Welcome back to Books With Cause. Let’s dive straight into my latest review.
I don’t listen to music anywhere near as much as I used to. As I touched upon in a previous review, where I looked at two Oasis books, a lot of my musical awakening came in secondary school. Oasis was a gateway to guitar bands. Before that, anything I listened to was passive. It was whatever my parents listened to or whatever happened to be on the radio if I was in the back of the car. In that time, there were a lot of songs I knew, even if I had no idea who they were by.
The Manic Street Preachers probably came under that category. Who knows how many times I heard “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” without any idea who it was by, what it was about, or anything like that. An honourable mention needs to go to Martin Hines. He was the one who got me into Oasis, and he was also into the Manics. At this point, their most recent song was “The Love of Richard Nixon”, and I just didn’t get it. Probably partly because I had no idea who Nixon was at the time. But I distinctly remember loving their next single, “Empty Souls”. I was obsessed with it. Particularly the piano riff and the line about the Twin Towers. This would’ve been in early 2005 and I fantasised about being a part of a band and performing it on stage. A similar thing happened with the release of “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” in 2007. Both of those songs occupy a special place in my heart.
What I’m trying to say is that the Manic Street Preachers are a band I’ve always felt I should be more into than I ever actually have been. I got into the band a little more in my university days when I listened to their greatest hits a lot. That was when I discovered their song “Little Baby Nothing”, which would go on to inspire my graduation film.
A few months ago, I was scrolling Twitter one day when I heard about this book. 168 Songs of Hatred and Failure by Keith Cameron. I immediately requested it from the library and waited a good chunk of time for it to arrive.
This book is a song-by-song history of the band starting with their debut single, “Suicide Alley”, and concluding with “Johatsu”, a bonus track from their fifteenth album, Critical Thinking, released in early 2025. Every song gets its own chapter, and there are 168 in this book. The author states that the band have actually released some 319 songs, so a good chunk of them didn’t make it to this book. And I’m sure the Manics aren’t done yet. This is their complete history at the time of writing this review. But an updated book may be out in years to come.
I absolutely adored this book. I want more books like this. I can’t think of another nonfiction book that I can liken it to. There are some people who will find this book too deep. Does it contain a lot of stuff that the average person doesn’t need to know? Yes. But that’s the kind of stuff I love. This is the kind of information I devour. I’d love to know exactly what (insert name of person) was thinking when they wrote (insert name of book/song/movie). I’m unashamedly a nerd when it comes to that.
There are still a lot of songs in this book I haven’t heard. Albums I haven’t heard at all. I would’ve appreciated more time where I could’ve read the book at a slower pace and savoured it alongside listening to each song in turn. Sadly, the library needs the book back, and I don’t like holding people up.
I can’t praise Keith Cameron highly enough. He’s clearly a fan of the band, and I think you’d have to be to write a book like this. He also had access to Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield, who provided him with in-depth interviews, so he had the necessary information about each song. The passion and enthusiasm show on every page.
It would be impossible for a book like this not to mention the disappearance of Richey Edwards. He played a major part in the early albums of the band, and his absence provided one hell of a challenge for the band moving forward from their fourth album onwards. The Edwards case is one that fascinates me. And I’m sure that’s a story for another book that’s out there somewhere.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆(4 stars)
