By 1998, things couldn't possibly get better for the Manic Street Preachers. Their latest album, Everything Must Go was an international hit, coming on the back of the classic The Holy Bible it dispelled rumours of breaking up and injected them into the forefront of the record industry. However it was now time for them to release their fifth album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.
This Is My Truth didn't really have much strain on it to do well, its success has partly secured by their prior releases and this does show on the album. The songs are all easy to listen to and don't offer much food for thought giving the album a very pop rock vibe, something that doesn't really suit the Manics.
The first six songs are definitely the strong tracks here. They're well thought out and feature some nice instrumental work, James Dean Bradfield shows his true singing ability in the opening track The Everlasting, flowing through the melody with ease. As a guitarist he way too subdued on this album. The catchy hooks and roaring solos have been scrapped in place of a more atmospheric rhythm guitar style making the album sound the same in places.
The drums and bass on the album are mediocre, they do their job but nowhere do they really shine which stops the songs from being individual, none of them have anything unique about them. Lyrically it's on top form, something that's near enough guarantied with the Manics. For the first time in their discography Nicky Wire is solely responsible for them, giving them a slightly more refined feel than the angsty scrawling of Richey Edwards.
The album does still have some noticeably strong tracks, You Stole The Sun is the heaviest track on here and sounds like it could've come of Everything Must Go. Featuring some nice bass work and a strong chorus it's possibly the best track here. Ready For Drowning is also worth a mention for its strong lyrics and anthemic chorus. Sadly though This Is My Truth is still an average album, it's got some real strong tracks, If You Tolerate This, You Stole The Sun etc, but after the half way point there's nothing worth listening to, similar in a way to Generation Terrorists. Sadly I don't think this album is worth getting as it the few good tracks don't make up for boring samey collection of songs that make up the majority of the album.
