10 Manic Street Preachers Hidden Gem Songs
7. Judge Y'rself
2003's Lipstick Traces was chiefly a collection of B-sides and covers, but the opportunity was taken to also include two previously recorded and unreleased tracks (more on the other one later).
Judge Y'rself has its place in Manics lore as the last track the group recorded with Richey Edwards still a member of the band. It was recorded in 1995 with the intention of it being used on Sylvester Stallone's much-maligned Judge Dredd movie. Due to Richey's disappearance and the ensuing question marks over the band's future, it was not included on the film's soundtrack.
It took eight years before Judge Y'rself was released as a promotional single for the compilation, and, coming as it did in the wake of singles like There By The Grace Of God, Let Robeson Sing and So Why So Sad, it was a shock to the system. The Manics hadn't rocked this much since, well, since Richey disappeared.
Nobody will ever call Everything Must Go a disappointing release or a bad album, but if this song is a glimpse into what the next record with Richey might have been, it wouldn't have been as big a mainstream hit as Everything... but it would have rocked hard.