Recording
A Design for Life
Manic Street Preachers
Independently chosen for2 of our lists. Here is what each of them said.
- Released
- 1996
- Label
- Epic
- On
- Britpop and Dancing to Bad News
- Updated
- 2026-08-31
Ranked No. 7 in Britpop
"Libraries gave us power." Written after their guitarist disappeared, and it turns the era's flag-waving into something with actual grief in it.
Picked by Dancing to Bad News
Written after their guitarist vanished, about libraries built by people who were then told they drank too much. Sung back by festival crowds as an anthem, which is either the point being missed or the point being made.