Triptych: Three Studies of Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible

by Rhian E. Jones, Daniel Lukes, Larissa Wodtke

The UK alternative rock band, Manic Street Preachers, were and remain one of the most interesting, significant, and best-loved bands of the past thirty years. Their third album The Holy Bible (1994) is generally acknowledged to be their most enduring and fascinating work, and one of the most compelling and challenging records of the nineties. Triptych reconsiders The Holy Bible from three separate, intersecting angles, combining the personal with the political, history with memory, and popular accessibility with intellectual attention to the album's depth and complexity.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

371 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2017

About the author

Red bluestocking. Writes fiction; writes, edits and broadcasts on history, politics and pop culture. Welsh in London.

Reviews

[Asha Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book quite by accident; While trawling the reviews of one of my favourite books, someone referenced a list on here titled, 'The Ultimate Manic Street Preachers Reading List'. I thought, oh hey I like those guys (a lot) let's see what this list's about. I was pretty taken aback to see just how many of the books on that list I'd read, and loved, and sat wondering just how much of an impact MSP had had on me over the years, and how much of it I was even aware of.

An enormous impact apparently, and almost entirely subconciously it seems.

I'm not really one to sit and try and dissect lyrics or album themes myself, I'm happier to listen and enjoy the moment so a book taking apart a favourite album line by line was daunting, particularly the thought of 'difficult knowledge' staining my enjoyment. Not the case, thankfully. Turns out I'm more than capable of dissecting lyrics and themes without even realising it, and so this book rather than present a new way of hearing the The Holy Bible, purely expanded on my experiences with it.

Triptych is set in three parts. The first, by Rhian Jones, is mostly anecdotal but nonetheless interesting as it explores how the Manics fans are, while not a monolith of small town boredom and despair, certainly of a type. Whatever that type is. I'm not excepting myself here either, I'm the absolute archetypical small town country fuckup who finds escapism through music for lack of anything else to do here. Rhian's story, my story, the stories of other Manics fans (even Lukes touches on it)- we're the personifications of Wodtke's later chapter on The Holy Bible and subsequent albums as archival and obsessed 'difficult knowledge', that is, how we as human beings react when faced with trauma, atrocity, violence, and how we move on through that.

Lukes in the second part, undertook a monster of a task: To go back through the album and read the literary references scattered throughout. J.G. Ballard, Hubert Selby Jr., Valerie Solanas, and so on. He succeeded, just, and in the process made valid points about the mindset such reading can put you in, particularly when combined with going over music and literature from periods in your life that you might not want to unearth (archives! Foucault! Difficult knowledge! All is cyclical I swear to God).

Wodtke's section was dense, intense, and insanely analytical. Quite frankly I'm not smart enough to even begin unpacking the ground she covered so thoroughly.

All in all, it's a good read if you're a fan of the Manics or The Holy Bible. I doubt it would appeal to many outside of that however, because you do need to be very familiar with the album and Richey Edwards to appreciate this book.

Edit: I'm taking away a star because all three authors talked shit on She Is Suffering and Know Your Enemy, both of which I love. It's bad enough the band hate songs I particularly like and pretend they don't exist, don't encourage them

[Florian Decros · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I was only a bit familiar with the Manics (and this album in particular), it's really since last summer that I gave an attentive listen to "The Holy Bible". Almost one year later, it skyrocketed in my esteem faster and higher than almost any other record, and I'd be comfortable saying that it's now one of my 3 favorite albums of all time.

Because of how obsessed I became with that album, I obviously started to try to learn and read a lot about it. There were the 6+ hours of podcasts from "What Is Music?" that gave me the urge to (re)listen to it, but also episodes from other shows and numerous reviews on the internet. So obviously, my interest was really piqued when I learned that there was an entire book, almost 400 pages long, solely dedicated to "The Holy Bible". Having finished it now, I can say that it deepened my appreciation for the album even more.

As the title says, "Triptych" is divided into three essays, all with a different approach toward the album. The first one, by Rhian E. Jones, is maybe the least revelatory of the bunch as it's a bit similar to things I’ve already heard or read, but it was really enjoyable nonetheless. It's probably the most personal one, as it delves into the youth of the author, when she became a die-hard Manics fan and how "The Holy Bible" impacted her, and then highlights the different themes of the record and does a great job at explaining how it reflected and commented on the society of the '90s (UK especially, but not only). I always love reading experiences and stories from fans of the band, and while I was already familiar with the broad themes of the lyrics, her breakdown and analysis of them is very engaging and well-thought-out, and I think her essay would make a really great introduction for anyone wanting to go deeper on "The Holy Bible".

