Album review: This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours - Manic Street Preachers

In the summer of 1998, Welsh rockers the Manic Street Preachers were back with their fifth studio album.  It was a turning point in many ways.

Having lost founder member Richey Edwards, after going missing in February '95, this was their first entire record without his lyrics - falling on bassist Nicky Wire to contribute all the words.

This was a different Manics.  Adult-orientated music channel VH-1 was now highlighting their upcoming singles.  They were knocking Boyzone off the top of the singles charts.  Record sleeves were showing more colour and boasted a budget which their Epic record label were solidly behind.

It also marked a musical maturity.  Minimised, if not gone completely, was the up-tempo angst from previous LPs, Generation Terrorists and The Holy Bible, in favour of a calmer, mere mainstream-friendly sound, first evident Everything Must Go - their last collection and, hitherto, most commercially successful.

With a gradual evolution in their sound, they gained a new confidence.  Slower, ballad rock ballad-type numbers were becoming frequent but not dominating.  Their first No.1 single, 'If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next', was balanced out by the drive of 'Tsunami', a sure-fire footstomper with an Oriental influence.

'You Stole The Sun From My Heart' - a No.5 hit in March '99 - could've easily been played in either BBC Radio 1 or 2's playlists.  'The Everlasting' - the new album's opener - would've sounded perfect in the final scene of a film before the credits rolled.  'My Little Empire' could've had a book, let alone a 12-track CD, dedicated to it.

Collaboration would become more of a feature, as a then little-known Sophie Ellis-Bextor would duet on a single B-side.  Not for the first or last time a female voice appeared on one of their songs, as they would record with The Cardigans' Nina Persson within a decade.

Some might argue this was the trio at their peak, as only one other No.1 single and their first compilation would follow not long after.  However this was really just the closing of their first chapter, as the band still remains a unit albeit with various solo and side projects in the mix.

At a time when the United Kingdom was in transition, native popular music had a different optimism from even just the year before.  Its no coincidence that these tunes were cranked out against the local background of the times.  With The Verve memorably topping the charts the year before with 'The Drugs Don't Work,' a week after Princess Diana's death, a new Labour government and pending regional devolution were taking shape towards the new millennium.

Whilst the airwaves were dominated by poppy melodies from Phats and Small, Stardust, Cornershop and B*witched, other familiar returns would balance the year out with Cher, U2, George Michael and even Culture Club.  Perhaps this body of work by the Manics was what we needed.  This would be a record of conscience to the industry.  

Was it their best or most iconic album?  Probably not but yet an important step towards nearly 35 years in the UK alternative genre.