Manic Street Preachers Destructive Alienating Cultural and Despair Filled Tracks POLL RESULTS

Okay so although we didn't have a huge amount of ballots in (18, so about a third less than the Blur poll) it was pretty fun and the results are interesting - and the voting very spread out across the albums. 114 tracks voted for overall. I'll count down the top 50, starting today and then continuing with more each day next week finishing on the Friday. Thanks to everyone that sent in their ballots.

50. Ocean Spray (from Know Your Enemy) [3 votes, 54 points, 2001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUJLdC6wqno

Will probably spread these out through the day, one every 45 mins or so

any time there's a trumpet in a Manics song is a good time.

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/000064284/polls_oceanspray_cranberry.edit_5632_515408_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg

49. My Little Empire (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [3 votes, 55 points, 1998]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoesfppMfe8

I thought that'd do better. Lovely tune. Most of that album has nudged into a kind of nothingness for me, but the arrangement here is really powerful. It lacks a bit in the metre which I presume is Wire's work (imagine! it's totally different from the insane cramming in their earlier lyrics though) but otherwise really fits the mood of satisfied resignation.

tbh i only glanced over the timttmy tracklist before voting, didn't listen to it. maybe i should have done, that might have crept in. definite NIN vibe going on - including the somewhat embarrassing lyrics.

This was the only track on Truth I voted for, and the latest-in-their-career track on my ballot

Actually I think Trent could have done better than "I'm sick of being sick/I'm tired of being tired/I'm bored of being bored"

48. Interiors (Song for Willem De Kooning) (from Everything Must Go) [2 votes, 56 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxCqtL3YAH8

I have a real soft spot for This Is My Truth. I was listening to it at a very awkward time in my late teens - struggling with girls and stuff - and the utter hopelessness sentimentalised in that album fit my mood in those dark winter months. My Little Empire was an absolute highlight (or lowlight as it were) of this dreariness.

These days listening back to This Is My Truth, it could really have done with a bit of trimming. All the songs are very pretty and startling, but they don't do anything different after the three minute mark. Lop a couple of minutes off each track, and you'd have a contender with The Bends for blinding miserablist rock. In fact, I may take it on myself to make an edited version.

Everything Must Go always annoyed me though. This Is My Truth sounded more like the kind of Richie-mourning record than EMG, which edged very closely to AOR territory. Plus Kevin Carter was a direct copy of the Radiohead B-side "The Trickster" (although I'm not sure which was written first tbh).

Someone said similar about both GT and half of GATS iirc - long sections of songs where nothing new happens. I initially thought it might be down to moving up to arenas, where it feels like your songs should be anthemic and therefore longer, but bless 'em they were hardly arena rock in their early days.

(though didn't they play Knebworth supporting GnR or someone back then, with disastrous results? am I making that up?)

Plus Kevin Carter was a direct copy of the Radiohead B-side "The Trickster"

no spoilers... but haha wow.

do you know that one ledge?

i used to rock the my iron lung ep back in the day, yeah.

i bought a really good R'head bootleg from Cambridge market called Oxfords Angels circa 1997 that combined all their non-album tracks on one disc. Think Kevin Carter was in my listening sphere at the same time, and I was kind of amazed at the time that two of my fave bands had written the same song. Iron Lung came out in 1994, Kevin Carter 1996.

47. Spectators Of Suicide (from Generation Terrorists) [3 votes, 57 points, 1992]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT_8ZsSqjZ4

Couldn't find a Youtube of the album version so you'll have to do with the Heavenly one

It was the heavenly one i was voting for anyway :-)

I thought the results of these polls were usually rolled out over 2 or 3 days rather than a week?

Not sure actually, I was going by the Blur one which was a week.

I think you run the risk of losing momentum with the actual comments? If you can do it in 2 or 3 days then I see no reason why you shouldn't. Avoiding poll fatigue too maybe. Thanks for doing this poll, Jamie. Looking forward to the rest of the results.

Yeah I guess so, will maybe do 15 today, 15 monday, 15 tuesday and final 5 wednesday

46. Found That Soul (from Know Your Enemy) [4 votes, 58 points, 2001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uwacLOnyKA

good song from the best later era album imo. Much better than TIMTTMY too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13903721 rofl

love it. chris is a nice guy. told me when i met him that when he was a punk teenager with a mohawk he used to do birdwatching sat up a tree in southampton common. which is a lovely image.

45. My Guernica (from Know Your Enemy) [3 votes, 60 points, 2001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3-qeaJ-HYo

44. Epicentre (from Know Your Enemy) [2 votes, 1 first place, 62 points, 2001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wVLvXvX7Jc

Seems a lot agree this is one of the best post richey era albums then. Good stuff.

Great live on this tour as well.

I think a lot of songs on it really work when you hear them separate from the album, but as a whole it's too long and badly sequenced

looking at the ILM polls thread I saw this

My own inclination for Zep was to allow 3 days for voting and 2 days for the reveal.

Is that what everyone's to do then? (it's certainly fine by me)

i'd say a week for voting is better, and maybe a 3 day reveal.

Not sure how the poll format has come to be standardised, though it does make sense to stop them overlapping. Do what fits I say - I'd be inclined to have a week or more for voting then a quick reveal myself, given the choice, but it'd depend on the artist.

'Found That Soul's a good 'un.

I have no use for post-Richey manics. Ismael captured pretty well upthread:

"It lacks a bit in the metre which I presume is Wire's work (imagine! it's totally different from the insane cramming in their earlier lyrics though)"

Richey's crazy electric word collages of despair really affected the Manics' sound as a whole, obviously in that insane cramming, but it seemed like every part of the songs had to rise up to meet the challenge of his verbiage. That fire just isn't there anymore.

yeah id just finish the reveal over the weekend if you can. Its not like there's hundreds of voters who have no access to the internet. Plus it would liven up the weekend on here!

And whilst I voted for all richey era tracks as it was ltd to 20, and i certainly do prefer the 1st 3 albums to what came after,there's still been some good albums and great tracks since.

43. Archives Of Pain (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 64 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bdcnysXhHU

This was the track I remember the Manics-obsessed girl I fancied in sixth-form college would bang on about as being one of the most frightening songs in the world. I was slightly underwhelmed when I heard it as a result, as it had been overhyped, but still a good enough track.

I love Bradfield's pronunciation of "A killer" - sounds like "tequila" but more menacing, like a poisonous spider or scorpion.

Awful anti gun control/pro captial punishment lyrics notwithstanding

― ledge, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 09:57 (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The gun control ones are silly and contrarian but I like the capital punishment ones for their sheer extremity - artistically successful even if I disagree. Bands just don't sing about that stuff.

― Strictly vote-splitting (DL), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 10:03 (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i suppose there is a kind of clarity in the lyrics here, no pussyfooting or hypocrisy, seeing the naked lunch for what it is and gleefully biting down on the fork - "STERILISE RAPISTS! ALL I PREACH IS EXTINCTION!". Still smdh at them though.

during- and post-Richey Manics are obv very different bands but both are worthy. They've probably released at least 50-60 songs I at least like in the post-Richey era.

Man, that is a LOT of KYE so far. Are we going to see "The Convalescent"? That's my fave off the record - can't argue w/ that coda despite the frequently naff lyrics.

