Monday, 13 April 2015

The Big Manics Chart

Back in summer 2013 a group of Manics fans compiled their Manics Top 50s, and I (for my sins) took on the task of collating them all.  When we decided to refresh the charts following two new albums (Rewind the Film and Futurology), I thought I would make it even more difficult and order all of the eligible songs.....all 307 of them.  This is the result of that rather foolish undertaking.

I first entered the Manics story in 1991, when I was 13.  I had seen a clip of Motown Junk on the Chart Show's Indie Chart and thought they looked pretty funny and then soon after taped You Love Us from the Evening Session.  They were definitely different to all of the other bands featured in NME and Melody Maker etc. in looks and sound and after reading some early interviews it was clear that they were happy to set themselves apart even more than that with their words.

As I was starting to buy more records around that time, my first purchase was the cassette single of the second version of You Love Us and I never missed a release from that point on, snapping up anything I could get my hands on, official or unofficial.  After I sent away for some fan club goodies and received a heap of fanzines, badges, stickers etc. in 1993, they managed to make the progression to being my favourite band.

There aren't many bands that can have such an effect on a person as to subtly shape them but the Manics are such a band.  They've always been around and have been my favourite band for 22 years now, so I couldn't tell you what might have happened if they never existed, but I think I'd probably be a different person, in whatever subtle ways that might manifest itself.

This chart was incredibly difficult to compile, the Manics are a band with a massive back catalogue given all of their many B-sides and non-album tracks alongside the inevitable albums.  And don't think that a song being below the 150 mark around halfway makes it anywhere near average.....far from it, the depth and quality of the material runs deep here.

I was very interested to see the average placing chart that I did below, to see if it actually fit with what I thought my placings of the albums would be.  It actually fit almost perfectly, I would have probably had This Is My Truth a little higher, but on reflection I don't really think I can argue with how it turned out.  As you can tell from the placings, I'm very much an old school type of fan, the first four albums are undoubtedly the best, but their career certainly didn't end in 1996, or even 1994 as some people may believe.  The last 20 years of their career have seen some classic songs and excellent albums, sure as with all bands there have been a few moments that didn't work, but they're in the minority.  Their B-sides and so called lesser songs can still eclipse a lot of bands' better songs and long may it continue.

So, after several weeks compiling and a few weeks announcing via Twitter, here is the final chart (numbers in brackets denote their placing in my last chart).

