Generation Terrorists

About

Generation Terrorists is the debut album by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preacher, released on 10 February 1992. It was recorded by tracking (the band recorded each instrument separately rather than playing it as a live band and then adding the overdubs later) over a period of 23 weeks at Blackbarn Studio, near Guildford, England. Despite the whole band being credited in the album note, vocalist James Dean Bradfield played all guitars and bass on the album. Per the producer Steve Brown's decision, most of the drum tracks on the album were recorded on a drum machine, which was programmed by Brown and the band's drummer Sean Moore. All lyrics were written by Nicky Wire (real name Nicholas Jones) and Richey James Edward. All music was written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore (except "Damn Dog", which is a cover version of a song by the Sleez Sisters from the 1980 movie Times Square). Describing the album's musical style, The Quietus opined "It had to sound passé, it had to be overdone; if you're trying to bulldoze the shiny edifice of western pop culture, you can't do it tastefully or with subtlety, can you? Generation Terrorists intentionally overplays its hand, overeggs its pudding and spunks its load at every turn". Pitchfork writer Joe Tangari wrote that Generation Terrorists "walked a weird line between agit-punk, cock rock, romantic melodicism and glam, and was so obviously patterned after The Clash's London Calling that it was actually kind of cute." Rolling Stone, AllMusic, PopMatters and Vanyaland labeled the album as "glam rock, hard rock, punk rock, glam punk and glam metal" respectively. Other influences on the album's sound include Guns N' Roses and New York Doll. The album's lyrics are politicised like that of The Clash and Public Enemy. Wire and Edwards' love of poetry is also evident in their lyric. The album's songs regularly switch from a critical focus on global capitalism to more personal tales of despair and the struggles of youth. Examples of the more politically inspired side of Generation Terrorists include the opening track "Slash 'n' Burn", which concerns "third world exploitation", the track "Repeat (Stars and Stripes)", a remix of the band's own anti-monarchy tirade by Public Enemy production team The Bomb Squad and "Another Invented Disease", a song whose title was deliberate word play on AIDS and referred to a conspiracy theory insinuating that the virus was manufactured by American biological warfare scientist. Other tracks combine personal and political theme, implicating a connection between global capitalism and personal struggle; "Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds" was written as a critique of overseas banking credit policie, but also concerned Richey Edwards' issues involving overdrafts and refused loan. Marc Burrows of Drowned in Sound considered the song to be an accurate prediction of "global financial meltdown" and its effects on everyday life. The single "Motorcycle Emptiness", meanwhile, criticises consumerism as a "shallow dream" that makes human life overtly commercialised. "Little Baby Nothing", a duet between Traci Lords and Bradfield, was described by Priya Elan of the NME as a "perfect snapshot of innocence bodysnatched and twisted". In the US, the track listing was changed, and some of the more political tracks were dropped. "Democracy Coma" was added to make up for this; it was later released as the B-side to "Love's Sweet Exile"/"Repeat", and also appeared on Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers). In addition, four tracks on the US release ("Slash 'n' Burn", "Nat West–Barclays–Midlands–Lloyds", "Little Baby Nothing" and "You Love Us") were remixed by Michael Brauer. These same four tracks also featured live drumming from American drummer Zachary Alford and were later included on the Stars and Stripes EP in Japan. The cover was originally intended to be Andres Serrano's Pisschrist, a Jesus figure inside a tank of blood and urine, but Sony wanted to avoid any religious controversy; also, the royalty demanded for the piece was deemed excessive. Other ideas were the Bert Stern Marilyn Monroe photograph, a sandpaper sleeve that would scratch the album itself as well as anything else that it was shelved by (an old Situationist prank, this idea was used by Guy Debord for his first book Memoires and by The Durutti Column for their first album The Return of the Durutti Column), as well as several other famous religious painting. The final front cover of the album was a picture of Edwards' left arm and chest. The arm had a tattoo of a rose with the words "USELESS GENERATION" underneath, which was changed to "GENERATION TERRORISTS". This was not without problem, as the original pressing had made Edwards' flesh to be bright pink as opposed to the intended mustard. The back featured a design similar to their earlier New Art Riot EP cover, a European Commission flag, though this time it was crumpled and in flame. The working title of the album was Culture, Alienation, Boredom & Despair (a lyric from the song "Little Baby Nothing"). .

via Last.fm

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