National Treasures – The Complete Singles | ||||
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Compilation album by Manic Street Preachers | ||||
Released | 31 October 2011 | |||
Recorded | 1991–2011 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:32:47 | |||
Label | Sony | |||
Producer | Various | |||
Manic Street Preachers chronology | ||||
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Singles from National Treasures – The Complete Singles | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 95/100 |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Uncut | |
Q | |
Digital Spy | |
musicOMH | |
The Guardian | |
BBC Music | favourable |
Sputnikmusic | favourable |
Drowned in Sound | 7/10 |
National Treasures – The Complete Singles is a compilation album by the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 31 October 2011. It is the band's third compilation album, after Forever Delayed: Manic Street Preachers, The Greatest Hits (2002), and the B-sides/rarities collection Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers) (2003). It reached number 10 on the UK Album Chart in November 2011.
National Treasures includes most of the band's singles from 1991's "Motown Junk" to 2011's "This Is the Day". Despite the "complete singles" title, National Treasures does not contain every Manic Street Preachers single. Notable omissions are the band's very first single, "Suicide Alley" (1989), "Strip It Down" from the New Art Riot EP (1990), for which the band's first promotional video was made, and "You Love Us (Heavenly Version)" (1991). For singles originally released as double-A sides, only one song is included: therefore from "Love's Sweet Exile/Repeat" (1992) and "Faster/P.C.P." (1994), only "Love's Sweet Exile" and "Faster" are included.
The collection also excludes singles that were not chart-eligible, such as the fanzine-only single "UK Channel Boredom" (1990), singles released in other territories such as the Japanese only singles Further Away (1996) and Nobody Loved You (1998), and singles released only as limited-edition vinyl, CDs and downloads (1991's "Feminine Is Beautiful", 2005's God Save the Manics EP, 2007's "Underdogs" and "The Ghosts of Christmas", and 2008's "Umbrella"). In addition, National Treasures contains nothing from the Manics' ninth studio album, Journal for Plague Lovers (2009) because officially, no singles were released from that album (although the track "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time" did receive airplay). For a feature article in the 4 October 2011 issue of the NME, to promote National Treasures, Manic Street Preachers James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, and Sean Moore were asked to rank a list of 40 of their singles: the 38 tracks from National Treasures plus "Suicide Alley" and the New Art Riot EP track, "Strip It Down".