1. Motown Junk (1)
2. Stay Beautiful (2)
3. A Design for Life (5)
4. From Despair to Where (4)
5. Motorcycle Emptiness (3)
6. This is Yesterday (6)
7. Faster (13)
8. You Love Us (12)
9. Empty Souls (8)
10. The Masses Against the Classes (7)
11. La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) (26)
12. Yes (9)
13. Little Baby Nothing (29)
14. Sleepflower (24)
15. Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll (35)
16. Found That Soul (10)
17. Archives of Pain (11)
18. Enola/Alone (14)
19. Your Love Alone is Not Enough (47)
20. No Surface All Feeling (31)
21. Baby Elian (15)
22. Australia (17)
23. PCP (19)
24. The Girl Who Wanted to be God (36)
25. Judge Yr'self (New)
26. Imperial Bodybags (16)
27. Everything Must Go (33)
28. Tsunami (22)
29. Show Me the Wonder (New)
30. (It's Not War) Just the End of Love (46)
31. Revol (21)
32. 1985 (44)
33. The Everlasting (41)
34. Sorrow 16 (18)
35. New Art Riot (23)
36. Postcards From a Young Man (New)
37. 4st 7lb (New)
38. Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky (New)
39. Of Walking Abortion (25)
40. Die in the Summertime (New)
41. Suicide Alley (38)
42. Ready for Drowning (20)
43. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (New)
44. Slash N' Burn (32)
45. Donkeys (28)
46. Journal for Plague Lovers (New)
47. This Joke Sport Severed (50)
48. Fearless Punk Ballad (New)
49. Repeat (40)
50. Underdogs (37)
51. Sepia (39)
52. Life Becoming a Landslide
53. Roses in the Hospital
54. Patrick Bateman (30)
55. Walk Me to the Bridge
56. To Repel Ghosts (45)
57. Firefight
58. Welcome to the Dead Zone
59. Ocean Spray (42)
60. Love's Sweet Exile
61. Born to End
62. Crucifix Kiss
63. 4 Ever Delayed
64. Dead Martyrs
65. Nat West - Barclays - Midlands - Lloyds
66. Another Invented Disease
67. Dreaming a City (Hughesovka)
68. She is Suffering
69. Mausoleum (34)
70. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart (27)
71. This Sullen Welsh Heart
72. Marlon JD
73. All is Vanity
74. Kevin Carter
75. Interiors (Song for Willem de Kooning)
76. Dead Trees and Traffic Islands (49)
77. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
78. Democracy Coma
79. RP McMurphy
80. Strip it Down (43)
81. Send Away the Tigers (48)
82. A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun
83. A Song for Departure
84. Virginia State Epileptic Colony
85. The Love of Richard Nixon
86. Too Cold Here
87. Some Kind of Nothingness
88. Peeled Apples
89. Symphony of Tourette
90. Automatik Teknicolour
91. There By the Grace of God
92. I'm Just a Patsy
93. Autumnsong
94. The Second Great Depression
95. Yourself
96. Don't Be Evil
97. Methadone Pretty
98. Nobody Loved You
99. Further Away
100. Golden Platitudes
101. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier
102. Prologue to History
103. Glasnost
104. Theme from MASH (Suicide is Painless)
105. I Think I Found It
106. We Were Never Told
107. Drug Drug Druggy
108. Gold Against the Soul
109. You Stole the Sun From My Heart
110. Mr Carbohydrate
111. Spectators of Suicide
112. Indian Summer
113. Velocity Girl
114. Nostalgic Pushead
115. The Vorticists
116. So Dead
117. Never Want Again
118. Tennessee
119. Take the Skinheads Bowling
120. Hazelton Avenue
121. Hibernation
122. Dead Yankee Drawl
123. Removables
124. Black Holes for the Young
125. Bored Out of My Mind
126. We Her Majesty's Prisoners
127. Intravenous Agnostic
128. Be Natural
129. Pretension/Repulsion
130. The Intense Humming of Evil
131. Us Against You
132. Damn Dog
133. So Why So Sad
134. The Convalescent
135. This is the Day
136. Boxes & Lists
137. The Instrumental
138. Me and Stephen Hawking
139. My Guernica
140. Comfort Comes
141. Bright Eyes
142. Solitude Sometimes Is
143. A Vision of Dead Desire
144. Starlover
145. Bag Lady
146. Vision Blurred
147. Wrote for Luck
148. Charles Windsor
149. Askew Road
150. Last Exit on Yesterday
151. Sculpture of Man
152. All We Make is Entertainment
153. Let's Go To War
154. The Descent (Pages 1 & 2)
155. Black Dog On My Shoulder
156. You're Tender and You're Tired
157. Misguided Missile
158. Auto-Intoxication
159. 30-Year War
160. Umbrella
161. Love Letter to the Future
162. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
163. Epicentre
164. I Know the Numbers
165. All Alone Here
166. The Year of Purification
167. Everything Will Be
168. Let Robeson Sing
169. Picturesque
170. Dying Breeds
171. No Jubilees
172. Hanging On
173. We Are All Bourgeois Now
174. Europa Geht Durch Mich
175. Futurology
176. Can't Take My Eyes Off You
177. Broken Up Again
178. Out of Time
179. Ain't Going Down
180. Red Rubber
181. Midnight Sun
182. First Republic
183. Dead Passive
184. Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head
185. The Ghost of Christmas
186. I Live to Fall Asleep
187. Anthem For a Lost Cause
188. Everyone Knows-Nobody Cares
189. Rendition
190. It's So Easy
191. Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children
192. Black Garden
193. She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach
194. Black Square
195. Close My Eyes
196. Empty Motorcade
197. Facing Page: Top Left
198. Primitive Painters
199. Emily
200. Socialist Serenade
201. Anorexic Rodin
202. A Secret Society
203. Montana Autumn 78
204. Royal Correspondent
205. Soul Contamination
206. Leviathan
207. The Soulmates
208. 1404
209. Under My Wheels
210. Always/Never
211. Fragments
212. Cardiff Afterlife
213. Morning Comrades
214. Winterlovers
215. Teenage 20/20
216. Are Mothers Saints
217. My Little Empire
218. Love Torn Us Under
219. Just a Kid
220. Masking Tape
221. As Holy As the Soil (That Buries Your Skin)
222. Happy Ending
223. 4 Lonely Roads
224. The Drowners
225. 3 Ways To See Despair
226. The Next Jet To Leave Moscow
227. Stay With Me
228. Distractions
229. Caldey
230. The Sound of Detachment
231. Ostpolitik
232. What Happened to the Blue Generation
233. Little Girl Lost
234. Kiss My Eyes For Eternity
235. William's Last Words
236. Heyday of the Blood 
237. Last Christmas
238. Born a Girl
239. Penny Royal Tea
240. Sex, Power, Love and Money
241. Wattsville Blues
242. The Long Goodbye
243. (I Miss the) Tokyo Skyline
244. Rock and Roll Music
245. Rewind the Film
246. See It Like Sutherland
247. Running Out Of Fantasy
248. Doors Closing Slowly
249. Quarantine (In My Place Of)
250. What's My Name
251. His Last Painting
252. I'm Not Working
253. The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever
254. Horses Under Starlight
255. Antarctic
256. Slow Reflections - Strange Delays
257. Time Ain't Nothing
258. Alien Orders/Invisible Armies
259. I'm Leaving You For Solitude
260. Lost Voices
261. Groundhog Days
262. Melancholyme
263. Unstoppable Salvation
264. It's All Gone
265. Door to the River
266. Lady Lazarus
267. Little Trolls
268. Locust Valley
269. SYMM
270. Litany
271. The Last Time I Saw Paris
272. Kodawari
273. Buildings for Dead People
274. Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel
275. Death Of A Digital Ghost
276. Fear of Motion
277. Pedestal
278. Valley Boy
279. Been a Son
280. Voodoo Polaroids
281. No One Knows What It's Like To Be Me
282. The View From Stow Hill
283. Working Class Hero
284. Evidence Against Myself
285. Train in Vain
286. Inky Fingers
287. The Endless Plain of Fortune
288. Builder of Routines
289. Mayakovsky
290. The Passing Show
291. Manorbier
292. Between the Clock and the Bed
293. Divine Youth
294. Red Sleeping Beauty
295. You Know It's Going to Hurt
296. Antisocialmanifesto
297. Start Me Up
298. Foggy Eyes
299. Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel
300. Blistered Mirrors
301. Rock 'N' Roll Genius
302. T.E. Lawrence On a Bike
303. Wake Up Alone
304. Failure Bound
305. Dixie
306. Glory Glory
307. Engage With Your Shadow

