Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

In spite of my right of centre political leanings I have always loved Manic Street Preachers - they remain one of the best bands I have ever seen live and, if I ever manage to pull by finger out of my arse (metaphorically speaking), then I will see them again on their next tour. But listening to their new song, well, it is difficult to get too excited about it. It is catchy, and will probably spend at least a couple of months on my MP-3 player, but it is no classic. Which is disappointing. Not least because the graphic design of their new single, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, reminds me of their best era as a band - that of The Holy Bible.

Regardless of whether I am happy or depressed, calm or angry, The Holy Bible is one album that always appeals to me. An album made by four angry, bookish outsiders from South Wales is, both lyrically and musically, one of the best records I have ever heard. Regardless of whether you are interested in the spiky punk rock of the music or the caustic, clinical, screaming lyrics, it is a classic.

The lyrics are perhaps the most striking part of the album. It would be tempting to describe some of them as unhappy and sad, and with phrases like "Someone, somewhere will take care of you/I repent, I'm sorry, everything is falling apart", are very moving, at least on first listening. But the lyrics to the likes of This Is Yesterday are very much the work of Nicky Wire - and the truly memorable lyrics of the album belong to Richey Edwards. Because whilst he remains in the depths of despair for the entire album (and pretty much all of his time in the Manics) Richey is articulate and angry about the world. Whereas Ian Curtis slipped into obtuse, impersonal expressions of despair (like "This pleasure's a wayward distraction/This is my one little prize") and Kurt Cobain embraced the navel gazing, self-indulgent and self pity of the junkie ("I think I'm dumb" or "I tried hard to have a father but instead I have a dad") spring to mind) Richey retains some sort of intellectual disassociation from his mental condition. He describes what he is feeling, but does so in a cold, hard way. From Yes, you have "I can't shout, I can't scream/I hurt myself to get pain out". From Faster you have "I've been too honest with myself/I should have lied like everybody else." And from Mausoleum you have "And life can be as important as death/But it is so mediocre when there's no way, no light and no hope." The words aren't happy, but they are refreshingly free of self pity and are brutally honest.

But, given the lyrics, the album could be very depressing. But somehow the music of James Dean Bradfield (and Sean Moore) manages to be urgent and interesting. It is a fast paced, energetic record when it could so easily have been morbid and gloomy. The influences - Wire, Magazine, Joy Division - can all be heard but are not overwhelming. Even when Bradfield does stray towards plagarism he does at least have the decency to steal from the best - note how 4st 7lb is a virtual rewrite of The Jam's The Eton Rifles.

However, given the dark intensity of the record, it was never destined to be a massive seller. It was also overshadowed by the tragic disappearance of Richey Edwards the year after the album's release. The Manics eventually returned with Everything Must Go - a strong record it its own right but nowhere near as striking or original as The Holy Bible. Since then they have released the bloated This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, the sprawling and inconsistent Know Your Enemy and the disappointing pop pap of Lifeblood. However the fact that they have not produced anything as great as The Holy Bible since is not to slate the Manics. They deserve credit - praise even - for producing a classic record, and for producing something that still seems as urgent and relevant today as it did when it was first released over a decade ago. They have managed to reduce a classic record - which is far more than the absolute shite that makes up the charts will ever achieve.