"Ocean Spray"

This song literally ACHES. A love song that's in love with nobody in particular. I like the video too, which suggests James Dean Bradfield's got an acute case of insomnia, but what clinches this for me is the distorted riff at the end of the chorus, and the plangent, otherworldly horn solo. Now, a horn solo maybe isn't to everyone's taste, but this one just... just... works, and takes the song into another dimension entirely. "Ocean Spray" is a long way away from what you'd expect from the Manic Street Preachers: it's a delicate and quite beautiful song. You don't need to prepare yourself for the perfect slogans or the slightly heavy-handed sermonizing they can sometimes be prone to. And the song is the more powerful for it.