Daniel Lukes' is my favorite essay of the bunch. The mission he imposed on himself was to delve into all the literature that surrounds the record: things quoted in lyrics, that influenced Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire, that were printed on booklets or back covers, etc. Anyone familiar with the Manics will know that this implies covering a looooot of stuff, but the result is really enlightening: the variety and range of authors covered is quite staggering, and I absolutely loved how the author presented all the links between these numerous works and Richey and Nicky's words. His analysis of the album's lyrics is also fascinating and highlights how well-thought-out they are and how nuanced they can be (compared to the "everything sucks and I want to die" brush that the album tends to be painted with). It also shows how THB's approach to depression and bleakness in its lyrics differs from its equally gloomy contemporaries such as Nine Inch Nails or Nirvana. Anyway, great stuff, and the quantity of interesting books quoted in that essay is no stranger to why I started that Goodreads account.

Larissa Wodtke's essay is unfortunately where the fact that I stopped reading for years comes back to bite me in the ass. It's the most dense and philosophical of the bunch, analyzing how The Holy Bible and the Manics in general relate to the concept of "archive" as described by Jacques Derrida (among others). A lot of it is interesting but maybe a bit dense for my little brain. That being said, I love how she talked about how the band and the album relate to the passing of time: childhood and innocence lost being a key part of Richey's lyrics, the spectre of Richey haunting the band's following albums, the Manics coming back to The Holy Bible's sound in "Journal for Plague Lovers"... The Manics' obsession with their past and legacy ironically clashes with their desire to reinvent themselves with each new album, one of the many reasons that make them such a fascinating band.
One of my favorite aspects of that essay was how she talked about the post-Holy Bible years. The first two essays usually evoked the following albums very briefly, and in a slightly disparaging manner. I've never been one of those fans who think that the band lost its magic after Richey disappeared, so I was glad that Wodtke spent some time on some of the following albums: "Journal for Plague Lovers" for obvious reasons, but also "Everything Must Go" or the underrated "Lifeblood". Her essay closes with a lovely recounting of her seeing the 20th-anniversary gigs of "The Holy Bible".

If you're only vaguely familiar with the album, then almost 400 pages of content on it would probably be overkill (even if there's so much ground covered across these three essays that you would probably still find some stuff interesting), but for anyone who loves "The Holy Bible" and really wants to dive into the mammoth that is this album's lyrics, then "Triptych" is absolutely essential, and a fascinating read that will make you fall in love with the record all over again.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three studies of The Holy Bible in this book make for a great collection. My favourite of the three was definitely Rhian E. Jones' piece discussing history and experience. All of the studies use a lot of academic language, but I found it the easiest to read of the three. I also thought Jones combined her personal experiences of the album and her academic writing the most seamlessly. Her writing about fans of the Manic Street Preachers, manicsfans if you will, definitely rang true to my experiences of being a fan and meeting other fans of the band.

Daniel Lukes' arguably undertook the biggest challenge with his study of the literature which influenced The Holy Bible. He happily admits it's not an exhaustive list. Lukes' study was the one I found myself disagreeing with the most. That's not to say I'm right and he's wrong. From what he wrote about his personal discovery of The Holy Bible and Manic Street Preacher generally we seem to be very different kind of Manics fans, and I wondered if that could have influenced this. My favourite part of this study was the chapters which focused on Richey Edwards himself. I really enjoyed the interview with Benjamin Myers even though I've read Richard and don't rate it particularly highly. I also thought Lukes became a bit too bogged down in academia at times, which made for somewhat difficult reading.

Larissa Wodtke's study on how memory and archive affect The Holy Bible was also very academic, but I found for the most part she managed to clearly explain the academic concepts she was writing about in a way that was accessible to a lay person. I found the section on difficult versus lovely memories fascinating. I was also really glad that one of the studies discussed how The Holy Bible sits in the Manic Street Preachers canon. I know the book is specifically about one album, but I find it so interesting that The Holy Bible has in many ways come to be the album that defines the band even though, now they're about to release their 13th album, it's quite dissimilar sonically to the majority of their catalogue. I was also pleased Wodtke dedicates a good quarter of her study to Journal for Plague Lovers. I was surprised how little the other two writers discussed it.

