Okay, I’ll admit it. I came to the Manic’s quite late in their career. They had already released three albums and lost one guitarist by the time they had released A Design For Life and I had found them. But I digress. Generation Terrorists was the second full Manics album I listened to, hastily recorded from my brothers CD version before he left for Uni. What struck me first about the album was not the lyrics or the cover but the raw harsh sound that was conveyed. On the first listen I can remember thinking, “Where the hell is the melody? Who stole the bloody tune? What the hell is happening?!” However the further I got into the album the more the tunes and melodies came out. I think the first that really stuck in my head was probably Little Baby Nothing and that’s track seven for Heaven’s sake! It’s almost halfway through the album. I loved the piano part and the fact that it was a duet with Tracie Lords, the porn star. Somehow that made the words even more poignant. For those few that have not listened to this album, the song is well thought out attack on the male need for page three and prostitutes. It also mocked the women who wanted that career. Lines like “you are pure, you are snow/we are the useless sluts that they mould.” Describes the women as weak and some how unclean. Whether this is true or not is up to the listener to decide but I loved the way that the lyrics slated both men’s and women’s weaknesses. The men’s weakness for needing these stylised pictures of what is construed as beauty and the women’s weakness of agreeing with by helping to provide it.

Considering the album was released in February 1992, it’s quite surprising that it has become a cult classic. A month earlier, the Stone Roses had released Waterfall and One Love. Peace, love and Madchester were all the rage but four Welsh blokes who cared more about the Clash than flares, Baby Cham than E had an album that got to number thirteen in the charts. They were completely out of step with the current trends and looked like a bunch of queens that hadn’t realised the New York Dolls were dead. It’s certain that the publicist Martin Hall had something to do with this but still what an achievement. But it’s not just the songs or lyrics or the achievement it was the artwork as well. The Tattoo on Richie’s arm? What a great cover. Changing the words from Useless Generation to Generation Terrorists? Fantastic. The cover quickly summed up what the listener was going to find inside. Angry, passionate, yet slightly cheesy songs that speak to every bored kid in Britain. Well, alright then, me. But also the quotes on the inside page of the booklet. I thought they were great. I had never heard of half these people but they all seemed to be saying something intelligent if very depressing. If there were a list of albums to listen to before you died, this one would come in the top ten.