'Archives of Pain' is a fine track. I remember stumbling on the Foucault book that the horse image (and probably most of the rest of the lyrics) came from in the short loan section at uni library. It was completely useless for study, no idea why it was in there. The book was far more gruesome than the song, in fact looking at the lyric now I don't recall why pro-capital punishment lines caused such a fuss, it seems a perfectly defensible opinion to me. Possibly largely largely down to my own drift through time, but there's a strong element of personal and communal responsibility in it which rarely features in the public dialogue (and only obliquely in this lyric, to be fair).

I'm just so surprised at how many albums they've actually made since I stopped following them. Last thing I paid any attention to was The Masses Against The Classes, which felt like a marker point in their history, but they've just gone on and on with few sabbaticals. The album artwork for Lifeblood is so so of its time, with the minimal but gothy theme. It screams cut-out bin to me.

Most of those albums have some worth, too, and - though there's some disagreement on this point - I think Journal for Plague Lovers is their best since Everything Must Go.

Id agree with that, then Know Your Enemy.

as mentioned on the vote thread i actually really like Lifeblood - probably enjoy it the most of the last four albums - but saying that I didn't vote for any of the tracks

1985 is a great song, I left it off my ballot at the last second, but the rest of the album is rubbish. It was worse than TIMTTMY, which really says something.

send away the tigers is better than Lifeblood.

Just read the lyrics to "Archives Of Pain" - woah! They don't make em like that any more.

Hey - This Is My Truth is a good album!

I like that there is little to no consensus as to which of their albums are even worthwhile. I always assumed that Lifeblood was generally agreed upon as dogshit (the band certainly seems to think so), but apparently not!

the best of these polls are the ones with no given consensus.

I always assumed that Lifeblood was generally agreed upon as dogshit (the band certainly seems to think so)

I agree with the band!

42. So Why So Sad (from Know Your Enemy) [2 votes, 1 first place, 65 points, 2001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3i1E9N8zww

41. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky (from Everything Must Go) [4 votes, 67 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19N9H1JXvko

I gave 'Small Black Flowers' a spin before voting, expecting it to make my shortlist, but just found it really boring.

it is!

Umm... So Why So Sad was when they started going into Stereophonics territory and probably the last song I remember being conscious of.

I remember Small Black Flowers being good, but can't remember it. NTS: Must get hold of EMG - was never a huge fan, but it's okay really.

is that it the one about a gorilla throwing shit everywhere?

sadly, "SWSS" has one of their better videos.

I like both of those a lot.

im getting excited for the top 20 already. Are there any non-album tracks to come?

i've always been intrigued by archives of pain. it reads very well as a parody of the opinions it supposedly espouses. i kind of wonder if he did that on purpose, showing the conflict between the impulsive reaction to something and his ethical/rational take. and i guess as a criticism of the fetishization(?) of murder and murderers the bent of the lyrics makes sense as rhetorical exaggeration. there's clearly a lot more to it than just advocating capital punishment etc but it sounds from comments the others have made that that was a genuine part of it too, assuming they had a convo about it at the time, "so rich, what's the deal with the, eh, tearing torsos and such?"

So much contrarianism on THB it's hard to tell what to take seriously, although iirc the biog I read suggested they were sincere if misguided about a lot of it, "fuck the brady bill" in particular. Certainly I always found it easier to lol at "scratch my leg with a rusty nail, sadly it heals" than anything in archives of pain.

yes some bsides to come

in fact...

40. Sepia (b-side to Kevin Carter) [3 votes, 68 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkjx-znIO48

xposts true about Archives of Pain - it could well be a critique of smoke'em'out hysteria rather than a claim for capital punishment.

"Sepia" is OK but they have many better b-sides.

Never worked out why 'So Why So Sad' is hated so much.

39. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart (from The Holy Bible) [4 votes, 70 points, 1994] (tied with 37 & 38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNtD6mrkSZ0

where's the bad apostrophe?? revisionism!

ha. so anyway apparently "fuck the brady bill" (requiring background checks on firearms purchasers) because it was an attempt to prevent the poor and black from tooling up, to keep power in the hands of the white and privileged. I dunno if they got that straight from the NRA...

decent song though, nice singalong bridge. but what the hell is that zapruder masturbation line about.

i mean i can guess what it's about but y'know... o_O

probably my least fave on THB. still pretty great though.

38. Revol (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 70 points, 1994] (tied with 37 & 39)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf91dTrLkgA

sha na na

i like that zapruder line! it really stood out to me at the time. i remember telling friends about it and expecting some kind of amazing response. i guess i had and still have a thing about the many different varieties and levels of rubber-necking that ppl get swept up in.

revol was the single i liked least off THB. i still had it around #25 iirc.

this song weirded me out a bit when I initially heard it (at 14 or so), now I just think it's catchy and kickass.

it would be my first choice for holy bible karaoke i reckon.

the undeniable thrill of shouting nazi buzzwords

private room karaoke of course.

lucky voice, with all the accoutrements - afro wig, blow up guitar, nazi armbands.

lolll

just looking at the singles discog and that run of UK chart placements from 96 to 07 is insaaaane: 2 5 9 7 1 9 8 15 19 6 2 2 2 10

"Masses Against the Classes" was the first UK #1 of 2000, wasn't it? (also, LOL)

yeah i fucked that up:

2 5 9 7 1 2 11 5 11 1 9 8 15 19 6 2 2 2 10

Yep - only happened because that week after Xmas is always the slowest singles week of the year (also the reason Iron Maiden got a number one with Bring Your Daughter i seem to recall) and they were headlining the huge new arena in Cardiff on NYE

i remember playing their cover of Rock'n'Roll Music b/w the Beach Boys' versio on student radio at the time. Fuck knows what led me to do that - both were drivel.

as long as we're talking trivia - are they the only rock band to have worked with the Bomb Squad? Wikipedia seems to think so.

sorry, let me rephrase that: are they the only group of white dudes with guitars to have worked with the Bomb Squad?

Last two for today...

37. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (from Send Away The Tigers) [3 votes, 1 first place, 70 points, 2007] (tied with 38 & 39)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_OnFHJou4o

36. Too Cold Here (b-side to Revol) [3 votes, 71 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoW8IyJEMfQ

that's the only one on the list that I'm sure I voted for. Great song.

vocal rhythms of ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart really get stuck in my head. "unimportant just another inner city drive by thing", who'd have thought such a line would be so catchy?

otm - really top craft from jdb there

Also hurrah for 'Too Cold Here' - I missed it off at the last moment for its bleakness, which was stupid.

yeah, top respect to bradfield for corralling all of that lyrical lunacy. i love it when you can tell he has changed something to crowbar a lyric in and it only just makes sense still. am i right in remembering that the GT lyrics book has "throw some acid into the mona lisa's face" in defiance of the fact that that would be impossible to sing and he doesn't even try? also like to imagine the conversation when richey+nicky heard how he brutalizes the pronunciation of la tristesse durera. "fuck it you pricks, it goes with the fuckin tune, that's how it's fuckin staying"

I want 'Life Becoming A Landslide' to win this now - just (belatedly) realised it's the best thing they did.

I like that one but the chunk production of that whole record is a huge distraction.

