Chorizo’s top 50 Manic Street Preachers songs… again!

Back in August 2013, I contributed to New Chart Riot’s survey with my top 50 Manic Street Preachers songs.

Since then the Welsh wonders have released 2 new albums, I’ve seen em live 2 more times and also received this tweet…

@trustthewizards Hi just wondering if you’ll be doing an update on your Manics top 50 this time round? http://t.co/BrtKRJGNbG

— Ian Lipthorpe (@Pyfbrown) May 10, 2015

So here it is then with my 2013 ranking in brackets and illustrated with some of my favourite lyrics (created using typeslab.com)

50. [43] There By The Grace Of God

49. [50] Die in the Summertime

48. [31] Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky

47. [-] The Next Jet To Leave Moscow

46. [-] Found That Soul

45. [32] From Despair To Where

44. [-] Black Dog On My Shoulder

43. [47] Golden Platitudes

42. [-] Nobody Loved You

41. [44] Solitude Sometimes Is

40. [36] Mausoleum

39. [34] Postcards From A Young Man

38. [-] You’re Tender and You’re Tired

37. [-] Love Letter To The Future

36. [25] Automatik Teknicolour

35. [10] Kevin Carter

34. [17] William’s Last Words

33. [23] Roses In The Hospital

32. [16] Glasnost

31. [15] You Stole The Sun From My Heart

30. [13] Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

29. [-] This Sullen Welsh Heart (JDB solo version is my favourite)

28. [9] Me And Stephen Hawking

27. [4] Autumnsong

26. [22] Removeables

25. [-] P.C.P.

24. [6] A Design For Life

23. [-] Just a Kid

22. [11] The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever

21. [18] Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

20. [-] Walk Me To The Bridge

19. [-] Ready For Drowning

18. [-] Show Me The Wonder

17. [28] You Love Us

16. [21] Of Walking Abortion

15. [27] R.P. McMurphy

14. [12] Yes

13. [-] 30 Year War

12. [-] Revol

11. [42] All Is Vanity

10. [7] Motorcycle Emptiness

9. [8] No Surface All Feeling

8. [46] Donkeys

7. [14] La Tristessa Durera (Scream To a Sigh)

6. [29] The Masses Against The Classes

5. [19] Rendition

4. [5] 4st 7lbs

3. [1] Little Baby Nothing

2. [2] My Little Empire

1. [3] Faster

Manics sewing. Lyrics by Nicky Wire and Stitchey Edwards (sorry!) From https://www.pinterest.com/pin/431501208021122183/

The full lyric. Click to see fullsize.

Here’s a Spotify playlist of my top 50 (excluding 3 b-sides that aren’t on Spotify)

Some interesting(ish) facts to come out of this exercise:

14 new entries but only 5 of those are songs that weren’t out last time around
Biggest movers up the chart: All Is Vanity (no.42 to no.11) and Donkeys (no.46 to no.8, definitely helped by seeing the band perform it live at Manchester gig last year)
Biggest movers down the chart: Kevin Carter (no.10 to no.35) and Autumnsong (no.4 to no.27)
Those we have lost: Dead Passive, Archives of Pain, Some Kind of Nothingness, Facing Page Top Left, Nostalgic Pushead, The Convalescent, Empty Souls, She Bathed Herself In a Bath of Bleach, Solitude Sometimes Is, This Is Yesterday, A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun, Born A Girl, We Were Never Told, Pretension / Repulsion
Notable trends: A surge in popularity for the “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours” LP which has doubled its number of songs from 3 to 6. Mostly at the expense of “Journal For Plague Lovers” and “Postcards From A Young Man” it seems.
Not many changes at the top of the list, except number 3 and number 1 swapping round. Probably as a result of seeing the Holy Bible 20th anniversary gig.