Manic Street Preachers - National Treasures: The Complete Singles

I've never been a massive fan of Manic Street Preachers but I've loved a good number of their singles and their epic mid-Nineties albums Everything Must Go and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. While the Welsh group is probably most famous for the disappearance, presumed suicide of guitarist Richey Edwards who was last seen on February 1, 1995, this two-CD collection vividly shows that the band deserves props for their storied career more than anything else. The early material comes across as classic punk rock meets Gun 'n' Roses, especially on the debut full length Generation Terrorists, but the two follow ups before Edwards' disappearance showed a darker, more melancholic side. The aforementioned post-Edwards material found the band at full stride on beautiful orchestrated masterpieces, such as "A Design For Life." I had lost track of the band c. Y2K, but the newer stuff holds its own, including a riveting cover of The The's "This Is The Day."