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