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Album - Average Placing
Generation Terrorists 60
Gold Against the Soul 65 
The Holy Bible 42
Everything Must Go 52
This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours 136
Know Your Enemy 141
Lifeblood 127
Send Away the Tigers 114
Journal for Plague Lovers 127
Postcards From a Young Man 114
Rewind the Film 202
Futurology 200

or

In Order of Preference
1. The Holy Bible 42
2. Everything Must Go 52
3. Generation Terrorists 60
4. Gold Against the Soul 65
5. Send Away the Tigers 114
6. Postcards From a Young Man 114
7. Journal for Plague Lovers 127
8. Lifeblood 127
9. This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours 136
10. Know Your Enemy 141
11. Futurology 200
12. Rewind the Film 202

(Average placings were rounded to the nearest place)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Album (regular album versions)
Final overall placings in brackets

Generation Terrorists
1. Stay Beautiful (2)
2. Motorcycle Emptiness (5)
3. You Love Us (8)
4. Little Baby Nothing (13)
5. Condemned To Rock 'N' Roll (15)
6. Slash N' Burn (44)
7. Repeat (49)
8. Love's Sweet Exile (60)
9. Born to End (61)
10. Crucifix Kiss (62)
11. Nat West - Barclays - Midlands - Lloyds (65)
12. Another Invented Disease (66)
13. Methadone Pretty (97)
14. Spectators Of Suicide (111)
15. So Dead (116)
16. Tennessee (118)
17. Damn Dog (132)

Gold Against the Soul
1. From Despair to Where (4)
2. La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) (11)
3. Sleepflower (14)
4. Life Becoming a Landslide (52)
5. Roses in the Hospital (53)
6. Symphony of Tourette (89)
7. Yourself (95)
8. Drug Drug Druggy (107)
9. Gold Against the Soul (108)
10. Nostalgic Pushead (114)

The Holy Bible
1. This is Yesterday (6)
2. Faster (7)
3. Yes (12)
4. Archives of Pain (17)
5. PCP (23)
6. Revol (31)
7. 4st 7lb (37)
8. Of Walking Abortion (39)
9. Die in the Summertime (40)
10. She is Suffering (68)
11. Mausoleum (69)
12. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart (70)
13. The Intense Humming of Evil (130)