*chunky

love that album now.

landslide is an extreme example of the manics combining corny and profound. i loved it so much but as i have gotten older and crabbier some of the triter lyrics and elements like the fucking horrible strings constantly seem to get in my way of enjoying the song. over the few revisions i did it slipped from my top ten to off the list. it seemed to get worse with every listen.

overthinking! my "revisions" consisted of reading lyrics pages and replaying some songs i last listened to ten years ago, maybe all the way through if they got lucky. this was an adolescent poll for me (adolesence reaching into my mid 20s to be fair).

btw is the countdown continuing over the weekend? if so i will be absent for most of it ;_;

nah i'm gonna be busy so will do another 15 on monday

http://martyvanags.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/BurnsExcellentSticker.jpg

http://img.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/3/7/6/1/2/5/1/orig-3761251.jpg

Pauvre petit Sean can't catch a break in that photo.

here we go then

35. Enola/Alone (from Everything Must Go) [3 votes, 81 points, 1996] tied with 34 & 33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgVyQRqTZu4

34. Mausoleum (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 81 points, 1994] tied with 35 & 33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf4zsRbiHY4

Sorry I didn't have time to vote in this. Enjoying reading the results nonetheless. My number one would have been Faster, without a shadow of a doubt. Probably the best rock song of the 1990s.

Had to remind myself which one Mausoleum is. It's one of the ones on The Holy Bible which works least well I think (only faint criticism!). The gear change into the 'chorus' is either too prominent or not prominent enough, I can't decide - the former because the two parts don't mesh all that well, the latter because there's no *huge* dynamic shift, so it makes the song more of a kind of featureless hum. Maybe one time where the Spartan arrangement let's them down a little?

Thinking about the poll over the weekend, Ifwhiteamerica... is really scandalously low, what a terrific track. I can hardly talk though, I didn't note for it myself.

lets, dammit - autocorrect's fault, not mine

loved Enola/Alone when I was younger, now the chorus bugs me.

love Mausoleum still, esp the ending.

33. There By The Grace Of God (from Forever Delayed) [3 votes, 81 points, 2002] tied with 34 & 35

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHuBrh2B5nc

and one of my favourites so i'm glad to see it up highish

32. Dead Trees and Traffic Islands (b-side to A Design For Life) [4 votes, 82 points, 1996] tied with 31 & 30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSN3nw6Ki_8

oooh that's a good b-side. never really 'got' TBTGOG though.

I did not know 'Dead Trees' before, but it's marvellous.

31. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time (from Journal For Plague Lovers) [5 votes, 82 points, 2009] tied with 32 & 30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpSzPL-Qu20

30. Theme from M.A.S.H. (Suicide Is Painless) (stand-alone single) [4 votes, 82 points, 1992] tied with 31 & 32

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y11f8Oc25AI

Yes! Closest they got to their stated early aspirations imo. I wish they'd really gone for it, promotion-wise - it could've been a startling #1 in 1992.

29. The Everlasting (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [4 votes, 83 points, 1998]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeU_qC5tBOE

28. Peeled Apples (from Journal For Plague Lovers) [4 votes, 85 points, 2009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4mL_YAJG_c

The Everlasting is one of the songs that the band themselves famously hate. Surprised it's this high.

really shoulda voted for Suicide is Painless, they own that song AFAIC

I thought I liked it 'til I relistened for this poll, but I couldn't even get through it. It's not bad, it's just boring.

I always loved Suicide is Painless - I think that was the first thing I ever heard by them - must've been about 11? The Everlasting = Mum's favourite.

xp that was

Their 'Suicide Is Painless' is the definitive version imo. Was extremely disappointed when I heard the original.

I hope "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" shows up - very similar in tone and execution to MASH and definitely one of their most poignant moments since it was their first release after Richey's disappearance.

Suicide is Painless somewhat let down by the structure - very short verse/very short chorus, repeat * infinity. Also I do not endorse the message, somewhat glad it wasn't a startling #1.

they certainly had a fixation on morbidity. I'm surprised the hordes of emo kids circa 2006 didn't latch onto early Manics in a big way.

somehow I hadn't heard their version of "Raindrops..." yet. It's really lovely. They ought to have done a whole "American Standards" record back then, imagine the backlash!

Ha yes, their contrarian antennae failing them there

27. She Is Suffering (from The Holy Bible) [4 votes, 91 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYNwr58V1Pg

26. Prologue To History (b-side to If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next) [5 votes, 92 points, 1998]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Q3SR9x5W0

Prologue to History is my favourite Manics B-side. Better than most of TIMT - and a much stronger look at their own history than The Everlasting - but would never have worked on that album.

I do not endorse the message

"My name is ledge and I do not endorse this message."

"I don't WAN-na beee/A prologue to his-to-ryyyy"

A b-side I actually know!

That is the best new-to-me track I've heard so far.

There was a pretty great four-song set by them on a spinoff of C4 show Naked City circa 1994. 'She Is Suffering' was one of the four iirc. I had it taped and watched repeatedly - terrific performance and nice touches like Richey having to attend to technical issues on his guitar whenever James decided to sling his own aside for a verse.

It was called 'Butt Naked', I remember now, and disfigured by a horrible cartoon of a descending arse whenever the credits showed. Why oh why have such crap graphics? It can't've been funny ever.

25. Slash & Burn (from Generation Terrorists) [5 votes, 99 points, 1992]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8a1WEjLqUw

24. No Surface All Feeling (from Everything Must Go) [4 votes, 109 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldINetLTaA

Yup, love No Surface, All Feeling. There's a long line of resignation and passivity running from, where, maybe This Is Yesterday onwards, which I assume is Wire's work because it gets expanded amplified with diminishing returns once Richey bows out. No Surface All Feeling's really good with it though, it's touching and quite tender.

yeah that was my #9. verse is over passive maybe but the chorus + guitar line make it. then they rock out yeeeaaaaahhh.

Okay last ones for today. Not sure if i'll be continuing tomorrow as have to attend a funeral but we'll see...

23. P.C.P. (from The Holy Bible) [6 votes, 110 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN5AxvjTJhQ

22. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier (from Everything Must Go) [5 votes, 111 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54L_ZU2QIpc

21. Roses In The Hospital (from Gold Against The Soul) [6 votes, 118 points, 1993]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkgzOBV08DI

PCP! Yes! I am more familiar with the live version I had off one of the Volume comps. But still, what a way to end an album.

At the risk of banging on yet again about questionable lyrics on The Holy Bible - yeah I'm sure you can guess my comments re: PCP. I relegated it to 19th place, a bit harsh in retrospect, it is a great album closer if you ignore the dailymailisms.

Roses... suffers from the balls-out rockism prevalent on GATS (n.b. do not cf. my earlier comment re: no surface all feeling)

PCP is amazing. I think it's universally underrated solely due to being a double a-side with Faster, so there's this assumption that one must be not that good somehow.

Funny, I never really paid attention (nor do I think I'd have understood) the lyrics or message behind them when I was a teenager. Bradfield spits out the words in such a strange meter close aural inspection's really quite impossible. But reading these back now, it's kind of clear they're the rantings of a well-read psychopath. I think it's lyrics like this that separate the '90s from the 21st century - being proudly and truly irreverant definitely felt like more of a thing back then than it does now.

