Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible [UK RSD picture disc]

Back in the early 2000's my love of the Manic Street Preachers and discovery of eBay collided with excellent consequences; I bought so many strange releases in an early attempt to hear as many of their songs as possible and have a complete collection. In my browsing of eBay, I heard about the "US mix" of The Holy Bible for the first time - a guy was selling bootleg copies and I was kinda tempted. I decided not to buy one - the bootlegs were still quite pricey and I didn't like the idea of buying something that wasn't real. With that decision, it ended up being another couple of years before I'd hear the US mix of the The Holy Bible.

In 2004, it was announced that the Manics were releasing a 10th anniversary edition of The Holy Bible with the US mix on a second disc. I had a flyer about it from somewhere (possibly after seeing them on the Lifeblood tour?) and remember texting a friend about it. I was excited, not just for the the bonus tracks (some of which I had, some I didn't) and the dvd, but mostly to finally hear the US mix that I'd read about.

I remember being slightly underwhelmed by the mix when I first heard it. I think I expected it to be more different - I imagine a couple of years of wondering what it might sound like didn't help keep my expectations in check. The differences were there, but rarely make a material difference to the album as a whole. I'm not remotely an expert on music production (I'm far less than a novice) so to the (very) untrained ear it is very hard to say what has been mixed differently. As a result, the following paragraph about how the songs sound different is painfully vague and has an over-reliance on the word "different".

From the off, Yes just sounds different - not better or worse necessarily, just different. The guitars are quieter (I think) and it somehow sounds slower. I think I prefer the the original mix here, but maybe that's just my memories of listening to a murky cassette copy when I was 15 kicking in - there's something brilliant about the opening song sounding so intentionally off-putting, and I love that. Ifwhiteamerica... also sounds cleaner, but it works for that song. Funny how subtle differences can work in different ways. Of Walking Abortion barely sounds different, whilst She is Suffering is one of the most notably different versions - there's almost a wash over the whole song that adds a certain dreaminess. Achieves of Pain is far less dark and the guitars just before the chorus have hair-metal feel to them - it's only brief, but makes a difference to the song nonetheless. The verses of Revol are definitely worse - it feels like everything has been swept away and covered in cotton wool. As a result, the choruses lack the punch. It's not until This is Yesterday on the second side that I can hear that anything has changed (so much so, you almost wonder for a while if they pressed the wrong side B). The difference on This is Yesterday appears to mostly be extra echo on James' vocals; again, I couldn't say if it's better or worse, just different. The intro to Die in the Summertime is all over the shop; The Intense Humming of Evil is also pretty similar whilst P.C.P. was something strange done to the vocals that I'm not keen on.

Having never been musical, I do find it fascinating to see the effect of a new mix. You always assume the songs are the sole creation of the musicians in the band, but the relationship with the producer becomes apparent quite quickly; how that then translates to the mixing and mastering is another thing altogether. I can't begin to imagine what it's like to hear the song you wrote as countless slightly different versions and choose the one that fits the best - a bit more reverb here, an echo there - the lifecycle of a song is something I'll probably never fully understand unless my musical abilities take a dramatic change for the better (they'd have to exist first). I'm not actively working on this, so I very doubt I'll ever know.

Anyway, for Record Store Day 2015 they repressed The Holy Bible on picture disc - the UK getting the US mix and the US getting the original mix. I was lucky enough to find a copy of the US release on holiday a year and a half later (on sale too). I love the artwork they used for the US mix - a close up of the boy from the Faster single faintly overlaid with the image of Jesus that appears on the cd picture disc and in the booklet - it's so subtle I didn't notice it until recently. I love the original artwort, but I think this would also have made for a striking album cover the first time around. The reverse is disappointingly plain, but no one is looking at that.

