Manic Street Preachers release a radically reimagined version of their sixth album Know Your Enemy on 9th September 2022. The new version of the album has been entirely remixed and reconstructed to form two separate albums as originally planned. Know Your Enemy will be available digitally and as a 3 CD bookset, double CD and double album.
This deluxe release includes two previously unheard ‘forgotten’ tracks: ‘Studies in Paralysis’ and ‘Rosebud’, which are available online today. Beginning with an introspective almost Nirvana In Utero– like shuffle replete with a slithery guitar lick, before opening up into an infectiously wistful lyric that regrets “most things I never finished”.
Watch the Kieran Evans-directed video for ‘Rosebud’ here:
Following the success of 1998’s’ This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’, Manic Street Preachers planned an ambitious follow-up to be released as two distinct albums: an aggressive, rapid-fire return to their roots called ‘Solidarity’ and ‘Door To The River’, a more conciliatory, reflective collection. During the recording sessions, the trio got cold feet and settled on a single album that forced often conflicting ideas to sit side by side on the same record. Know Your Enemy was launched in February 2001 with a show at Teatro Karl Marx in Havana in front of the Cuban leader and charted at No.2 in the UK the following week, going on to see over half a million copies worldwide. The singles taken from the album: ‘So Why So Sad’, ‘Found That Soul’, ‘Ocean Spray’ and ‘Let Robeson Sing’ all reached the Top 20.
Whilst going through the band’s archive to put together an anniversary version of ‘Know Your Enemy’, Nicky Wire found the original tapes of ‘Solidarity’ and ‘Door To The River’ that he’d made up in the studio during recording. When he put forward the idea of recreating those records, James Dean Bradfield agreed on the condition that he could remix the entire record with the band’s longtime studio partner Dave Eringa. The new mixes would bring clarity to each record, losing extraneous studio effects and digital noise from the ‘Solidarity’ songs and stripping away unnecessary orchestration and embellishment from the tracks that made up ‘Door To The River’.
The vinyl edition Know Your Enemy presents ‘Solidarity’ and ‘Door To The River’ in the same order as originally planned in 2000. Each of the CD packages features those records in full plus outtakes, unused mixes by Tom Lord-Alge and tracks featured on the original Know Your Enemy that aren’t on the two restructured albums. All formats feature previously unseen photos from the recording sessions taken by regular collaborator Mitch Ikeda.
Manic Street Preachers’ last studio album The Ultra Vivid Lament went to No.1 on release in September 2021. They followed its release with a headline tour of the UK. This year, they opened the BBC6 Music Festival in Cardiff and have headlined several UK festivals.
Know Your Enemy – September 9th – Columbia
2 x 12″ VINYL
DISC 1 – DOOR TO THE RIVER
Side 1
1. The Year of Purification
2. Ocean Spray
3. So Why So Sad (Avalanches Sean Penn Mix)
4. Door To The River
5. Rosebud
Side 2
6. Just a Kid
7. His Last Painting
8. Let Robeson Sing
9. Groundhog Days
10. Epicentre
DISC 2 – SOLIDARITY
Side 1
1. Intravenous Agnostic
2. Found That Soul (TLA Mix)
3. We Are All Bourgeois Now
4. Freedom of Speech Won’t Feed My Children
5. The Convalescent
6. Baby Elian
Side 2
7. Masses Against The Classes
8. My Guernica
9. Studies In Paralysis
10. Dead Martyrs
11. Wattsville Blues
12. Miss Europa Disco DancerDELUXE 3 X CD VERSION
DISC 1 – DOOR TO THE RIVER
1. The Year of Purification
2. Ocean Spray
3. So Why So Sad (Avalanches Sean Penn Mix)
4. Door To The River
5. Rosebud
6. Just a Kid
7. His Last Painting
8. Let Robeson Sing
9. Groundhog Days
10. Epicentre
11. His Last Painting (LA Mix)
12. Epicentre (TLA Mix)
13. So Why So Sad (Original KYE Version)
14. Royal Correspondent
DISC 2 – SOLIDARITY
1. Intravenous Agnostic
2. Found That Soul (TLA Mix)
3. We Are All Bourgeois Now
4. Freedom of Speech Won’t Feed My Children
5. The Convalescent
6. Baby Elian
7. Masses Against The Classes
8. My Guernica
9. Studies In Paralysis
10. Dead Martyrs
11. Wattsville Blues
12. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
13. Fear Of Motion
14. Pedestal
15. Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel
16. Locust Valley
17. Masking Tape
18. Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel
DISC 3 – DEMOS
1. Ocean Spray (Studio Demo)
2. So Why So Sad (Cassette Demo)
3. Door To The River (Cassette Demo)
4. His Last Painting (Air Version Home Cassette Demo)
5. Let Robeson Sing (Home Cassette Demo)
6. Groundhog Days (Home Cassette Demo)
7. Epicentre (Cassette Demo)
8. Intravenous Agnostic (Home Cassette Demo)
9. Freedom Of Speech Won’t Feed My Children (Studio Demo)
10. The Convalescent (Studio Rehearsal Demo)
11. His Last Painting Baby Elian (Studio Demo)
12. Masses Against The Classes (Studio Demo)
13. My Guernica No 1 (Home Acoustic Demo)
14. My Guernica (Studio Demo)
15. Dead Martyrs (Home Cassette Demo)
16. Wattsville Blues (Home Cassette Demo)
2 X CD VERSION
DISC 1 – DOOR TO THE RIVER
1. The Year of Purification
2. Ocean Spray
3. So Why So Sad (Avalanches Sean Penn Mix)
4. Door To The River
5. Rosebud
6. Just a Kid
7. His Last Painting
8. Let Robeson Sing
9. Groundhog Days
10. Epicentre
11. His Last Painting (LA Mix)
12. Epicentre (TLA Mix)
13. So Why So Sad (Original KYE Version)
14. Royal Correspondent
DISC 2 – SOLIDARITY
1. Intravenous Agnostic
2. Found That Soul (TLA Mix)
3. We Are All Bourgeois Now
4. Freedom of Speech Won’t Feed My Children
5. The Convalescent
6. Baby Elian
7. Masses Against The Classes
8. My Guernica
9. Studies In Paralysis
10. Dead Martyrs
11. Wattsville Blues
12. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
13. Fear Of Motion
14. Pedestal
15. Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel
16. Locust Valley
17. Masking Tape
18. Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel
‘Know Your Enemy’ is available in multiple signed formats and bundles.
Tour Dates
JULY
22nd: Latitude – Henham Park, Suffolk
29th: Y Not Festival – Pikehall, Derbyshire
AUGUST
13th: Lakefest – Eastnor, Herefordshire
