assembled piecemeal, without any one subject that really captured the band's interest.

Still, a piecemeal album will have the occasional left-field success. Opener "Found That Soul" is one of the many times the Manics have praised themselves for their endurance and resilience (other examples include "There By The Grace Of God" and "Forever Delayed"), but man, it's good. The riff is simple, but enough to drive the song for three minutes, and the exultant chorus is the perfect soundtrack for a fist-pumping triumph after a protracted struggle. "Miss Europa Disco Dancer," as I mentioned, is a very nice attempt at a dance song, with a great bass line softened by minor-key synth tones. The profane outro to the song might seem a bit tasteless, but I think the song is actually a sort of veiled commentary on the EU, so that part does vaguely fit. "Epicentre" has forgettable lyrics, but the keyboard line accentuating the verses is effective. The refrain in "His Last Painting" is memorable, and the steely guitar sound evokes the tone of "Removables. "

And then, tucked at the very end, is "Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children," a rueful critique of liberal European triumphalism with the best, most incisive lyrics that Nicky Wire will ever write in his life. For once, Nicky's ad hominem attacks actually have substance: a single line about being "free to <. . . > from Paris to Beijing" throws doubt on the motives of "idealistic youth," and the lines about the Beastie Boys are withering. This song was a one-time epiphany -- recent interviews show that Nicky doesn't really care about issues -- but it is eloquently written nonetheless.

When you put it all together, you get a few really great moments, and even a couple of songs that deserve classic status. That's certainly better than 2004's Lifeblood, but not enough to carry a sixteen-song album. Know Your Enemy needed a lot more planning and editing.

another good record
The albums they made after Richie dissapeared are their best. I never understood the love for their old album 'Holy bible' that is considered a classic. Their music is a perfect combination of poppy melodies and punky guitars but on this album they show more variation and experimentation then ever. They show they're not afraid to go down the dance and blues route and it works really well. This record has about the same quality that Everything must go and This is my truth. . . had but the last 2 tracks are a bit boring (that's not shame with 12 good tracks) . Overall it has all the elements I expect from a good album/band: melody, dynamics, experimentation. .

An album of character
Infact, every album of theirs fits into that catagory. Although many think that this album is a waste of time, history will show this to be a classic for MSP. Highlights include "Found that soul" , "Royal correspondant", "Freedom of speech. . . " This album works not only b/c the manics recorded it, but because it has a tone that is altogether bleak and energizing, but w/ a diversity that HOLY BIBLE does not have. Check out "Let Robeson Sing", clever lyrics. . . "went to cuba to meet castro, never got past sleepy moscow". . . Kinda like a modern U2 w/o the annoyance. For newer fans also check out another overlooked masterpiece "Gold Against The Soul" which is much better than their debut!!!
Viva le Manics!!! -Kenneth.

A very worthwhile listen! (Altough a notch below the mid 90's heyday)
The often misunderstood, underappreciated Know Your Enemy. . I have to admit that I hesitated to buy it because of the negative press. But now that I have it, I really enjoy it. Maybe it's not in the same league as Everything Must Go or This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours, but it's still a rewarding listen.

I agree with most reviewers that stylistically KYE is all over the place. I don't actually mind that - as long as each song delivers. And I have to say that the first half of the CD is excellent. Even the songs with very split opinions - I found to be very enjoyable. I like the vocoder sound in Wattsville and don't mind Nick's voice. I found Europa to be very catchy and totally get the ciriticism of club culture.

But it's the second half of the CD where things start to fall apart somewhat. Actually it sounds more coherent now, but some of the songs just don't do it for me. His Last Painting is interesting, I like Royal Correspondent, and I really like The Convalescent, but some of the songs on the second half sound pretty flat, especially compared to the wild variety in the first half.

The bottom line is that 65 minutes for this CD is way too long. KYE has about eleven or twelve good to very good songs, but the weaker songs in the second half needed to be cut - 50 minutes for this CD would have been ideal. Mostly because of the filler songs still in place, I do not rate this as a classic. It's not the first place to learn the greatness of MSP - that's for Everything Must Go. But KYE is still one that every MSP fan should have and will appreciate.

You can see a complete list of all Manic Street Preachers discography, or go back to the Manic Street Preachers tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.