Rocktrospectiva:The Odd And Confused "Know Your Enemy" Turns 25

Released on 19 March 2001 "Know Your Enemy" was the 6th., studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was supported by four singles, "So Why So Sad", "Found That Soul", "Ocean Spray" & "Let Robeson Sing", all of which reached the top 20 of the UK singles chart.

The band originally envisioned Know Your Enemy as two separate albums with very different sounds and concepts, with the intention of releasing both on the same day. The record label vetoed the idea and a compromise was made, resulting in a single, lengthy, very diverse record. Whilst the album sold well, it did not match the success of its predecessor, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. Critics were somewhat divided in their opinions at first, but its reception since has been more positive.

The origins of the record began when drummer Sean Moore stated in an interview with a Spanish reporter in 2014 that the songs included on Know Your Enemy were originally intended for two separate albums: Door to the River, which consisted of more reflective and personal material, and the heavier, more politically charged Solidarity, with the intention of releasing both on the same day. The record label was not inclined to put out two albums at the same time (they would feel the same in 2013–2014 with Rewind the Film and Futurology) and so most of the material was released as one lengthy, highly varied, 75-minute album instead. Because of this, Moore felt that the finished album was "strange" and "confusing". The only remnant of the original two-album idea was that the first two singles, "So Why So Sad" and "Found That Soul" – reflecting the very different styles at play – were released on the same day as a publicity stunt.

The album departed from the arena rock of the band's previous two albums, featuring a rougher, less polished sound. It also displays influences from a much wider range of styles than before. They atributed the "riotous" punk sound of the tracks "Found That Soul", "Intravenous Agnostic", and "Dead Martyrs" to the influence of Sonic Youth and Joy Division and the jangle-pop of "The Year of Purification" and "Epicentre" to R.E.M. The tracks "So Why So Sad" and "Miss Europa Disco Dancer" were described as "a Beach Boys homage" and "a disco parody" respectively, while "My Guernica", "His Last Painting" and "The Convalescent" were described as "dark, marching and charging post-punk anthems".

The album featured Nicky Wire's debut as a lead vocalist, on the track "Wattsville Blues", and James Dean Bradfield's debut as a lyricist, on "Ocean Spray". Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine guested on guitar on two tracks.

The left-wing political convictions of Manic Street Preachers were apparent in many of the album's songs. "Baby Elián" comments on the strained relations between the United States and Cuba as seen in the Elián González affair. The band also pays tribute to singer and Civil Rights activist Paul Robeson in the song "Let Robeson Sing". 

About the political side of the record, Wire told: "Unfortunately it was four years before everyone else got interested in politics. It took everyone else a war. Where have these people been the last four years? Forty years? American foreign policy's never changed. There's a track called 'Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children' about forcing freedom on societies that says everything we ever needed to say." Wire also described the album as "a deeply flawed, highly enjoyable folly".

Know Your Enemy received generally mixed reviews from critics by saying that this was the album where the Manics tied all their disparate strands together, up the political ante, tried new things, all in an attempt to prove they were still vital, a provocative, well-done, but not quite focused enough to take the listener anywhere in particular, said others and unfortunately the album was so confused and hideously dull.  

 

Know Your Enemy Track List:  

 

1. Found That Soul

2. Ocean Spray

3. Intravenous Agnostic

4. So Why So Sad

5. Let Robeson Sing

6. The Year Of Purification

7. Wattsville Blues

8. Miss Europa Disco Dancer

9. Dead Martyrs

10. His Last Paiting

11. My Guernica

12. The Convalescent

13. Royal Correspondent

14. Epicentre

15. Baby Elián

16. Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children