NewsManics reveal reissue plans
The Manic Street Preachers plan to reissue their 1998 album This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours next and Nicky Wire has revealed some details about it…
At the beginning of this year Wire told the NME that they were thinking about a possible reissue: “It’s 20 years of ‘This Is My Truth’, so we might do something around that. Only because we have so much stuff that’s never been heard. In my archive, that’s the one that takes up the most space. I don’t know about gigs, but there’s just so much stuff that no one has ever heard. It’s our biggest selling album.”
And then a few weeks ago he effectively confirmed plans when he revealed some more details in response to the question “are you still itching to do the ‘This Is My Truth’ re-release?”. These plans include removing a track from the album (just as they removed ‘Underdogs’ from the 10th anniversary edition of Send Away The Tigers) and ‘promoting’ a B-side to album track status (something they also did with Send Away The Tigers when they added ‘Welcome To The Dead Zone’). This is what he had to say:
“Yes, James has remastered it, I found all the demos. They’re amazing – all on cassettes, recorded in someone’s front room. We’ve put ‘Prologue To History’ on the album now and kicked off ‘Nobody Loved You’. We’ve moved that onto disc two with a great demo that we’ve found. It’s packed full of really interesting and intimate stuff, as well as us in the studio and off the leash on certain songs like ‘Tsunami’ that are much more raw. There are some amazing remixes too – by people like Mogwai, Massive Attack and Cornelius. It was a great period where people would take your work and transform it into something really special.”
The album was 20 years old in September and features the band’s first UK number one single ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’. There were three further UK top 20 singles. It is not known when the reissue might appear but given that we’re almost in mid-October, it seems unlikely that anything will happen in 2018.
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[…] As previously reported, the Manic Street Preachers will reissue their 1998 album This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, with anniversary CD and vinyl sets now confirmed for December. The band’s fifth album reached number one and features the chart-topping single If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next. […]
I am saddened about this reissue not included with a DVD, since their videos from this period are vital for their album’s success, ie. If You Tolerate This… and The Everlasting. I’ve also seen a very nice an hour long making of TV documentary which I haven’t seen since.
Why is the bookset a different size to the other booksets they have released?
Great to hear that this album is getting a deluxe reissue but have they been getting advice from Morrissey on how to annoy your fanbase? His ridiculous revisionism of his back catalogue has irked many of his fans (the 2010 remaster of ‘Viva Hate’ being the most unforgiveable), and this reissue seems to be following the same path.
The Suede reissues got this right in the sense that they stuck to the original running order but offered Brett Andersons’ opinion on how he would sequence them now.
If they must insist on changing the tracklisting, at least remove the weakest track (SYMM gets my vote), but they’ve decided to boot off a decent song instead. And by the way, I love ‘The Everlasting’, but cringe every time JDB pronounces ‘genuine’ (why, James, why?). Instead of altering the tracklisting, perhaps they should get him to re-dub the vocal.
On the plus side, previous Manics reissues have been excellent so the overall package should continue this trend. I just wish they’d have left it as it is.
Hello all, I’m interested in this reissue but also torn with changing up an original album’s tracklisting by just 1 song (and I really liked ‘Nobody Loved You’ right where it was!). If a band is doing to do things like this for admittedly a small audience of people buying material they already own then why not do a full rearrangement since I’m sure at some point the order was doing to be much different than how it was released? Yes, people can keep their original copies of albums but I for one wasn’t thrilled about losing ‘Underdogs’ from SATT for a track that felt a bit inferior, and to me demo’s of songs don’t always mix well with ‘finished’ songs as a way to listen to an album. Anyway, small gripe and at some point I’ll buy this version too but like other MSP fans the one I’d really like to have a good remaster for is ‘Gold Against The Soul’! They’ve done a good job with their remasters so far without falling into the trap of over-compressing, so fingers crossed on the rest of their catalogue. By the way Paul any word on if any video content for this reissue will be region-free? I’m in the US and still use my TV/stereo system combo to listen to multi-channel sound versus watching a desk on a computer with 2 speakers.
‘Prologue To History’ is an absolute stunner. Quite possibly my fave Manc track.
You not happen to be the same Mark Hollis as who steered the Talk Talk?
Nobody Loved You is one of the best tracks on the album!
Absolutely agree…. but maybe the demo will be better? To be honest MSP rarely make a bad record.
Just been to view the Nicky Wire Exhibition of Polaroid’s at Tenby Museum, West Wales, mug home town. Excellent well worth a visit. You can see examples of why some of the albums art came to be.
