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Generation Terrorists [MINIDISC] by: Manic Street Preachers

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Rating: - Excellent debut album from class act

I bought the album recently on the basis of hearing Motorcycle Emptiness on the radio for the second time, and falling in love with it. I didn't know how different their earlier music was, and although i wasn't surprised, i was very impressed. this album contains such epic tracks as You Love Us, Natwest... and of course M'cycle Emptiness. I would recommend this to anyone who was at all interested in 90's rock.

Rating: - Politics with power and grace

So maybe it flirts too close US rock and James tries to sound a bit too much like Slash but this is irrelevant. The power of early rabble rousing is still evident in Repeat (sadly Motown Junk, New Art Riot etc never got the full-on studio treatment, or was that a good thing?) yet Motorcycle Emptiness is the most graceful song of the decade. You Love Us gets the rock makeover and doesn't suffer too much from it. Maybe 18 tracks is a lot to take in but you won't get bored. The venom in Richey's lyrics to Crucifix Kiss is clear and scathing - a theme for a lot of the album. Relative flop single Stay Beautiful remains the greatest traversty of justice of the decade (with Blur's Popscene) that you can't help but fall in love with.

Overall this album is full of the ambition that made me fall in love with the manics and could only have been bettered by the ommission of the poor cover of Damn Dog and frankly embarrasing material such as the remix of Repeat (Stars And Stripes) in favour of earlier live favourites.

Rating: - Good album.

The band perhaps most accurately described as "the Marillion of the 'nineties" ( I say this because of the style of their songwriting, the kind of audience they appealed to and let's face it, the influences are obvious on reading the lyrics ) is in fact one of their best. The best track is the song that in many ways defines the Manic's early years, Motorcycle Emptiness.

Rating: - The greatest debut album of the 1990's ?

Forget 'Definately Maybe', the Manic's 'Generation Terrorists' from early-1992 is perhaps 'the' great debut album of the last decade.

James Dean Bradfield's blistering music is both raw and complex, brilliantly bolstering the occasionally savage political lyrics of Wire & Edward's, which mainly refer to the UK's then every-worsening societal degradation. OK, so we have a couple of history graduates here whose words may have appeared a touch pretencious at the time, but in retrospect they are right on the pulse. One moment of pure joy is the epic, awe-inspiring Motorcycle Emptiness, which is surely one of the greatest songs ever written. Combine this with the anthemic Another Invented Disease and You Love Us, plus a host of similarily cutting, intelligent and break-neck tracks throughout, and you've got an album of sublime quality and originality. Only their 1994 album The Holy Bible comes close to the savage and brilliantly brutal lyrical bombardment that was the formidable 'Generation Terrorists'.

Rating: - A fine and groundbreaking debut

It is important at the start of the review to do the unpleasant task of criticising. It is said by some that the album is too long, 18 tracks on a debut is ambitious to say the least and it is argued by many that some of the songs on the album are more b-side worthy than album worthy. Also, it has been said that the sound of the album is attempted to be too comercial; James Dean Bradfield trying almost too hard for his debut to sound like Guns n Roses classic Appetite for Destruction.

But this is only what SOME people say. This is an excellent album, coming out of the epoch of Maddchester, this really does stick out as a fine example of the drive of good and honest rock music. The length of the album only re-enforces their own personal love for the rock genre, and doing this well.

There are the basic confrontational songs (Stay Beautiful, So Dead and Slash n Burn), the out spoken political rants (Repeat UK, Another Invented Disease) and even an attack on organised religion (Crucifix Kiss).

The album also contains the epic (believe me, I never underuse the word epic) track Motorcycle Emptiness, a beautiful and heart rendering song, which at the time was considered to be "too advanced" for inclusion, but as JDB himself said -"it was probably the savior of the album". It is the best track by some distance, but the rest of the album is still consistantly good.

A brilliant debut, needed in any rock fans collection. Richie and Nicky look great too! First class.

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