Journal for Plague Lovers is to be stocked in plain slipcases because its artwork, which features a painting of a boy's face apparently splattered with blood, is deemed 'inappropriate'
The Manics' James Dean Bradfield ... 'We just thought it was a beautiful painting'. Photograph: PR
British supermarkets are to hide the cover of the new Manic Street Preachers album, Journal for Plague Lovers, because of what a Sainsbury's representative described as "inappropriate" artwork. Instead, copies will be stocked in plain slipcases.
"It is bizarre that supermarkets actually think that [the cover is] going to impinge on anyone's psyche," the Manics' James Dean Bradfield said to BBC 6 Music. Journal for Plague Lovers, like 1994's The Holy Bible, uses for its cover an oil painting by Cambridge artist Jenny Saville, this time featuring a boy who appears to be splattered with blood.
"We just thought it was a beautiful painting," Bradfield said, rejecting the bloodier interpretation. "If you're familiar with [Seville's] work, there's a lot of ochres and browns and reds ... Perhaps people are looking for us to be more provocative than we are being. We just saw a much more modern version of Lucian Freud-esque brushstrokes."
For supermarkets like Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda, however, it doesn't matter what the Manics intended. "We felt that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate if it were prominently displayed on the shelf," Sainsbury's music buyer said. "As such, the album will be sold in a sleeve provided by the publisher."
Journal for Plague Lovers is Manic Street Preachers' ninth album, their sixth since the disappearance of founding member Richey Edwards in 1995. The album's lyrics are largely drawn from Edwards's notebooks.
"You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out," Bradfield said. "We're not going to censor it or anything ... It is what it is."
Journal for Plague Lovers is released on Monday
in: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/15/manic-street-preachers-album-supermarkets
The Manics' James Dean Bradfield ... 'We just thought it was a beautiful painting'. Photograph: PR
British supermarkets are to hide the cover of the new Manic Street Preachers album, Journal for Plague Lovers, because of what a Sainsbury's representative described as "inappropriate" artwork. Instead, copies will be stocked in plain slipcases.
"It is bizarre that supermarkets actually think that [the cover is] going to impinge on anyone's psyche," the Manics' James Dean Bradfield said to BBC 6 Music. Journal for Plague Lovers, like 1994's The Holy Bible, uses for its cover an oil painting by Cambridge artist Jenny Saville, this time featuring a boy who appears to be splattered with blood.
"We just thought it was a beautiful painting," Bradfield said, rejecting the bloodier interpretation. "If you're familiar with [Seville's] work, there's a lot of ochres and browns and reds ... Perhaps people are looking for us to be more provocative than we are being. We just saw a much more modern version of Lucian Freud-esque brushstrokes."
For supermarkets like Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda, however, it doesn't matter what the Manics intended. "We felt that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate if it were prominently displayed on the shelf," Sainsbury's music buyer said. "As such, the album will be sold in a sleeve provided by the publisher."
Journal for Plague Lovers is Manic Street Preachers' ninth album, their sixth since the disappearance of founding member Richey Edwards in 1995. The album's lyrics are largely drawn from Edwards's notebooks.
"You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out," Bradfield said. "We're not going to censor it or anything ... It is what it is."
Journal for Plague Lovers is released on Monday
in: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/15/manic-street-preachers-album-supermarkets
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