The Only Way To Gain Approval Is By Exploiting The Very Thing That Cheapens Me

On Bandcamp Friday, The Anchoress released a cover version of This Is Yesterday, which originally appeared on Manic Street Preachers' 1994 album The Holy Bible. The timing is not insignificant: Richey Edwards went missing on 1st February 1995.

In the press release, Catherine Anne Davies wrote, 

"I thought I would return to the beginning of it all and the band that originally sparked my obsession with music, literature and all things cultural, who I’m lucky enough to have gone on and collaborated and worked with - the Manic Street Preachers.

It was a pretty tall order to choose a Manics song to reimagine but I settled on the majestic “This Is Yesterday” from The Holy Bible, reworked here in collaboration with the talented Charlie Cawood and my now overflowing collection of vintage synths. Of course you can’t improve upon the original, but I hope this version captures some of my own bittersweet nostalgia for the purity of childhood that, for me, the song effortlessly evokes."

 

Here's the original version:

...and a solo acoustic version performed by James Dean Bradfield in concert in 2011 (yes, that's Allen Toussaint and John Grant sitting on stage behind him):

 

The Anchoress follows a similar, plucked acoustic path to JDB but the addition of the synth tones underpins her beautifully poised vocals. 

 

This Is Yesterday is available as a digital purchase for a very limited time and whilst it may follow the trend of 2022's cover version EPs and eventually be included on a physical release, why wait? 

 

I'm seeing The Anchoress live in concert in May and I am really, really looking forward to it.