15 years since Know Your Enemy

[Europa Gluten Free]

Just saw on ManicsStreetMania twitter that Know Your Enemy was released 15 years ago today on 18th March 2001.

I have written on the album before here and commented on this, as well as this more critical attack on the album.

Without repeating myself, KYE is very much my Manics album. My fandom probably reached its apex here.

The Cuba thing is another discussion for another day - I'm just thinking about the album itself here.

I love everything about the record itself - the artwork, the quality of the booklet, the images of Wire's handwritten lyrics.

Sonically everyone tends to think of the extremes of So Why So Sad or Wattsville Blues and wince, but JDB has some killer guitar work on here. From Found that Soul to riffs of Intravenous Agnostic to the fuzz on the 2nd half of the album it's bare and angular and a fucking great listen. There's also the more acoustic intricacies of Baby Elian or Royal Correspondent.

KYE also has some of my favourite Wire lyrics on here and is hugely under appreciated by the band. As I've commented on the other linked threads above, the 2nd half of the album is a lost sequence of incredible Wire words. I also have a soft spot for the complete pretension of Intravenous on side 1.

I'd love to hear other people's memories of the album or the impressions of newer fans that maybe came after the KYE era.