Everything Must Go
1. A Design For Life (3)
2. Enola/Alone (18)
3. No Surface All Feeling (20)
4. Australia (22)
5. The Girl Who Wanted to be God (24)
6. Everything Must Go (27)
7. Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky (38)
8. Kevin Carter (74)
9. Interiors (Song For Willem de Kooning) (75)
10. Further Away (99)
11. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier (101)
12. Removables (123)

This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours
1. Tsunami (28)
2. The Everlasting (33)
3. Ready For Drowning (42)
4. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (43)
5. Nobody Loved You (98)
6. You Stole the Sun From My Heart (109)
7. Be Natural (128)
8. Black Dog On My Shoulder (155)
9. You're Tender and You're Tired (156)
10. My Little Empire (217)
11. Born a Girl (238)
12. I'm Not Working (252)
13. SYMM (269)

Know Your Enemy
1. Found That Soul (16)
2. Baby Elian (21)
3. Ocean Spray (59)
4. Dead Martyrs (64)
5. Intavenous Agnostic (127)
6. So Why So Sad (133)
7. The Convalescent (134)
8. My Guernica (139)
9. Miss Europa Disco Dancer (162)
10. Epicentre (163)
11. The Year of Purification (166)
12. Let Robeson Sing (168)
13. We Are All Bourgeois Now (173)
14. Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children (191)
15. Royal Correspondent (204)
16. Wattsville Blues (241)
17. His Last Painting (251)

Lifeblood
1. Empty Souls (9)
2. 1985 (32)
3. To Repel Ghosts (56)
4. A Song For Departure (83)
5. The Love of Richard Nixon (85)
6. Glasnost (103)
7. Solitude Sometimes Is (142)
8. I Live To Fall Asleep (186)
9. Emily (199)
10. Always/Never (210)
11. Fragments (211)
12. Cardiff Afterlife (212)

Send Away the Tigers
1. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (19)
2. Imperial Bodybags (26)
3. Underdogs (50)
4. Send Away the Tigers (81)
5. I'm Just a Patsy (92)
6. Autumnsong (93)
7. The Second Great Depression (94)
8. Indian Summer (112)
9. Rendition (189)
10. Winterlovers (214)
11. Working Class Hero (283)

Journal for Plague Lovers
1. Journal For Plague Lovers (46)
2. This Joke Sport Severed (47)
3. Marlon JD (72)
4. All Is Vanity (73)
5. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time (77)
6. Virginia State Epileptic Colony (84)
7. Peeled Apples (88)
8. Pretension/Repulsion (129)
9. Me And Stephen Hawking (138)
10. Bag Lady (145)
11. She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach (193)
12. Facing Page: Top Left (197)
13. William's Last Words (235)
14. Doors Closing Slowly (248)

Postcards From a Young Man
1. (It's Not War) Just the End of Love (30)
2. Postcards From a Young Man (36)
3. A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun (82)
4. Some Kind of Nothingness (87)
5. Don't Be Evil (96)
6. Golden Platitudes (100)
7. I Think I Found It (105)
8. Hazelton Avenue (120)
9. All We Make Is Entertainment (152)
10. The Descent (Pages 1 & 2) (154)
11. Auto-Intoxication (158)
12. The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever (253)

Rewind the Film
1. Show Me the Wonder (29)
2. This Sullen Welsh Heart (71)
3. 30-Year War (159)
4. Anthem For a Lost Cause (187)
5. As Holy as the Soil (That Buries Your Skin) (221)
6. 4 Lonely Roads (223)
7. 3 Ways To See Despair (225)
8. (I Miss the) Tokyo Skyline (243)
9. Rewind the Film (245)
10. Running Out of Fantasy (247)
11. Builder of Routines (288)
12. Manorbier (291)

Futurology
1. Walk Me to the Bridge (55)
2. Dreaming a City (Hughesovka) (67)
3. Let's Go To War (153)
4. Misguided Missile (157)
5. Europa Geht Durch Mich (174)
6. Futurology (175)
7. Black Square (194)
8. The Next Jet to Leave Moscow (226)
9. Sex, Power, Love and Money (240)
10. The View From Stow Hill (282)
11. Mayakovsky (289)
12. Between the Clock and the Bed (292)
13. Divine Youth (293)