So I went through my spreadsheet last night and worked out how many no-vote songs were remaining overall (48 if you were wondering), only to find afterwards that an email had gone into my junk folder with two no-vote songs selected!
So alongside A Design For Life at number 1 and first top 10 finishes for Vision Blurred, Firefight and Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel, Dai has given Kodawari and Ostpolitik their first points to bring that total down to 46. There were 36 back in 2015 so let's see if we can get below that total this time. The Holy Bible just edged out Send Away The Tigers in the By Era chart by 7 to 6, meaning there was a more even spread across the albums.
Dai Howells @Dai_Howells
1. A Design For Life
2. Faster
3. The Masses Against The Classes
4. Motorcycle Emptiness
5. Vision Blurred
6. Found That Soul
7. To Repel Ghosts
8. Theme From MASH (Suicide Is Painless)
9. Firefight
10. Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel
11. Judge Yr'self
12. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
13. Sleepflower
14. Archives Of Pain
15. No Surface All Feeling
16. Kodawari
17. Sepia
18. Removables
19. Tsunami
20. Prologue To History
21. Mausoleum
22. Automatik Teknicolour
23. All We Make Is Entertainment
24. Of Walking Abortion
25. From Despair To Where
26. Walk Me To The Bridge
27. Ostpolitik
28. Door To The River
29. Anorexic Rodin
30. In Eternity
31. PCP
32. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
33. The Vorticists
34. Everything Must Go
35. You Love Us
36. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
37. Send Away The Tigers
38. This Joke Sport Severed
39. Montana/Autumn/78
40. Nobody Loved You
41. International Blue
42. The Ghost Of Christmas
43. Some Kind Of Nothingness
44. Fearless Punk Ballad
45. Autumnsong
46. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
47. Still Snowing In Sapporo
48. Empty Souls
49. Comfort Comes
50. Sculpture Of Man
By Era
Generation Terrorists 3
Gold Against The Soul 4
The Holy Bible 7
Everything Must Go 5
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 5
Know Your Enemy 2
Lifeblood 2
Send Away The Tigers 6
Journal For Plague Lovers 2
Postcards From A Young Man 3
Rewind The Film 0
Futurology 2
Resistance Is Futile 2
The Ultra Vivid Lament 1
Others 6
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The second chart in this batch comes with extensive notes, so I'll leave it to Dr Gary to explain in his own words in batches of ten!
Dr Gary P Marriner @DrGaryMarriner
1. Motorcycle Emptiness
2. Everything Must Go
3. No Surface All Feeling
4. Prologue To History
5. Divine Youth
6. Faster
7. Motown Junk
8. You Love Us
9. Sepia
10. Black Holes For The Young
Classic track for the top spot, no surprises there. Few oddities in my top 10 including Prologue to History, just can’t beat that damn harsh rock piano, something about the anger in the song gets me every time. Divine Youth and Sepia both ache of melancholic beauty and nostalgic sorrow in very different ways. Black Holes for the Young is not an amazing track but the contrast between JDB and SEB is. Her class-ridden droll juxtaposed to his unashamedly Welsh statements creates something that speaks to the absolute heart of what the later 20th century was about for me.
11. Stay Beautiful
12. From Despair To Where
13. Kevin Carter
14. Removables
15. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
16. A Design For Life
17. Little Baby Nothing
18. Europa Geht Durch Mich
19. Slash N' Burn
20. In Eternity
More obvious classics with the two biggest hitters (Tolerate & Design for Life) making my top 20. Stay Beautiful, From Despair to Where and Slash ‘n’ Burn all make it in for their absolute banger status when the music is turned up loud and we shout along. Every Manics fan deserves to have heard Stay Beautiful live at least once. Kevin Carter was one of the first tracks that led me to find out more about the people behind the songs. Removables is just so damn sad but speaks of an appealing movement of emotions that gives it something more. Funny the Little Baby Nothing and Europa ended up next to each other. Two very good duets, the first of which is another simple classic and tells a perfect story. Europa should have been the anthem that prevented Brexit.
21. Yes
22. First Republic
23. Nobody Loved You
24. Pedestal
25. Intravenous Agnostic
26. Sleepflower
27. Enola/Alone
28. Show Me The Wonder
29. Hold Me Like A Heaven
30. Donkeys
Yes, First Republic and Intravenous Agnostic are all fantastic rock songs with excellent lyrics. All examples of songs that again made me learn and research. Nobody Loved You builds and builds to that moment and is heartbreaking every time. If it is possible to detach the song from Richey I almost feel like it stands stronger as a pure song of loss. Show me the Wonder was the first Manics song my wife liked and we still sing it together in the car, a very good reason to have it in there. Sleepflower will always remind me of being a teenager pogoing around in my bedroom whereas Hold me Like A Heaven will always remind me of meeting my wife and falling in Love. The opening line to Donkeys is one of the greatest lyrics ever written.
31. Socialist Serenade
32. Further Away
33. The Masses Against The Classes
34. Leviathan
35. Masking Tape
36. Golden Platitudes
37. This Joke Sport Severed
38. Be Natural
39. Valley Boy
40. Afterending
The dog barking at the start of Socialist Serenade is just fab, the song speaking of the contradictions in modern socialism really helped me hone my personal politics whereas Masses is just an absolute banger that deserves to be remembered more and I’ll always love that it was the first new No1 of this entire millennium. Leviathan is my 6th form Philosophy class in a nutshell, and I’ll always love it for that. Masking Tape provided me with the perfect metaphor for my own feelings and is an underrated gem. Golden Platitudes has the colonise the moon lyric but is also a grand old anthem of disaffection. Valley Boy gets a mention for being so beautifully European long before Futurology. I’ve always seen myself as European and when I started travelling more that song came with me. Afterending sneaks in as my favourite track from TUVL and for its brilliant lyrics.
41. Spectators Of Suicide
42. Red Sleeping Beauty
43. Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel
44. People Give In
45. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart
46. Morning Comrades
47. A Song For The Sadness
48. We Her Majesty's Prisoners
49. Patrick Bateman
50. Heyday Of The Blood
Final 10 are mostly all songs that appeal to different parts of my character. The opening speech on Spectators of Suicide Heavenly Version is another touchstone from where I learnt a lot, same with Heyday of the Blood. Red Sleeping Beauty led me to find McCarthy and become a huge fan of their work too. People Give in was the anthem of the latter stages of my PhD along with A Song for the Sadness. Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel feels raw and dirty and exotic and ridiculous, kind of like my experience in Bangkok. We Her Majesty’s Prisoners and Patrick Bateman brim with a ridiculous confidence lyrically and I adore them for it. So crass, so offensive and so bloody arrogant.
By Era
Generation Terrorists 8
Gold Against The Soul 4
The Holy Bible 3
Everything Must Go 9
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 7
Know Your Enemy 4
Lifeblood 0
Send Away The Tigers 3
Journal For Plague Lovers 1
Postcards From A Young Man 1
Rewind The Film 1
Futurology 2
Resistance Is Futile 4
The Ultra Vivid Lament 1
Others 2
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