Format: 12", picture disc
Tracks: 13
Cost: £25 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 18/04/15
Colour: picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Cat Empire - Two Shoes

Twelve years ago I spent a month driving through the Australian outback with a group of ten friends. We flew to Darwin, hired three cars and started driving south, all the way to Kangaroo Island, just off the coast, south of Adelaide. It was an incredible experience. I couldn't drive at the time, so made myself useful by bringing along a bunch of mix cds for the journey (it was on that trip that I made a bunch of people fall in love with 57 by Biffy Clyro). After about three weeks, the cds were scratched from being in heavy rotation and even I was beginning to tire of my mixes. Luckily, we were passing through Adelaide where Seb's girlfriend was studying, so she gave us some new music. A short while beforehand she'd mentioned an Australian band that she and Seb had both been enjoying called The Cat Empire. I'd not heard of them, and for a few days, until we got cd in the car, I thought they were called "The Cat On Fire" (clearly confused by Seb and Vio's French accents), a much less pleasant band name. I remember it vividly, driving through the rolling green hills of the south of Australia, pondering the band name, The Cat On Fire.

When we got in the cars to continue south to Kangaroo Island, Vio popped Two Shoes by The Cat Empire in the cd player and I was introduced to the band's music for the first time (and their correct name). I didn't really know what to expect, the couple had a varied music taste, but I enjoyed what I heard. It was upbeat, fun and the perfect music to drive through Australia with the windows down to. They sample from so many genres it's impossible to pin them down, and (mostly) tread the thin line between pop and rock with such enthusiasm you don't mind when they cross over into full-on pop.

A short while after getting back to Canberra after the new term had started, I found a cd copy of Two Shoes in the second-hand cd store in town (along with a Boysetsfire cd, K by Kula Shaker, an album I'd had a strange craving for for a couple of years, and The Acoustic EP by The Early November, the latter of which was $1 and I only found because there was a person in the queue so I had a quick browse of the bargain rack by the counter. They were generally a terrible band (I'd go on to find out) but that EP was brilliant and became a hit among some of my friends that term). It was about £4, which was pretty cheap and I had greatly enjoyed it, so was very pleased to add it to my little collection of cds and records over there.

Popping the cd onto my hifi, I was finally able to listen to it properly - although some might say that the noise of a road-trip and friends chatting over it is the correct way to hear this album. Two Shoes is a solid record - the opening trio set the scene brilliantly, but the songs that make up Side B on this LP release are the gems for me - The Car Song and Two Shoes are amongst the most quintessential Cat Empire songs. The latter has a slower moment of reflection that makes the surprisingly sombre Miserere less out of place (although it never returns to the carnival like Two Shoes does). Miserere is another song I have a huge amount of time for, partly for how different it is, but also for how good it is - the lyrics reach a great intensity whilst the music keeps things calm - it's something I've not seen much of since Dub War's Silencer. Side C features some of the shamelessly upbeat songs (which actually plays out as the weaker part of the album) but The Night That Never End closes it off perfectly (with it's miniature waltz-break), along with the "hidden track" 1001.

A few years ago I saw that the band were releasing all their albums on vinyl and I thought to myself it'd be pretty neat to have them all on vinyl. On top of that, there was a boxset version of all of them that I spent a while eyeing up on the internet. The postage from Australia was obviously off-putting and it eventually disappeared from the website (either sold out or never made). I didn't jump on it because I only had their first two albums when I was in Australia and hadn't bought any more of them since returning (but had liked what I heard of So Many Nights from the live album). I wasn't sure if they were a band I still cared deeply about or whether it was just nostalgia; in the latter case, I only really needed the first two. I was pretty pleased then, three or four years later, I found the individual reissues in my local record shop. I bought both the first two on the spot.

In the years since, The Cat Empire have become a go-to band when my wife and I have people over for dinner - I'm in my thirties now, so it's fine to admit that. It's in that rare cross-section of music that we both enjoy, so they've had something of a resurgence for me. It's nice, because every time (without fail) I'm taken back to those times cruising through the Australian countryside.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves
Tracks: 11
Cost: £21 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 07/11/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no