Triptych doesn't always make for easy reading, but it's engaging enough that the extra effort it might take is more than worth it. I would recommend it to any Manic Street Preachers fans with an interest in really deconstructing their work. Now I've finished it I've dozens more books to add to my want to read list, just like when I first discovered Manic Street Preachers!

[Martin Lund · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came into this book not knowing what to expect. I loved the first part, finding so many points where I could recognize almost everything written, but as reading wore on, I lost that feeling, as the writers increasingly seemed to lose their footing. If I had to rank the three parts, this is how it'd look:

1. Jones' essay
2. Wodtke's concluding chapter
3. The rest of Wodke's part and Lukes' part.

[Stephen Kirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Holy Bible is a masterpiece and deservedly features in the upper reaches of lists citing the greatest albums of all time. The three essays in this book provide an incredible and detailed analysis of the album’s political and cultural influence, it’s personal context and relationship to memory. Weighty subject matter perhaps but The Holy Bible is an album worthy of such detailed discussion. The authors do an incredible job across the essays.

[Aleksei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rhian Jones part is the best of the book, second part is a little exaggerated and the final part is the more emotive of the book.

[Russell Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book ever I didn't want to finish it.

[Krankenverse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fulfils a very specific want of a very specific fan.
Rather than being one deep dive into the critically acclaimed album, three experts provide progressively more academic analyses of the album, decoding some of it's more abstract moments and providing fresh angles on this much written about album.
The first part by Rhian Jones is fairly general and essentially serves as an introduction to the whole project. This is a likeable, if rather less enlightening section.
Daniel Lukes' section is much more interesting, beginning with a promise to cover the infamous Richey reading list and going on to analyse the album through the lens of the transgressive literature it references. This section was a slight letdown in that it failed to touch on most of the reading list, and instead used the authors on said list to make more general points about the album. Having said that, a dispassionate list of the authors impressions of a list of books that Richey James liked might have been rather uninteresting in practice, so fair enough.
Larisa Wodtke's section is the most valuable to me, providing a fascinating selection of philosophical ideas through which we can view the album. A lot of continental philosophy is referenced here and it can get quite heavy going, but it's a rich seam, and you will learn a lot as a layman if you read closely and stick with it.
Much of my review criticises the book, but despite its deficiencies, what Triptych provides is exactly what a fan wants- new and unexpected ways to experience a thing you love. So its a 5 star experience for me nontheless. I didn't think it was possible to get more info on this era of the Manics, given the amount I've read and reread about it from my teenage years up to my late 30s, but here it is.

[Rachele · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first essay makes this book worth it alone. I related so very deeply to Rhian's section and really appreciated her down-to-earth and layered interpretation that beautifully laced together working class life and experience with music and the very deeply personal relationship with an artist(s) to both political, philosophical and personal experiences with social justice issues. Simultaneously making incredibly astute observations on the nature of community and the Manic's role in fostering that in a world that works to the contrary. It made me love the album more and helped unpack some of the things that I have been otherwise trying to sort through in terms of why certain albums mean so much to me. The second and third are a bit overly academic for my taste and were a bit harder to relate to as a result but they still contained many thought provoking and interesting perspectives which I furiously noted down in the margins, while they may be a bit dense at first they are both also well worth the read and add several intelligent and interesting ideas to the discussion of what I am only now doubly convinced was one of the most underappreciated albums of the 90's. Definitely worth the read

[Constance Plumley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until I can come back, edit this, and write a full review---the review this gem deserves--let me just give you a bit of advice: If you believe yourself to be a fan of The Manic Street Preachers, buy this book or check it out from the library as soon as you possibly can! You will find yourself immersed, entranced, and drawn in to these brilliant essays on the Manic's critically acclaimed album "The Holy Bible." I bought it as a source for a pop culture blog I'm putting together, and because I am a fan, and fell in love with it.

Read. It. And Stay Beautiful. xoxo

[Guy Mankowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have drawn from this book for various academic research I've undertaken into the Manics. It combines the personal (with a great focus on where Edwards' tastes were probably taking his artistic approach) with some great macro analysis of where the Manics sit with the fans and their impact on culture. Great read.

[Ellie Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books you make more time to read. Three books in one, and very differently structured but each a joy. The academic and intelligent nature twinned with their personal stories and histories was brilliant. It’s also full of further things to read and watch.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have some small gripes with some of the analyses in this book, but overall it's great. All three works feel complete and they tie into each other in a neat way without retreading the same ground. And as a bonus I now have an even deeper appreciation for my all time favorite album.

[Helen J · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be impossible for me not to give this 5 stars.