Soon after they released their third album, 1994’s art-punk masterpiece “The Holy Bible”, Manic Street Preachers‘ troubled lyricist/conceptualist Richey James Edwards disappeared, his car found abandoned near the notorious suicide spot Severn Bridge (connecting Bristol and Wales). The remaining trio regrouped, setting some of Edwards’ darkly brilliant words to music on the classic “Everything Must Go”. The record was a smash and put the Manics on their arena trajectory, co-lyricist Nicky Wire taking over sole poetics duty. Fifteen years on, “Journal For Plague Lovers” features 13 surviving Edwards lyrics, including “Jackie Collins Existential Question Time”. Wire explains, “There was a sense of responsibility to do his words justice.”
by Mark Emge
