The "Know Your Enemy" Discussion Thread

[The Quatercircle]

Yes, it's also a kick-ass live tune. Agreed.

[Pasquerel]

I love this album. didn't like it when it came out, but definately appreciate it now. It's a musical scrapbook - lots of ideas, concepts, thoughts poured into one bowl, stirred and served. SWSS is genius, lots of fillers, but what you want from a scrapbook?

[Flint]

It's one of my favourite Manics albums, and the one that turned me into a fan. TIMTTMY had introduced me to Manics and I had got EMG already, but it was getting KYE on a random whim during a holiday trip that sealed the deal. I spent the relatively uninteresting completely addicted to the album. After that, I heard the other albums with whole new ears and became obsessed.

What can I say, I love its schizophrenic, insane mess of a nature. It goes from place to place, firing at full all the time. It's a show of force, doing whatever the hell wanted and blasting it out with fury and vigour. It's an album that breaks boundaries (stylistic oddities, Nicky tackling lead vocals while James writes lyrics, etc etc) and isn't afraid to take sudden twists if it so pleases. It's one of those albums that takes a long, sprawling characteristic and turns it into an asset rather than a flaw. There's order in the chaos, the madness isn't out of control.

The only flaws I'd say are Royal Correspondent which I still quite like but which has lost a bit of its power over the years, and Wire's attempts at political lyrics which are mostly cringy as hell. Otherwise it's an album full of excellent songs. It's such a shame the band's always ignored it live - some of the rockers would make fierce live stormers and the Wattsville/Miss Europa combo was always a stormer.

Another fantastic period in the golden 98-05 years.