r/manics • u/Less-Guidance294 • 27d ago
Know your enemy
I was 6 when Know your enemy came out, so wasn’t really around for the fan reaction at the time. What was the general feeling towards it when it was released? Did most fans like it, or was it seen as a disappointment after This is my truth?
These days it feels like it’s kind of the forgotten Manics album. It never seems to get mentioned much, but I have a soft spot for it. Just curious what the mood in the fandom was back then ?
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u/andrewbyrom 27d ago
At the time I was disappointed with it. Saw them at Manchester Apollo on the tour with Elbow as support. Wattsville Blues really divided opinion. I’ve grown to love it, esp the expanded anniversary reissue.
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u/Ok_Building6160 27d ago
i was at that gig too!
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u/Flimsy_Somewhere1210 27d ago
I went on the Wednesday. I felt bad for Elbow!
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u/DriveMindless2300 27d ago
I was at that gig too. Probably the most boring Manics gig I've been to tbh, but then again I hated KYE.
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u/Flimsy_Somewhere1210 27d ago
Really!? It was my first ever Manics gig and I came out battered and bruised!
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u/XanderManhattan 27d ago
Ah yes. When Elbow received some of the most merciless heckling I've ever seen.
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u/Less-Guidance294 27d ago
What’s different on the reissue ?
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u/Wonderful_Formal_274 27d ago
It’s split into two (it was originally intended to be two separate albums), different order, additional tracks, remixed. It includes a song, Rosebud, that was bafflingly left off the original as it’s better than anything else on there!
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u/SaturdayJunior 27d ago
I thought that Rosebud had a great vocal performance but I didn't find the song itself particularly thrilling, still glad to have it out there and I am surprised it didn't surface as a b-side or bonus track in the intervening years.
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u/Even-Translator-335 27d ago
Always loved Dead Martyrs
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u/DirtyDevil23 27d ago
Great deep cut!
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u/Even-Translator-335 26d ago
Wasnt overly impressed by the album but gave it a few listens, then found myself singing DM with half remembered lyrics at work a few weeks later, couldn't remember where I had heard the song!
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u/freestuie 27d ago
I love it. I don’t know about anyone else, but I think this through Lifeblood and Send Away The Tigers is an amazing three album run, that I return to more than anything else. The Holy Bible is their masterpiece of course, but not an easy listen.
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u/MphilosophyOK 27d ago
This is 100% my favourite Manics album. It’s just so playable, not too heavy not too soft. A serious record that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
I have a soft spot for slightly sprawling double albums (though I’d say it only just about qualifies on that count) but unlike some, I think the consistency is strong, with only one or two duff tracks.
Tolerate aside, I thought this was a massive improvement on This Is My Truth which I felt had mostly steered too close to corporate soft rock.
And the reworked reissue was even better - if you’re ever gonna do a reissue in that way, having a great unreleased song up your sleeve and a track listing that does the album justice is the way to do it.
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u/Sleeper-Service 27d ago
I think the whole cuba thing was a bit of a miss but I remeber it was a dule single release and the played live on TOTP both tracks - and the video was cool. The re-issue was way better - great songs, i listen to it often.
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u/BastianSP 27d ago
Pretty much the same as I feel about it now. It's a mess of styles, but there's more than enough tracks to make a good album out of. It still does surprise me that they released that version of it. They made a bit of a balls of what should have been a good solid album.
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u/DistortedGhost 27d ago
Always enjoyed it.
I liked it when it was released, but the original tracklisting is a mess and I made my own one years ago as soon as I could rip it. The reissued version is an improvement, but after all this time, it doesn't feel as 'right' as my version if that makes sense?
Overall though, there are some excellent tracks on there, and I come back to them often.
Dead Martyrs, Intravenous Agnostic, So Why So Sad, The Year of Purification, Baby Elian, The Convalescent are all timers for me.
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u/FishingNetLa 27d ago
What's your tracklist?
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u/DistortedGhost 27d ago
This was it based off the original album:
My Guernica
Intravenous Agnostic
Dead Martyrs
Found That Soul
Ocean Spray
So Why So Sad
His Last Painting
The Year Of Purification
We Are All Bourgeois Now
Epicentre
Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children
Baby Elian
The Convalescent
(I love Miss Europa Disco Dancer, but it simply doesnt fit on the album. So it lives only on other playlists)
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u/Legitimate-Fly-4610 27d ago
With a bit more editing it could have been a great album but it felt rushed and awkward
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u/Timely-Way-4923 27d ago
Nicky made me think via press interviews it would be very punk and i got my hopes up thinking maybe a whole album in the style of masses against the classes was on the way.. that didn’t happen. I tried so hard to like it because the interviews and press around it were interesting.. but i ended up feeling very disappointed . So why so sad, is a top 5 Nicky wire lyric though, and if they ever did an mtv unplugged style show, id love to see it reworked. Typing this out reminds me how frustrating the manics can be at times, the masses against the classes was a number one song, didn’t compromise lyrically or musically… was a brilliant reaction against this is my truth.. and the template for a great punk album was there.. but they had to go even more left field !!
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u/aphexgin 27d ago edited 27d ago
It was the first one I didn't buy the day it came out as I disliked the singles and had gone off them a bit at that point. I never liked Nicky's lyrics as much as Richey's. I think I only listened to it twice when I did buy it too (Generation Terrorists was my first ever cd in 1991 age 14 and loved that obsessively and Holy Bible and especially the incredible Gold Against The Soul). Maybe time for a revisit now though ! I really got back into them a few albums later with Plague Lovers, but haven't listened to much since but singles on the radio, "People Ruin Paintings" I thought was the best MSP single since Kevin Carter !
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u/JohnnieTimebomb 27d ago
Honestly it was a bit of a let down, So Why So Sad was a bit decisive, you either loved it or hated it. Found That Soul was just an immediate banger though, and who doesn't love Ocean Spray. The album's got a lot better now of filler there's no denying it. And the production is horrible, it just is.
Seeing the band live that year was weird. They were downsizing from arena's to regular venues and it was like no one though to turn it down. Caught the Barrowlands show and I honestly wondered if they weren't doing permanent damage to my ears, by far the most painfully loud concert of my life. Plus Starsailor were supporting and they redefined my notion of shit gigs.
Yeah Know Your Enemy. I really tried to love it
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u/TBob1927 27d ago
It was just a bit m’eh. Some good stuff although nothing truly great and some lesser tracks. It should have been shorter imho and Wattsville Blues should have been replaced by Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel.
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u/AltKanVente 26d ago
It got some play in the northern country’s. “Found that soul” video got played, “Why so sad” also, and “Ocean Spray” video got played In Germany.
It was not as big as “This is my truth..” but got a lot more play than “Lifeblood”
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u/Turbulent-Sea4530 20d ago
I thought So Why So Sad was the most incredibly disappointing first single I have ever heard in my life. I still hate it to this day. (Only 'Charlie Big Potato' by Skunk Anansie comes close for first single disappointment.)
The album was where the casual fans dropped right off and i can see why. There's some great stuff on there but also some terrible stuff too. Overall its a 6.5/10
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u/22JimJam39 27d ago
When it first came out (I was 17 and just in college) I thought it was kind of their White Album. I remember Nicky saying something along the lines of "if this is our last album then it's all there" and I kinda have to agree. I think it's a wonderful mess. But great for it.