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Manic Street Preachers / Know Your Enemy reissue

‘Remixed and reconstructed’

By Paul Sinclair

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Manic Street Preachers / Know Your Enemy reissue

When 1 becomes 2: the Manics sixth album is reconstructed as two albums

The Manic Street Preachers will reissue their 2001 album Know Your Enemy this September with CD and vinyl formats offering ‘remixed and reconstructed’ editions to form two separate albums, as was the original plan.

After the success of 1998’s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours the band planned to follow up with two distinct long-players: an aggressive, rapid fire return to their roots called Solidarity and Door To The River, a more conciliatory,
reflective collection. They got cold feet and ultimately issued Know Your Enemy which was commercially a successful album (reaching #2 in the UK and delivering four top 20 singles), but something of a fudge creatively, forcing often conflicting ideas to sit side by side on the same record.

Reissuing the album gave the band the opportunity to revisit the original concept and indeed Nicky Wire found the original tapes of Solidarity and Door To The River that he’d made up in the studio during recording. He put forward the idea of recreating them and 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 lose extraneous studio effects and digital noise from the Solidarity songs and strip away orchestration and embellishment from the tracks that made up Door To The River.

The 3CD deluxe of Know Your Enemy offers both ‘remixed & reconstructed’ albums, bonus tracks and demos (click image to enlarge)

The reissue now offers both albums, as originally conceived. On the 3CD deluxe edition they are appended with bonus outtakes, unused mixes by Tom Lord-Alge and tracks featured on the original Know Your Enemy that aren’t on the two restructured albums. There is also a bonus CD full of demos. The 2CD edition features the same audio on discs one and two, but loses the demos CD

The 2LP vinyl edition offers the two albums with no bonus tracks (Door To The River is a 10-track record while Solidarity is 12 tracks). All formats feature previously unseen photos from the recording sessions taken by regular collaborator Mitch Ikeda.

This remixed and reconstructed edition of Know Your Enemy will be released on 9 September 2022. Some signed editions are available via the band’s store but only if you buy a bundle.

Tracklisting

Manic Street Preachers / Know Your Enemy reissue

Know Your Enemy Manic Street Preachers / reissue

    • CD 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
      Bonus tracks
      1. His Last Painting (LA Mix)
        Epicentre (TLA Mix)
      2. So Why So Sad (Original KYE Version)
      3. Royal Correspondent
    • CD 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
      Bonus tracks
      1. Fear Of Motion
      2. Pedestal
      3. Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel
      4. Locust Valley
      5. Masking Tape
      6. Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel
    • CD 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
      10. My Children (Studio Demo)
      11. The Convalescent (Studio Rehearsal Demo)
      12. His Last Painting Baby Elian (Studio Demo)
      13. Masses Against The Classes (Studio Demo)
      14. My Guernica No 1 (Home Acoustic Demo)
      15. My Guernica (Studio Demo)
      16. Dead Martyrs (Home Cassette Demo)
      17. Wattsville Blues (Home Cassette Demo)

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