Music

FOR ALL THOSE IN NEED OF MUSICAL THERAPY

November 06, 2002

REPAIRING to my homestead last week, I was all ready to wallow in the new Manic Street Preachers album, ‘Forever Delayed: The Greatest Hits’.

In a saccharine world of Pop Idol, Fame Academy and Popstars spawning ‘artists’ that music fans couldn’t care less for, at least the Manics are, if you’ll excuse the cliché, ‘keeping it real’.

No doubt their die-hard fans will criticise the album for featuring mainly chart-topping tracks such as ‘A Design For Life’, ‘Australia’ and current single, ‘There By The Grace Of God’, rather than the lesser-known ones.

And accusations of the band just thinking about cashing in are likely to be bandied about – but buy their back catalogue if you think this, because ‘Forever Delayed’ does just what it says on the tin: it is ‘The Greatest Hits’.

The special edition version also has a 13-track bonus remix CD, which includes two compelling mixes by David Holmes and Massive Attack of ‘If You Tolerate This…’, and Jon Carter making full use of the genius trumpets on ‘Kevin Carter’ in his contribution.

Talking about ‘There By The Grace of God’, Nicky Wire said: “The key line is: ‘With grace we will suffer, with grace we will recover’, so there’s quite an optimistic sentiment to it.

“Suffering can be overcome, which is quite an un-Manics sentiment I suppose.”

For more musical therapy, catch the Manics on their ‘Greatest Hits’ tour next month, which takes in Wembley.

Log on to http://www.manics.co.uk for details.