Love's Sweet Exile

 I've been trying to find a song to begin writing about the Manics. I didn't have the courage to start with a track from the Holy Bible. I chose "Love's Sweet Exile" so that I can maybe add in my experience beside the analysis and lighten the mood. This was the track that made me obsessed with the Manics. I haven't passed a single day without listening them ever since the day I heard this track. I will detail the story and the reason why at the end of my analysis.

As someone that values music videos as much as any other element, I have to say that I love this video. The style, starting with a quote from Camus' The Fall, the iconic flashing inverted guitar solo session, Manics style... It's just a visual feast. The part where Nicky shakes the paint really scratches my brain for some reason. Beside the visuals, the video itself doesn't really reflect the lyrics. As someone that had to study Marx (I've never been a fan, sorry.), I had written countless essays in exams and had to read countless pages about this. The lyrics describe the people as "classified machines", which really is just Alienation theory in a nutshell :D Each end of the verses reminds me of 1984's narration of Hate and Existence in state's eyes:

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“We don't count 'cause we hate”

“You are not dead 'cause we hate”

“We are kept down 'cause we hate”

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State’s hatred for its people, and the people’s hatred for their state. In a corrupt government, majority of people can identify the problem. Some just choose to blame it on the external forces, some just don't take action despite bashing their government all day. The simplest option for the tired is to “escape” and “Leave this country”. I wrote around a 500 words about my opinions on immigration and alienation but I decided to cut it, because I get really steamed up about it.

I can ease my mind by writing about how I discovered this song:

As I was on the way to the midterm exam for my "Modern political thought" course, I've found a playlist that contained 90s rock and shuffle played it. I paused listening it a while before the exam and revised my notes for Arendt and Marx' alienation theories. I entered the exam and wrote 2-3 pages on each philosopher. After an hour of writing, I was on my way back home and started to continue on the playlist. The first track on the queue was "Love's sweet exile". As I was listening, I felt slapped by the lyrics, as if I was brought back to life after being on low power mode for a long time. The song felt like it was brought to me by a divine force, like it was meant for me to came across this band. Just a few minutes ago, I was writing about the exact same thing, and now I was listening to these lyrics. I did know about the Manic Street Preachers and listened to few of their songs before this incident but I've never felt this way before. Then, I opened the album "Generation Terrorist" and listened all of the tracks. I became obsessed instantly. Since that day, I love the Manics and everything about them <3