Audio CD review:
Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed

Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed

Band: Manic Street Preachers Title: Forever Delayed Rating: Release Date: 2002-10-29 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: A Design For Life 2: Motorcycle Emptiness 3: If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 4: La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) 5: There By The Grace Of God 6: You Love Us 7: Australia 8: You Stole The Sun From My Heart 9: Kevin Carter 10: Tsunami 11: The Masses Against The Classes 12: From Despair To Where 13: Door To The River 14: Everything Must Go 15: Faster 16: Little Baby Nothing 17: Suicide Is Painless (Theme From Mash) 18: So Why So Sad 19: The Everlasting 20: Motown Junk

A fine intro for the novice fan, but this could and should be better The casual fan just getting into MSP will love what they hear. Sure, there are a lot of great songs on this CD - MSP are extremely talented, one of the best British groups of the 90's. Who could not love classics such as A Design For Life, If You Tolerate This, or Motorcycle Emptiness? But it's too incomplete. There's just too many songs left out that are essential listening to getting the full picture of the band. It's OK to emphasize the commercial aspects of the band to hook in new fans, but there's no reason not to have more from Gold Against The Soul and Know Your Enemy, both very underappreciated CDs with plenty of very good songs. Also, it's kind of annoying to have single edits - usually it subtracts from the songs (as in the shortened The Everlasting, for example, not having the great acoustic intro) But more importantly it is CRIMINAL that there is only one song from The Holy Bible. I disagree that it can't fit with the rest of the catalog - precisely the reason it is a masterpiece is the ability to combine dark, nihilistic lyrics with great hooks. In my mind, Richey disappearing is the defining event in the history of MSP - you have to have at least five or so songs from The Holy Bible to truly appreciate the despair that Richey was going through and how it defined the band's sound. Novice fans who only have Forever Delayed are missing this important piece. To be honest, this really needs to be a 2-CD set. There are about 30 or so equally worthy and essential songs in the MSP catalog, so to have to cut out any 10-12 to fit it all in and include a few songs is a lose-lose task. No matter what get booted, it's not going to be the right call. Doing it my way, you can put in all the essential songs (in their proper original lengths), and have the obligatory new songs and non album songs. I would suggest that they break it into a "Richey days" CD and a "post-Richey days" CD. As much as possible, songs should be chronologically arranged. My "wish list" would be: Richey Days Slash And Burn, Motorcycle Emptiness, You Love Us, Love's Sweet Exile, Little Baby Nothing, Stay Beautiful, From Despair To Where, La Tristesse Durera, Roses In The Hospital, Life Becoming a Landslide, Yes, Ifonlywhiteamerica. . . , She Is Suffering, Archives Of Pain, Revol, 4st 7lb, Faster, and This Is Yesterday Post Richey Days A Design For Life, Kevin Carter, Everything Must Go, Removables, Australia, The Everlasting, If You Tolerate This, You Stole The Sun From My Heart, Ready For Drowning, Tsunami, Found That Soul, Ocean Spray, So Why So Sad, Miss Europa Disco Dancer, The Convalescent, Suicide Is Painless, The Door To The River, and There By The Grace Of God (the last two are the new songs) Notice I dropped The Masses Aginast The Classes and Motown Junk, two songs which I feel are OK, but not essential listening. So overall, a generous collection - two CDs with 18 songs apiece. I'm sure this would never happen, as you still want people to buy all the albums. And I'm sure some reviewers will debate my song list. But to be a true MSP fan, all of these songs need to be at your disposal. But until that point, Forever Delayed does its job reasonably well. the new testiment? i love the manic street preachers first few albums were they had that guns and roses[they were big fans]being molested by punk "the holy bible" "generation terroist" "gold against soul" three amazing classics with not a single dud on each these albums i must add have the depressiant genius of richie edwards whom mysterially disappeared in 1995 and has never been found yeah he never played Rhythm Guitar but he wrote some of yrics with nicky wire and artwork he also contributed too some of the darkness that the manic's have been missing for nearly ten years this greatest hits collection focuses on the career that the manics forged for themselves with the radio friendly album after the event they could of broke the band "this is my truth tell me yours" is not a bad album is just isn't energntic and challenging that you would expect from the manics then came "everything must go" getting back to the early days but still on the verge of radio friendly then came "know your enemy" some reviewers and fans state as their worst album far from it it's there best since the days of "the holy bible" it has "found that soul" which doesn't feature on this album and it disapponits me "ocean spray" again doesn't appear yet being a classic soundin' track this complitation is just a cash in done by the record company and the manics because they haven't made a classic album in years and felt it was time to cement their pop career in a dismal album that should of been a double disc take it or leave it? i think i'll stick with the holy bible thankyou . Amazon mixed up the cd listings The limited edition does. This cd doesn't contain the second cd. The limited edition doesn't list the second cd. . A proper introduction to the Manics If you simply want an introduction to the band, than this CD serves its purpose perfectly. Forever Delayed ain't no Best Of as the listing on amazon leads us to believe, but rather a Greatest Hits. Of course, more hardcore fans will criticize the exclusion of some tracks. IMHO, I would have liked it to be more something like this: 1. A Design for Life 2. Motorcycle Emptiness 3. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 4. Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) 5. There by the Grace of God 6. You Love Us (US mix version) (*) 7. Australia 8. 4st 7 lbs (*) 9. Kevin Carter 10. Roses in the Hospital (*) 11. Masses Against the Classes 12. From Despair to Where 13. Stay Beautiful (*) 14. Everything Must Go 15. Faster 16. Little Baby Nothing 17. Suicide Is Painless {Theme from Mash} 18. Life Becoming a Landslide (*) 19. The Everlasting 20. Motown Junk Anyways, it is a crime that "Stay beautiful" and "Roses in the Hospital" have not been included!. Could have been better After listening to it, I ended up buying all their albums. First off I will say this is the first Manic Street Preacher I bought. All the songs on the album are great but after listening to all their albums, you realize that there are so many songs that should have been put in and others that shouldn't. Like many reviewers say, it was disappointing that one only song from the Holy Bible was put on there. The Holy Bible was the Manic's best album yet only Faster was the only song on there. This album is still a good way to start if you want to get into the Manic Street Preachers. You can see a complete list of all Manic Street Preachers discography, or go back to the Manic Street Preachers tabs