Young People's Socialist League

I have to confess that I avoided "The Holy Bible" for a long time. Sure, I enjoyed "Generation Terrorists" and the Manics' later albums (especially "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours"), but everything I heard about "The Holy Bible" focused on how different it was - how it was so 'dark', 'bleak', 'disturbing', 'harrowing' and so on. Not to mention the famous disappearance of Richey James (MSP's main singer and songwriter, until he vanished) just months after the album was released. Even glancing at the titles to the tracks discouraged me: "Of Walking Abortion", "Archives of Pain", "The Intense Humming of Evil"... they sound more like Marilyn Manson than the Manic Street Preachers.

But when I finally did break down and get "The Holy Bible", I was completely blown away. Sure, the lyrics are dark, there's no getting around that. But the songs themselves are absolutely amazing, some of the best music I've ever heard. "The Holy Bible" starts off with a bang - two of them, in fact. "Yes" and "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart" (all one word, a famous phrase of Lenny Bruce) grab hold of the listener and don't let go. Once you've heard the chorus to "Yes", it is impossible to forget:

In these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything
For 200 anyone can conceive a god on video...

Most of the songs on the album have a political dimension - the Manics are well-known socialists and proud of it. Ifwhiteamerica... takes on the hypocrisy of Reagan's America (in which we are still living) and Thatcher's Britain - specifically the contrast between their self-images and reality. While Richey James proudly shouts

Cool, groovey, mornin, fine
Tipper Gore was a friend of mine
I love a free country
The stars and stripes and an apple for mommy

quietly, in the background, you can hear the real refrain:

If white
America
told the truth
for one day...

Some of my other favorites from "The Holy Bible" are "Archives of Pain", with its call to "give them the respect they deserve"; "Mausoleum", about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and "4st 7lb", a song about anorexia (translated into American units, 4st 7lb is 63 lb). The latter song has a beautiful, haunting refrain:

I want to walk in the snow
And not leave a footprint
I want to walk in the snow
And not spoil its purity

"The Intense Humming of Evil" is a very intense song about the Shoah, opening with a long, foreboding introduction played over a radio broadcast from the Nuremburg trials. It and "Mausoleum" are probably the most disturbing (and captivating) songs on "The Holy Bible". The album ends on a rousing note, P.C.P., a song denouncing the drug of political correctness, which lulls the well-meaning with a false sense of progress by effecting superficial change while ignoring systematic injustice and oppression (and at the same time creating a sort of PC thought-Police, another way to get the acronym). Remember, the Manics are socialists, not liberals:

Teacher starve your child: PC approved
As long as the right words are used.
Systemised atrocity ignored
As long as bilingual signs on view.
...
PCP - A PC Police Victory
PCP - A PC Pyrrhic Victory
When I was young, PC meant "Police Constable"
Nowadays I can't seem to tell the difference.

Of course, the other songs are excellent themselves, but I fear I've gone on far too long already. I'll conclude by agreeing with the many who have declared "The Holy Bible" the best album of the '90s. I cannot think of any other album from that decade that has amazed me as much as this one. For all its power, however, "The Holy Bible" remains relatively unknown, perhaps because of its reputation for dark, disturbing and horrifying songs. I strongly encourage you to check it out if you have not already, even if you're only willing to download it and give it a test listen. I hope that once you hear "The Holy Bible", you'll be as stunned as I was.

I should also note that a 10th anniversary box set edition of "The Holy Bible" has recently come out, containing both the British and American versions of the songs, as well as a DVD of live performances. Although I make it a rule not to buy re-releases of albums I already own, "The Holy Bible" is such an incredible album I may have to make an exception. If you don't already have the original version, you may just want to skip straight to the anniversary edition, which includes two CDs and a DVD.