It's their Penny Lane, is what I'm saying.

PCP is in my ears and in my eyes...

ledge, don't you think that the Holy Bible's various attacks on liberal orthodoxy from a working-class socialist perspective deserve a little better than to be called "Daily Mailisms"? It's such a complicated album, politically - the whole point is to explore the points where left and right meet, or overlap, or become meaningless distinctions. It doesn't always make total sense (the Brady Bill line) but kneejerk Daily Mailisms they ain't.

I wonder how many more Holy Bible tracks will be in the Top 20.

I tried hard to not make my ballot The Holy Bible thirteen + 7, but on reflection I should've given in

The Daily Mail is right some of the time, but always for the wrong reasons, so ... I don't know, I thought I was going to be able to finish that sentence

^ hybrid Richey/Nicky lyric

reading the lyrics of 'pcp' now it's hard to see them as a right-wing rant, unless you view all criticisms of political correctness as automatically right-wing. lines like 'systemised atrocity ignored/as long as bi-lingual signs on view' seem just as radically left-wing in their p.o.v. as anything the manics ever wrote, as does 'learnt censorship, pro-life equals anti-choice.'

The problem with attacking liberal orthodoxy via political correctness is that it's largely a straw man, and ok creating that figure is not solely the daily mail's responsibility, and nor does being anti pc automatically make you right wing - it does make you more likely to be a credulous windmill tilter though.

"systemised atrocity being ignored as long as bilingual signs on view" - has this actually ever happened?

being

With respect, I don't think you understand the song. There's nothing strawmannish or credulous in PCP. It's not a stretch to argue that in the early 90s the left was more concerned with identity politics and language than the more old-left ideas that interested the Manics - the phrase "pyrrhic victory" is the key. You're acting like nobody's allowed to criticise political correctness lest they turn into Jeremy Clarkson.

Well, maybe I have a knee-jerk reaction to knee-jerk anti pc reactions, and maybe I'm misremembering the glory days of the loony left. But really you don't think there's anything straw man sounding in the song at all?

Individual lines yes, but not in the round. There's all kinds of messy, contradictory ideas going on in that album and I think it needs to be taken in that spirit rather than holding up individual lines. Especially as it's quite hard to pick apart a Richey lyric.

Like you, I hated kneejerk PC-bashing in the 90s, as I do now, but I don't that's what's going on here.

weird conflation/ confusion of macro and personal politics doesn't aid in untangling those lyrical contradictions IMO (not that I'm suggesting anyone's trying to do that!)

Sorry, that probably doesn't make sense! What I mean is that the contradictions aren't easy to untangle given the dubious parallels Richie was sometimes making between the personal and the political.

For my part I always read it as wider than PC, being more about all types of excusing inaction through false priorities. Unlike you I have lots of time for PC bashing, unless done by the Mail, because whatever the theory, the sole significant practical effect that I can see is to mask the real issues. Hence its being the target here, because it's the clearest example of diversionary tactics.

The 'bilingual signs' line is about Bosnia I think btw, I doubt it's a reference to Wales.

xp Agree 100%

catching up on today backwards. agree with IK there on PCP, it's the modern political fixation on surface over substance. like elsewhere on the album the lyrics do leave a bit of a gap for you to fill in. it's a great song, i enjoy the mentalness.

no surface and elvis are a couple of the better EMG tracks. i thought about diddling my ballot because it seemed harsh to have nothing after THB but it's more of a reflection of just how good the earlier tracks are.

bought the 12" at the time but never particularly liked roses, even when i really really like GATS. slash and suffering too low, obv. lol @ everlasting, just terrible. grace of god hardly better. dead trees is v good, not far off my ballot, think i only had one EMG track higher. don't know prologue to history, will check that out when i get home.

that should be really really liked GATS - past tense sadly

the everlasting is the worst ever manics song by a long long way.
Cannot believe anyone voted for it.

I always just think of 'PCP' as a rapid delivery device for as many ambiguous statements as possible before the album finishes up.

'ambiguous' in intent, I mean.

mausoleum – i had this way up. love this song. the reason i didn't go (even) more heavily on THB tracks was because

they aren't quite the same as individual tracks versus pieces of that whole. i don't mean that they don't stand up

as individual songs, but the sharp darkness of individual tracks is somehow subsumed by the charcoal smear of the

whole, and maybe by the foreknowledge that i am listening to THB, whereas if i pull out intense humming or archives

or 4st 7 it's like, uhhh, well this is pretty fucking brutal eh? the singles are naturally the tracks that avoid this most obviously, but i always found mausoleum a timely release from the intensity. it is a banging rock tune with hilariously ott, schlocky lyrics. richie gets close to the line enough times throughout the record but on mausoleum they careen gleefully into cartoon. and that just makes me love it more. i am the opposite of whoever above (IK?) because i particularly like how the different parts are welded together, and each of the individual parts is great in its own right - the haunted house, telltale bass of the verse; upshift to the gradually sinking fast n shouty pre-chorus; goth metal powerchord chorus; unintentionally hilarious voice clip; awesome thundering finish to a dead stop.

estimated percentage chance i was writing that in notepad so it wasn't too obvious i was ilxing at work?

well this is pretty fucking brutal eh?

otm. You wouldn't believe the scorn I drew on the metal poll for railroading it in their direction. THB is the heaviest thing I've heard that doesn't sound like it's actually being sung by a corpse.

a recap of 50-21 would be awesome if someone has a little time on their hands

"Mausoleum" would be my pick from THB, with "Faster" a close second. I'm sorry I didn't vote in this poll, though I'm not sure I would have voted for anything post THB.

so far...

50. Ocean Spray (from Know Your Enemy) [3 votes, 54 points, 2001]
49. My Little Empire (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [3 votes, 55 points, 1998]
48. Interiors (Song for Willem De Kooning) (from Everything Must Go) [2 votes, 56 points, 1996]
47. Spectators Of Suicide (from Generation Terrorists) [3 votes, 57 points, 1992]
46. Found That Soul (from Know Your Enemy) [4 votes, 58 points, 2001]
45. My Guernica (from Know Your Enemy) [3 votes, 60 points, 2001]
44. Epicentre (from Know Your Enemy) [2 votes, 1 first place, 62 points, 2001]
43. Archives Of Pain (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 64 points, 1994]
42. So Why So Sad (from Know Your Enemy) [2 votes, 1 first place, 65 points, 2001]
41. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky (from Everything Must Go) [4 votes, 67 points, 1996]
40. Sepia (b-side to Kevin Carter) [3 votes, 68 points, 1996]
39. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart (from The Holy Bible) [4 votes, 70 points, 1994] (tied with 37 & 38)
38. Revol (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 70 points, 1994] (tied with 37 & 39)
37. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (from Send Away The Tigers) [3 votes, 1 first place, 70 points, 2007] (tied with 38 & 39)
36. Too Cold Here (b-side to Revol) [3 votes, 71 points, 1994]
35. Enola/Alone (from Everything Must Go) [3 votes, 81 points, 1996] tied with 34 & 33
34. Mausoleum (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 81 points, 1994] tied with 35 & 33
33. There By The Grace Of God (from Forever Delayed) [3 votes, 81 points, 2002] tied with 34 & 35
32. Dead Trees and Traffic Islands (b-side to A Design For Life) [4 votes, 82 points, 1996] tied with 31 & 30
31. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time (from Journal For Plague Lovers) [5 votes, 82 points, 2009] tied with 32 & 30
30. Theme from M.A.S.H. (Suicide Is Painless) (stand-alone single) [4 votes, 82 points, 1992] tied with 31 & 32
29. The Everlasting (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [4 votes, 83 points, 1998]
28. Peeled Apples (from Journal For Plague Lovers) [4 votes, 85 points, 2009]
27. She Is Suffering (from The Holy Bible) [4 votes, 91 points, 1994]
26. Prologue To History (b-side to If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next) [5 votes, 92 points, 1998]
25. Slash & Burn (from Generation Terrorists) [5 votes, 99 points, 1992]
24. No Surface All Feeling (from Everything Must Go) [4 votes, 109 points, 1996]
23. P.C.P. (from The Holy Bible) [6 votes, 110 points, 1994]
22. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier (from Everything Must Go) [5 votes, 111 points, 1996]
21. Roses In The Hospital (from Gold Against The Soul) [6 votes, 118 points, 1993]

