Track Listing

1. 1985
2. The Love Of Richard Nixon
3. Empty Souls
4. A Song for Departure
5. I Live To Fall Asleep
6. To Repel Ghosts
7. Emily
8. Glasnost
9. Always/Never
10. Solitude Sometimes Is
11. Fragments
12. Cardiff Afterlife

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10683 in Music
• Released on: 2004-11-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Testing times for the Manic Street Preachers: their seventh studio album, Lifeblood, comes hot on the heels of a commercial flop--2001's brave but unfocused Know Your Enemy--and renewed rumours that the band themselves are in the twilight of their existence. One thing's for sure, this is the right record at the right time: inspired by the widescreen melancholy of post-punk acts New Order, early U2, and The Cure, this "elegiac pop" LP finds the Manics acting their age, shelving the slash'n'burn punk in favour of a sound that is simultaneously graceful, epic and for these dedicated controversialists, unusually low-key.

The album's lead-off single, the disco-lite "The Love Of Richard Nixon", is a meandering dud--but luckily it's book-ended by a couple of strong tracks: the string-laden "1985", which both sings the praises of The Smiths and quotes Nietzsche, and "Empty Souls" (with its "Collapsing like the Twin Towers/ Falling down like April showers," couplet – one of the few tracks here that boasts that good ol' Manics trait of near-to-the-knuckle motor-mouthing). Quality elsewhere is variable – there's a couple of tracks here so inoffensively beige we won't waste words – but it's worth hanging around for "Cardiff Afterlife", a sweet closer decorated with harp and vibraphone. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
Welsh politicos' seventh studio album follows 2001's 'Know Your Enemy' and the following year's greatest hits collection 'Forever Delayed'. Arguably the most pop orientated album they have ever recorded, 'Lifeblood' marks a sharp divergence from their earlier work, featuring lush, slickly-produced tracks with few guitars in sight. Produced in part by longtime David Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti, it includes the single 'The Love Of Richard Nixon'.

Customer Reviews

Excellent return to form!!
I wasn't massively disappointed with 'Know Your Enemy', but i'd have to say that this album is better than the last. In my opinion the general sound of the album lies somewhere between 'Everything Must Go' and 'This Is My Truth.....' There are no real standout tracks on here as they're all fairly equally as good as each other. Other than the two singles that have already been released, none of the songs stand out as potential singles which doesn't mean its a bad thing. 'Enola/Alone' and 'Further Away' from 'Everything Must Go' weren't singles yet they were two of the best tracks. One criticism that I did have of 'Know Your Enemy' was that it maybe went on for too long. However, this is roughly 45 mins long which is just about right. Although I said there weren't any standout tracks, the better ones would include 'Empty Souls', 'Song for a Departure', 'I live to fall asleep' and Emily. One more thing, when I ordered this I wasn't too excited about getting it but overall its an excellent album which hasn't got the attention it deserves. I've had it on repeat four times now and I'm not sick of it yet!!

Know your Lifeblood
A far better album than it's given credit for from a band many critics enjoy not giving credit to these days. '1985', 'Empty Souls', 'Solitude Sometimes Is' and 'Cardiff Afterlife' are all strong latterday Manics anthems, while 'The Love Of Richard Nixon', 'Glasnost' and 'Emily' find the former punks in yet new uncharted waters. Whereas previous albums have seen influences from the likes of the Clash, Guns N' Roses and Wire, this album finds itself in debt to, amongst others, Pet Shop Boys, the Associates and New Order, while still fundamentally remaining the Manics' own instantly recognizible style thanks to James Dean Bradfield's ubiquitously impassioned vocal performances.

Featuring some of the best lyrics in a while and a new lease of life to the music and production, this is another superb addition to the Manics canon. Time and circumstance prohibit it from ranking amongst their very best work, but it's an album, much like R.E.M.'s recent output, that shows a band happy in itself and what it's doing and not willing to see its later years returning to tried and tested formulas. If previous form is anything to go by, expect a death metal album next time.

goodbye suicide
The Manics have always been a contrary bunch. At a time when the likes of Green Day finally woke up to American foreign policy in the light of recent events, the Manics released their least political album since 1993's Gold Against The Soul. However, this album is most similar to This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours in tone. Nicky Wire, the bands resident lyric writer/ bass player/ drag queen gives us an insight into his notoriously complex, often perverse mind. Predictably, this isn't a particularly happy place to be, but his words offer a sense of hope not present in past works: Glasnost, in particular, is a gorgeous song, with the line 'If we can still fall in love' demonstating Wire's new-found ability to deal with personal issues without cloaking them in metaphor. Musically, this album sees the Manics take a turn towards a more electronic sound, with polished production from Greg Haver and Tony Visconti, and far less emphasis on their traditional guitar-led sound.

Lifeblood is the ideal album for the Manics to have made at this stage of their career, after the wholesale clearout of the Greatist Hits and Rarities albums. The band seem to have regained confidence in themselves after the previous studio album, the commendable, but mis-guided Know Your Enemy. The album closer Cardiff Afterlife deals with departed band-mate Richey Edwards in the most explicit way yet, with Wire understandably attempting to re-claim Richay as their own: 'Your memories are still mine/I will not share them/ Aquaintance through denial.' A suitable climax to a mature, up-lifting album.