I got mine autographed in the Cardiff Virgin megastore too. It’s a good album but my favourite song from them at that time is the 10 minute David Holmes remix of “Tolerate” from one of the CD singles. Their CD singles always had the best packacking with the artwork & inner sleeves. I don’t recall any other band of the time going to such much trouble with their singles. Anyway, it’s going to have to be a stunning package for me to buy it & I hope they’ll do a documentary DVD with it.
I was annoyed when I read they intended to drop ‘Nobody Loved You’ because it’s one of the few tracks on the album that has a bit of spunk, and I love it, and they made a big deal of the importance of the lyrics being about Richey, at the time.
Prologue… is a good song too, but sticking it in place of one of the original tunes is dumb. Only as dumb as us buying the same record over and over, but still dumb.
Nothing the Manics do these days inspires me though. I remember reading James criticising how bad The Everlasting is, and Nicky incredulously pointing out JDB ‘acting singing’ when doing it, but they still play it live all the time and it still sounds like that Texas tune. I think it’s awful myself, ‘gennawinnly’ awful, but I wouldn’t agree with dropping it on a reissue either.
And like a few other posters… I love Be Natural. Up to that point it sounded like nothing they’d ever done before.
Can’t work out if it’s rewriting history or a marketing ploy to sell a new version of the album with different track listing.
The other thing I don’t get with these reissues when there’s double vinyl is why put the demos on the other vinyl instead of b-sides, it’s so frustrating – surely the majority of people would like to hear more songs, not nerd out on what a song sounded like before they finished it?! The cynic in me suggests they want big fans to buy multi formats.
Agreed with adding Prologue. Should have dropped SYMM intead of Be Natural in my opinion.
The follow-up to This is My Truth is the one that needs a re-worked tracklist. Know Your Enemy had too much filler.
While i’m super excited for this – i’m hoping to hear news of a Gold Against The Soul remaster and a Deluxe edition of Lifeblood at some point in the near future. 2023 (30 years) and 2024 (20 years) is too long to wait.
At least it’s only one track that they’re leaving off. After all, wasn’t it the Manics who famously once said that everything must go?
Mmm, demos on a 20 year old cassette. I bet they’ll sound great…
Can’t wait for this
Unreleased demos from Chateau de la Rouge
Hopefully a few live tracks to fill a close up dvd would be great as some one suggested
Also I’ve found the other reissues very well priced indeed although the GT packaging in the boxset was awful the record company should send out extra discs
My favourite MSP album. Glad to hear a reissue is on the way with the b-sides. Would love a tour where they play the album in full. Not sure about changing the tracklist of the original album. They did that with ‘Send Away The Tigers’ and while the “new” song is better than the one they changed it just didn’t flow very well.
I hope they do a proper vinyl edition. The current sony ‘we love vinyl’/legacy one is “okay” but the sleeve repro is poor and there is an hours music on one disc.
I’d have dropped “Be Natural” myself. Duff.
For some reason, I get the feeling this’ll be more like the “Send Away The Tigers” reissue than the box sets done for “Generation Terrorists” or “The Holy Bible”. Whilst the album was a big seller at the time, it doesn’t have the same status as some of their other albums. If there’s a DVD, I would love it to have the BBC “Close Up” documentary from around the release of the album. We’ll see, I guess.
My favorite MSP album!
I listened to the original cd a few weeks back after quite some time and was impressed by how good it sounded. I would still like a vinyl copy as its probably my favourite manics album but it will be interesting to see if its remastered how and if it can improve on the original release
Prologue to History deserves a spot on the album. It really is that b-side.
In fact, all the bsides to this campaign we’re pretty good, there wasn’t one that I skipped by. Black Holes for the Young and Montana/Autumn/78
We’re never gonna get a Gold Against the Soul remaster are we?
I’ve been thinking that about Gold Against The Soul ever since they missed the 20th and 25th anniversaries, and skipped on to the Everything Must Go set instead: it’s a pity as the album has cracking songs on it.
Nobody Loved You is one of my favourite Manics songs, that’s a strange decision for me but hey. Not sure I need a reissue, will wait and see. I have the 10th Anniversary cd’s of Holy Bible and Everything Must Go so if in a similar format box and decent price then might have to indulge.
Nobody Loved You is also one of my favorite songs, so it’s a bit perplexing as to why they would want to remove and replace it, but there you go. It will be interesting to see what they put on the reissue. This was the first MSP album I bought, so I have quite the fondness for it.
Brilliant news. One of their best albums just keep away the cassettes.