cool, thx. long wait for a GATS track. so i have 14 tracks left for the last 20 spots. would guess i am due 4-5 disappointments, hopefully not more than that.

still have 16 left - I expect 8 of them will place.

Wow, Prologue To History is fantastic!

I have 14 left. I expect them all to place tbh, except Further Away and possibly Repeat.

i hope design for life doesnt win, but I think it will. Hopefully we will find out tonight!

nah it's either Motorcycle Emptiness or - possibly - Yes.

I'm saying Faster. I'd most like it to be Yes I think.

it really is fucking perfect, esp. the US mix.

okay let's do 10 this evening, and then final top ten tomorrow

20. Life Becoming A Landslide (from Gold Against The Soul) [6 votes, 120 points, 1993]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWeL1bXPjdc

19. Everything Must Go (from Everything Must Go) [6 votes, 121 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9kz10lAMFY

I don't normally do this, but Life Becoming A Landslide is far

TOO LOW

18. Further Away (from Everything Must Go) [6 votes, 134 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UHNsooeJw

17. Little Baby Nothing (from Generation Terrorists) [6 votes, 144 points, 1992]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM3N54avEQc

Love Further Away, but I didn't think anyone else would!

it's edging towards best track on the album for me

"Everything Must Go" still strikes me as an incredibly ballsy comeback statement both sonically and lyrically, even if "A Design for Life" was the flagship tune.

no more bsides or early singles to come then?

I'd bank on "Stay Beautiful" making it, and that other one.

for a lot of ppl the ballsy statement of EMG was "sorry dudes, we're not gonna be making any music you like anymore"

i tried to talk myself into voting for little baby nothing out of some kind of sentimentality but it hasn't held up at all

16. If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [7 votes, 150 points, 1998]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX8szNPgrEs

15. Of Walking Abortion (from The Holy Bible) [7 votes, 151 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcJPnYASvBk

i fell like tolerate and abortion being practically identically regarded maybe indicates we have a healthy balance across the spectrum on manics appreciation. good job team.

I thought I was the only one who liked Further Away!
Lifeblood- not happening :/

14. Stay Beautiful (from Generation Terrorists) [6 votes, 152 points, 1992]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eorwh5MMIao

oh sorry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM_oov3dU6A

stay beautiful is too low

13. Die in the Summertime (from The Holy Bible) [7 votes, 154 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJtsI74xow

yeah, stay beautiful is too low, and was too low on my ballot too iirc, so i am part of the problem. i know i had a rationale for it at the time but dammit i shoulda had that top 5. all we love is lonely wreckage. lol at swift slip

die in the summertime is good but not a particular highlight for me.

I put Stay Beautiful very high on a whim really, 'cos I barely know it. I've probably only heard it maybe half-a-dozen times somehow, either that or its hook is a lot less hooky than I always think. Anyway I'd thought it might win the whole thing, i associate it with the whole Freaky Trigger/populist aesthetic for some half-understood reason.

IK on vibes

12. Motown Junk (stand-alone single) [7 votes, 156 points, 1991]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axAJ0RtBd7I

last one for tonight

11. You Love Us (from Generation Terrorists) [7 votes, 159 points, 1992]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgKXBJ2LZKo

Surprised those two aren't Top 10. Faster for the win.

never really got the big deal wrt "You Love Us"

Okay, those are two big ones out the way. The top ten's not at all obvious to me.

much prefer the heavenly version of 'you love us.'

'faster' would be a good no. 1.

ok expected them to be top 5. i hope its not just going to be the big hit singles off emg in the top 10

Trying to think what'll definitely place, and there's going to be a good few missing out: at least half of Masses vs Classes, Australia, La Tristesse, Sleepflower, Repeat, Black Dog, Nixon won't make it.

Sleepflower and Repeat better make it

'Faster' must win - it was the first song they ever did that made me actually take them seriously and when 'The Holy Bible' came out I must've listened to it twice a day or more for about three months. It was the oddly comforting soundtrack to the second half of my first acid trip.

'The Holy Bible' sounds pretty middling on relistening now but 'Faster' still sends tingles.

So… Faster, Design, Tristesse, Kevin Carter, Motorcycle, Yes, Masses, This Is Yesterday, Repeat, From Despair to Where? I always forget something when I guess poll top 10s.

If 4st 7lbs also places, that would be every track from The Holy Bible bar Intense Humming of Evil, which even the Manics admit is a bit hard to take. Apparently they played it live just once, and people were running away.

ugh kevin carter. almost as bad as the everlasting

You crazy. One of Richey's best lyrics, punk-funk verses and a Sean trumpet solo. Tense and elegaic at the same time.

I thought 4st 7lbs had placed already, but no. It's a cert.

My guess for the top ten (in order): Faster, Motorcycle, Design, Yes, Despair, Yesterday, Carter, Sleepflower, Masses, Repeat. No Tristesse, no Australia, no Intense Humming.

So much of a cert that I forgot it in the same post! Scratch Masses, it's out - 4st 7 is in at #6.

'kevin carter' is one of the real standouts on EMG (which i used to think was perfect but which now i find a little hard-going in the middle, every single song sounding like it's trying to be a tear-jerking anthem) for me, one of their most compact and perfect songs.

apparently james insisted that richey and nicky rewrite 'intense humming' as the first draft sounded too 'ambiguous' to him. definitely not a subject you want to have ppl debating what you mean by, a la 'pcp' or 'archives of evil.'

i feel pretty silly that i neglected to vote in this poll as relistening to all these albums over the past week reminded me that MSP are still, at least some of the time, my favorite band.

maybe patrick bateman will be a suprise #1 with new art riot at #2

I voted for intense humming, it's an amazing piece of work.

♪♫ Ah-ha'm goin' down / to Suicide Alley ♪♫

i guess my top 10 would've been:

1. yes
2. faster
3. PCP
4. 4st 7lb
5. baby elian
6. sculpture of man
7. this is yesterday
8. no surface all feeling
9. motown junk
10. die in the summertime

'patrick bateman' is so terrible. if i'm bitter at the manics at all it's probably for getting 18-year-old me to read that shitty book.

I felt obliged to spread my top 20 across a few albums to give other songs a chance, otherwise it would have been half Holy Bible.

much prefer the heavenly version of 'you love us.'

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, June 28, 2011 2:35 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark

know nothing about this band, hadn't much liked what little i'd heard in the past, but i'm following this thread in an attempt to get an education. turns out they're pretty great! can't really get into the holy bible tracks, but "motown junk" is good and "stay beautiful" is damn near great. love the relative softness of "if you tolerate this..." and "further away" and "little baby nothing" (cultural alienation, boredom and despair).

plus yeah, the heavenly version is way better.

two massive songs to finish on there. fucking mental that you love us isn't top 5. i thought it was an outside contender for #1. what has become of this world? almost enough to make you wanna jump off a bridge. i am assuming that all of the votes were lumped together and that clowns like me who specified the heavenly version didn't kill it with vote splitting? i had it second but i was sad i couldn't have two #1s. GT version sounds a little empty without the background nonsense and obv the iggy pop at the end of the heavenly version is awesome.

motown junk i didn't know about till after GT - maybe after GATS. i was given it on a mixtape and it blew my mind twice over, once because it is so fucking great, and twice because someone had scratched into the shelter at my bus stop "we live in urban hell we destroy rock n roll" and i had read that nearly every week for a year or more and all of a sudden jdb said it out of my sony sports walkman. we are well beyond new art riot territory i guess. bummer.

t looks like the number of #1s isn't being included with each entry - is that right? it would be cool to see that after.

I still grin like a shitty 15-year-old every time I hear "I laughed when Lennon got shot!"

now i'm not a teenager, patrick bateman does indeed sound really terrible

musically its great. You finishing the countdown today?

yep

10. La Tristessa Durera (Scream to a Sigh) (from Gold Against The Soul) [8 votes, 170 points, 1993] tied with 9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJzwIFyZfck

Their morbid baggy record. Great Chemical Brothers remix of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX1WcbT-2h0

Was the lowest of the GATS tracks on my ballot, it occurs to me now I got things completely backwards.

9. Sleepflower (from Gold Against The Soul) [7 votes, 170 points, 1993] tied with 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGYnEtqU8u8

yes!

^!

Oh good. GATS always feels like the forgotten Manics album, but it has by far the catchiest riffs.

very underrated album.

EMG was the first Manics album not to have a naked torso on the cover. Was this a thing?

Repeat over Tristessa was a bad call, but I'd like to point out that other than that my top ten has been 100% accurate so far.

Sleepflower's brilliant, obviously. The best riff!

8. From Despair to Where (from Gold Against The Soul) [9 votes, 189 points, 1993]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7JTXZMfDq0

Had I voted, "Tristesse" would've been my #1.

Listening now, I've just realised I don't like the strings on Despair. They should've had a big, overloaded guitar solo instead. It seems the kind of obvious move, actually, I wonder why they didn't?

7. This Is Yesterday (from The Holy Bible) [7 votes, 1 first place, 202 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcEsL-vs1w

love This Is Yesterday...

That's my first-place. It's not the first top pick to show, is it?!

three other tracks have had them so far

So they have. Three Two (relative) obscurities, too.

This Is Yesterday is grand, except for the rather pedestrian drumming.

6. 4st 7lb (from The Holy Bible) [9 votes, 1 first place, 244 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy2ebaAGMU0

Best song that begins "Days since I last pissed"...

nah it's fantastic tho, my #3. I definitely prefer Richie when he's empathising with the lost and damned, than when he's in pure polemical mdoe.

Richey, wth

Great to see Sleepflower get so high! I'm a little surprised to see This is Yesterday in the top 10 too, great track as it is.

Since the Manics, how many other British bands can we name whose lyrics were actually about concrete reified concepts, if you see what I mean? Something I think I took for granted about the band at the time are the issues being addressed here - some of the ideas here are misguided, but well intentioned and intelligent. I can't think of many more recent commercially viable acts who've achieved anything similar.

Not sure there's been anyone like them before or since, in terms of how deeply they burrow into such matters. I was going to say 'politics', but that feels like a very inadequate description of what they were doing.

I was thinking about the sheer hostility they provoked when they arrived, and how contempt for going in for 'concepts' was so much part of that. I hope the h8ers enjoyed the years of Noelisms that followed.

5. Kevin Carter (from Everything Must Go) [9 votes, 1 first place, 252 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLDr0QNCUd4

RIPeat (and Masses Against The Classes)

Again, I can't bring myself to like Kevin Carter because it's nearly the same as The Trickster by Radiohead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBHRiKZY2fk

have loved both songs for years and never made the connection. can't say it bothers me much now the connection has been made...

cool to see sleepflower break the top ten. that and from despair definitely rise above the flaws that keep the rest of the album down. this is yesterday is a good but unspectacular track, surprised to find it so high. 4st 7 i just couldn't vote for, not for any lack of appreciation, but taken out of the context of the album and looking thru a 'top trax' lens, it's too much. kevin carter is good, the EMG track that nearly made it on for me, but 5 is kinda lol. does that mean australia is still to come? oh dear.

Trickster / KC don't sound that similar now I listen to them side by side, but still, very similar tempo/chord progression.

KC wins in the trumpet solo stakes. Lyrically too.

This Is Yesterday is grand, except for the rather pedestrian drumming.

I actually quite like the drumming - when the guitar solo starts and that simple but emphatic drum line comes in, it's maybe the only sunny/optimistic moment on the entire album.

don't really "get" Sleepflower, kinda just sounds like generic arena rock to me.

4. A Design For Life (from Everything Must Go) [11 votes, 2 first place, 275 points, 1996]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfEoVxy7VDQ

oh hello. shit juss got real.

Ha! I didn't think that would win.

allsimgonnasayandimgonnaberealbriefhereisthatireallyfuckinhatethatterriblegoddamnsongthereisaidit

Heard it a few too many times to vote for it, but I figured it'd place about there.

TOO LOW

It's not really a terrible song though, is it? It's not like we've just put symm in the top five.

"ADFL" isn't the best example, but I've always loved the sound of EMG, production-wise - somehow both shiny/colorful and ever-so-slightly raw.

no, we've put one of the best pop songs of all time in instead.

3. Yes (from The Holy Bible) [11 votes, 2 first place, 344 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mtwZaRObP8

Gah, I was hoping it'd win. What a track.

xp Ha, exactly - one of the greatest singles of the 90s. Not just a terrific lyric, melody and arrangement but a biopic-perfect break with the past and ideal introduction to Nicky's more humanist, melancholy, old-school socialist worldview. (Which was there previously but always overshadowed by Richey and never this beautifully executed.) I remember reading that when Nicky gave James the lyric he requested "a sense of melancholic victory" from the music. I think the lyric was originally longer but James pared it down to create a sense of space and grace in contrast to the scrunched-up verbosity of The Holy Bible.

The orchestral version of ADFL on Forever Delayed is really nice.

everyone i've loved or hated always seems to leave

and #2 is...?