Why do certain bands want to re-write history? Lawrence from Felt even changed the title of one an album when the Felt re-issue campaign began. If you weren’t happy with the title or running order when it was originally released, tough! The fans have lived with it all these years and it just feels weird to rejig it around for a re-issue.
Having said that, I know not every band puts lots of thought, time and care into the running order. Jarvis Cocker famously left it to someone else to choose the running order for their albums because he couldn’t cope with it! And I’ve heard many people say the running order of The Smiths ‘Queen Is Dead’ could’ve been better. But even so, I don’t think you should mess with something for a re-issue. Just add B-sides as bonus tracks. Meh!
For me, this is exactly what re-issues are about. Rather than some sonic tweaking that in many cases is barely audible, isn’t it more interesting for an artist to say “I’ve had a rethink and this running order/track selection etc works better or is more reflective of what was originally intended?”.
Maybe there was an overbearing record producer or company that dictated the initial release. It makes you question previous work in a new light. It is thought-provoking.
Unless the remastering (rather than remixing) is from an analogue source rather than digital, it is questionable what it will achieve anyway.
I’m listening to the new version of Bowie’s Never Let Me Down and it is fascinating to hear the previous album re-imagined.
In theatre, literature, poetry, art, and classical music re-editing, adding material, cutting, etc. happens all the time (and always has done), not least because sometimes the artist only realises something isn’t working properly via other means (e.g. performance) or something could have been done better with the benefit of hindsight or later thought. More controversially it happens in film: the so-called (dreaded) ‘director’s cut’… without wanting to appear terribly rude it does seem to upset people far less the more adult, less fan-ish the artform might be…
(I do, though, regret the removal of ‘Nobody Loved You’ – a superb track – and a strange choice for omission.)
Bought Motown Junk back in the day , and the flexi disc they did a track for. All those wonderful new wave style classic singles followed by the wonderful orchestrated songs and the brill double cd singles with loads of remixes leading up to the excellent This Is My Truth.
Not liked anything put out by them in the last 2 decades ……mind the 21st century has not been the age of the electric guitar has it .
Great album, but the best news today about a Welsh band is that the Super Furry Animals have a really nice ‘At The BBC’ set coming out. Ltd and silly expensive vinyl set already sold out though.
To be honest I am getting hacked off with expanded editions that rely heavily on remixes even if they are period..odd I should say that as a FGTH fan…guess that’s what they were about right from the off but I would much rather see demos or live or something that doesn’t distort the song beyond recognition. Fully accept I am contradicting myself btw
Seems like nobody loved ‘Nobody Loved You’. I do love it though. Shame to see it go, but given that the original album’s a Poundland/charity shop staple and there are literally kabillions of copies of it out there, the song’s unlikely to fall into obscurity. I love This is My Truth… nothing the Manics did afterwards meant as much to me until the amazing Futurology. By that I mean albums as a whole – obviously there are loads of cracking individual songs on the albums made in-between!
I am a massive fan of the Manic’s. I have seen them live nearly 20 times and had this pleasure of meeting the band. They say never meet your heroes but they really are lovely people. I am however not a fan of adjusting the track listing. You cannot re-write history with Prologue To History (sorry I had to)! I think Nobody Loved You is needed where it is to help pace the album but ultimately it isn’t my decision.
However, I will be picking this set up- the demos alone will be worth the admission and the remix will be interesting. Hopefully some solid news inbound soon…
The first Manics album I really got into, and worked back from there – have fond memories of this on my Minidisc player (God that ages things!!) whilst helping my dad out at work during the summer holidays…great album. Always had a soft spot for ‘Black Holes for the Young’ the B-side they did with Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Looking forward to a good 3/4-CD and possibly DVD package for this. Nicky Wire always seems enthusiastic for people to hear unreleased/demo stuff which is heartening.
Good to hear, though it’s again annoying that they’re messing with the original order (without leaving the original anywhere in sight, other than in an alternative form like before).
They did have another UK no. 1 with “The Masses Against The Classes” in 2000, but just those two.
JDB gave a bit more info with Absolute Radio back in late September too https://youtu.be/0n6OK-Ch5Rc?t=130 Gave a bit more insight into the demos included etc. Curious that it still hasn’t been officially announced.
Paul, sorry the band had 2 UK number 1 singles. The second was the stand alone single The Masses Against the Classes.
I got a CD and LP signed by the band on its release date at the old Virgin Megastore in Cardiff.
Yeah… forgot that, even though I bought it at the time.