2. Faster (from The Holy Bible) [11 votes, 3 first place, 347 points, 1994]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hMqpR9AogI

"just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff " refers to a story involving a childs playground at the top of a cliff, people were worried that the children would fall off and die, but instead of erecting a fence they put an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff so that they could get them to hospital quickly. I havn't a clue if this is a true story but i think it reflect a lot in soceity and its twisted logic. Has anyone else heard this story and remember it more complete than myself?

xp

<3 <3 <3 FASTER <3 <3 <3

v close between 2 & 3 !

I agonised about Yes and This Is Yesterday for my no.1. If I'd gone with Yes it'd've been #2 (at least!)

Faster: Richey's best lyric? James' best treatment? Love the sheer - I gotta say it - manic braggadocio, something that simmers under most of the rest of THB, even the obvious victim songs like 4st 7lb or Yes. "Self disgust is self obsession", and though he seems to spurn the former here he obviously is still suffering from the latter.

I can't see that youtube right now, but I hope you've gone with the incredible Top Of The Pops performance.

yes it is and yes it was

I'm all in favour of bands coming across like a deranged terrorist cell. Faster is such a gloriously lean, hard, aggressive, brutal piece of music and polemic.

The narrator could be the son of the guy from First We Take Manhattan.

I. AM. AN. ARC-EE-TECT!

it's such a bold statement of personal agenda, an only slightly hysterical 'fuck you, i'm right, the world is wrong'. if he had had the faith in himself to really be this guy, who takes on the world, instead of the guy who is beaten down by it, i guess things would have turned out differently.

1. The Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel (b-side to Found That Soul) [312 votes, 89 first place, 3001 points, 2001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42955-rehKk

GET IN!!

it took me all day to register 88 socks but goddammit, now we are actually here, it was all worth it

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WCQMmI1Oazc/TL73WQkGN4I/AAAAAAAAACA/-TEuBiY-FfI/s1600/headbang.jpg

http://www.socialmediascience.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/crowdsurf.jpg

sorry, just recalculated actually it's

1. Break My Heart Slowly (from Nicky Wire's classic I Killed The Zeitgeist) [400 votes, 94 first place, 3122 points, 2006]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejh7Z0KmbBw

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CdKESCVynAI/SbzlrtMjXuI/AAAAAAAACTg/6RMCOkDKTc4/s400/James%2BDean%2BBradfield1.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/18d4cj.jpg

ok ok

1. Motorcycle Emptiness (from Generation Terrorists) [15 votes, 2 first place, 424 points, 1992]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gavcjNniIvk

Ah, can't really argue. When we went to Japan on holiday, I made a point of getting a despondent photo of me framed in an alienating hotel window, a la Richey in the video. Would've done more at the ferris wheel, but it's in Yokohama and we didn't go there.

interesting, faster got more 1st places but for some reason a good chunk of voters didn't touch it, whereas nearly everyone voted for ME. as of course they should have. feels like being a teenager again.

thanks to everyone who voted and commented. if you want to know positions of any other tracks let me know...

No, thank YOU. Go on, give us a full rundown.

yeah, it was cool to see the full list of positions/score/votes/#1s if you can just dump that stuff into a post.

thanks jamie, superb job.

okay here goes, everything voted for, don't have time to stick in the albums, years on the non 50 stuff though

114. Gold Against The Soul [1 votes, 12 points]
113. Let Robeson Sing [1 votes, 12 points]
112. Black Holes For The Young [1 votes, 13 points]
111. Born To End [1 votes, 13 points]
110. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head [1 votes, 13 points]
109. To Repel Ghosts [1 votes, 13 points]
108. Australia [1 votes, 14 points]
107. Intravenous Agnostic [1 votes, 14 points]
106. Send Away The Tigers [1 votes, 14 points]
105. The Convalescent [1 votes, 14 points]
104. I'm Not Working [1 votes, 17 points]
103. Love Turn Us Under [1 votes, 17 points]
102. Teenage 20/20 [1 votes, 18 points]
101. Virginia State Epileptic Colony [1 votes, 18 points]
100. 4eva Delayed [1 votes, 19 points]
99. Automatik Technicolour [1 votes, 20 points]
98. Love's Sweet Exile [1 votes, 20 points]
97. Ready For Drowning [1 votes, 20 points]
96. Horses Under Starlight [1 votes, 21 points]
95. Door To The River [1 votes, 22 points]
94. Empty Souls [1 votes, 22 points]
93. I Live To Fall Asleep [1 votes, 22 points]
92. Postcards From A Young Man [1 votes, 22 points]
91. Second Great Depression [1 votes, 22 points]
90. Some Kind Of Nothingness [1 votes, 22 points]
89. This Joke Sport Severed [1 votes, 22 points]
88. Umbrella [1 votes, 22 points]
87. We Are All Bourgeois Now [1 votes, 22 points]
86. All Is Vanity [1 votes, 23 points]
85. Democracy Coma [1 votes, 23 points]
84. Emily [1 votes, 23 points]
83. Facing page:top left [1 votes, 23 points]
82. Indian Summer [1 votes, 23 points]
81. Marlon JD [1 votes, 23 points]
80. Strip It Down [1 votes, 23 points]
79. Underdogs [1 votes, 23 points]
78. Methodone Pretty [1 votes, 24 points]
77. SYMM [1 votes, 24 points]
76. The Love Of Richard Nixon [1 votes, 26 points]
75. You're Tender And You're Tired [1 votes, 26 points]
74. You Stole The Sun From My Heart [1 votes, 26 points]
73. Another Invented Disease [1 votes, 28 points]
72. Natwest Barclays Midlands Lloyds [2 votes, 28 points]
71. Me And Stephen Hawking [1 votes, 30 points]
70. Never Want Again [2 votes, 33 points]
69. Bag Lady [2 votes, 35 points]
68. Comfort Comes [2 votes, 35 points]
67. Patrick Bateman [2 votes, 35 points]
66. Solitude Sometimes Is [2 votes, 37 points]
65. William's Last Words (Underworld Remix) [2 votes, 38 points]
64. Condemned To Rock N Roll [2 votes, 39 points]
63. Crucifix Kiss [1 votes, 1 first place, 40 points]
62. The Girl Who Wanted to be God [2 votes, 41 points]
61. Yourself [2 votes, 42 points]
60. AutumnSong [2 votes, 43 points]
59. Tsunami [2 votes, 43 points]
58. Judge Yrself [2 votes, 44 points]
57. New Art Riot [2 votes, 44 points]
56. The Year of Purification [2 votes, 47 points]
55. The Masses Against the Classes [2 votes, 48 points]
54. Repeat (UK) [3 votes, 49 points]
53. 1985 [2 votes, 51 points]
52. The Intense Humming Of Evil [2 votes, 52 points]
51. Black Dog On My Shoulder [3 votes, 53 points]
50. Ocean Spray (from Know Your Enemy) [3 votes, 54 points, 2001]
49. My Little Empire (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [3 votes, 55 points, 1998]
48. Interiors (Song for Willem De Kooning) (from Everything Must Go) [2 votes, 56 points, 1996]
47. Spectators Of Suicide (from Generation Terrorists) [3 votes, 57 points, 1992]
46. Found That Soul (from Know Your Enemy) [4 votes, 58 points, 2001]
45. My Guernica (from Know Your Enemy) [3 votes, 60 points, 2001]
44. Epicentre (from Know Your Enemy) [2 votes, 1 first place, 62 points, 2001]
43. Archives Of Pain (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 64 points, 1994]
42. So Why So Sad (from Know Your Enemy) [2 votes, 1 first place, 65 points, 2001]
41. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky (from Everything Must Go) [4 votes, 67 points, 1996]
40. Sepia (b-side to Kevin Carter) [3 votes, 68 points, 1996]
39. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart (from The Holy Bible) [4 votes, 70 points, 1994] (tied with 37 & 38)
38. Revol (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 70 points, 1994] (tied with 37 & 39)
37. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (from Send Away The Tigers) [3 votes, 1 first place, 70 points, 2007] (tied with 38 & 39)
36. Too Cold Here (b-side to Revol) [3 votes, 71 points, 1994]
35. Enola/Alone (from Everything Must Go) [3 votes, 81 points, 1996] tied with 34 & 33
34. Mausoleum (from The Holy Bible) [3 votes, 81 points, 1994] tied with 35 & 33
33. There By The Grace Of God (from Forever Delayed) [3 votes, 81 points, 2002] tied with 34 & 35
32. Dead Trees and Traffic Islands (b-side to A Design For Life) [4 votes, 82 points, 1996] tied with 31 & 30
31. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time (from Journal For Plague Lovers) [5 votes, 82 points, 2009] tied with 32 & 30
30. Theme from M.A.S.H. (Suicide Is Painless) (stand-alone single) [4 votes, 82 points, 1992] tied with 31 & 32
29. The Everlasting (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [4 votes, 83 points, 1998]
28. Peeled Apples (from Journal For Plague Lovers) [4 votes, 85 points, 2009]
27. She Is Suffering (from The Holy Bible) [4 votes, 91 points, 1994]
26. Prologue To History (b-side to If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next) [5 votes, 92 points, 1998]
25. Slash & Burn (from Generation Terrorists) [5 votes, 99 points, 1992]
24. No Surface All Feeling (from Everything Must Go) [4 votes, 109 points, 1996]
23. P.C.P. (from The Holy Bible) [6 votes, 110 points, 1994]
22. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier (from Everything Must Go) [5 votes, 111 points, 1996]
21. Roses In The Hospital (from Gold Against The Soul) [6 votes, 118 points, 1993]
20. Life Becoming A Landslide (from Gold Against The Soul) [6 votes, 120 points, 1993]
19. Everything Must Go (from Everything Must Go) [6 votes, 121 points, 1996]
18. Further Away (from Everything Must Go) [6 votes, 134 points, 1996]
17. Little Baby Nothing (from Generation Terrorists) [6 votes, 144 points, 1992]
16. If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next (from This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours) [7 votes, 150 points, 1998]
15. Of Walking Abortion (from The Holy Bible) [7 votes, 151 points, 1994]
14. Stay Beautiful (from Generation Terrorists) [6 votes, 152 points, 1992]
13. Die in the Summertime (from The Holy Bible) [7 votes, 154 points, 1994]
12. Motown Junk (stand-alone single) [7 votes, 156 points, 1991]
11. You Love Us (from Generation Terrorists) [7 votes, 159 points, 1992]
10. La Tristessa Durera (Scream to a Sigh) (from Gold Against The Soul) [8 votes, 170 points, 1993] tied with 9
9. Sleepflower (from Gold Against The Soul) [7 votes, 170 points, 1993] tied with 10
8. From Despair to Where (from Gold Against The Soul) [9 votes, 189 points, 1993]
7. This Is Yesterday (from The Holy Bible) [7 votes, 1 first place, 202 points, 1994]
6. 4st 7lb (from The Holy Bible) [9 votes, 1 first place, 244 points, 1994]
5. Kevin Carter (from Everything Must Go) [9 votes, 1 first place, 252 points, 1996]
4. A Design For Life (from Everything Must Go) [11 votes, 2 first place, 275 points, 1996]
3. Yes (from The Holy Bible) [11 votes, 2 first place, 344 points, 1994]
2. Faster (from The Holy Bible) [11 votes, 3 first place, 347 points, 1994]
1. Motorcycle Emptiness (from Generation Terrorists) [15 votes, 2 first place, 424 points, 1992]

Raindrops was mine, surprised noöne else voted for it. I also voted for Repeat. Apart from them, everything else made the fifty.

my fallen soldiers:

8. Methadone Pretty
11. New Art Riot
12. Love's Sweet Exile
14. Teenage 20/20
16. Condemned To Rock 'N' Roll
19. Born To End

looks like i was the only person to vote for 4 of these (love's sweet exile??) but then i did have all of the top 3 in my top 5 so i can't complain.

So just me voting for 4Ever Delayed then. Other non-placers: William's Last Words, Comfort Comes, Solitude Sometimes Is.

And thanks Jamie. That was fun. More fun even than The Intense Humming of Evil.

Thanks! This was a fun poll with a ton of Youtube material to check out after the fact.

Mine that didn't place:

6 You're Tender and You're Tired
11 Horses Under Starlight
12 Tsunami
16 Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds
17 Repeat (UK)

Did any other Americans vote in this? I gotta admit a lack of familiarity with a whole lot of B-sides (which is not totally surprising, considering).

Cheers Jamie!

My sole non-placer: 72. Natwest Barclays Midlands Lloyds [2 votes, 28 points]. Everything in the top seven was in my top seven but I had first and second place swapped.

Really wish Horses Under Starlight had placed. love it.

I didn't vote, but I'd have stuck Raindrops pretty high

(Motorcycle Emptiness) feels like being a teenager again.

Yus indeed - Can't listen to it without being transported back to Hatfield Forum indie night.

yay, someone else voted for "Never Want Again"!

Am I the lone Yank? It can't be. Glad to see 1985 get love. I was already overloading my ballot with Lifeblood!
Intended to vote Raindrops but got distracted by Umbrella.
Big thanks to Jamie!!

I'm Canadia fwiw

and yes thanks Jamie!

er *Canadian

ballots?

Sleepflower
Motorcycle Emptiness
Stay Beautiful
Patrick Bateman
Die In The Summertime
This Is Yesterday
Life becoming A Landslide
IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart
She is suffering
Spectators Of Suicide
New Art Riot
Strip It Down
Motown Junk
You Love Us
Slash 'N' Burn
Revol
Repeat
Little Baby Nothing
Yourself
Roses In The Hospital

This Is Yesterday
Yes
Sleepflower
Stay Beautiful
Faster
Revol
4st 7lb
Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier
Kevin Carter
Suicide Is Painless
My Little Empire
Yourself
P.C.P.
Further Away
No Surface All Feeling
From Despair to Where
Life Becoming a Landslide
Slash & Burn
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
Repeat (UK)

Bag Lady (12)
Black Holes for the Young (13)
The Convalescent (14)
Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier (15)
From Despair to Where (16)
I'm Not Working (17)
Never Want Again (18)
The Year of Purification (19)
Die in the Summertime (20)
La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) (21)
Peeled Apples (22)
Everything Must Go (23)
William's Last Words (Underworld Remix) (24)
Black Dog On My Shoulder (25)
Too Cold Here (26)
Faster (28)
Motorcycle Emptiness (30)
No Surface All Feeling (33)
This Is Yesterday (36)
Yes (40)

Great poll jamie, thank you very much for doing it all!