Your only crime is silence
“Tsunami” is musically one of the more straightforward pieces of This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours – an obvious single really, though it only became the fourth of its kind from the album. The hypnotic verse is as driven as it is dreamy, awash with a gentle atmosphere that uses the album’s sonic emphasis to craft a hazy and almost ethereal soundscape over the steady backbone rhythm that guides the track forward; the use of heavily delayed guitars and the striking sitar further contribute to the strong soundworld. The chorus is a classic Manics one, effortlessly rising from the verse to jubilantly soar. The middle eight is an otherwordly embrace that stills time for a brief moment before the song rises again. It’s everything a classic Manics single contains, right down to the biography lyrics which for a little scant of four minutes move away from the rest of the album’s focus on Wire’s mental landscape. But it’s a Manics hit that plays it gently despite its inherent and obvious qualities as a powerful anthem, coating itself in an atmospheric blanket that it gorgeously plays through.
It wasn’t originally like that though. After some years of the song quite frankly suffering in a live setting as the band couldn’t reconcile the dreamy qualities with their live energy (and the sitar setting they had found on their keyboard was quite frankly horrible), the band began to introduce a more straightforwardly muscular version of the song whenever it appeared on stage – and turns out that’s what the song originally was like. The original demo version of “Tsunami” became one of the staple Manics fables, mentioned by Wire in every single occasion where he could cram the reference in, building up a mythology of this loud and roaring version of “Tsunami” that was caged when the studio version was eventually worked upon. In 2018 a “studio demo” of “Tsunami” was unearthed through the 20th anniversary release of the album, and it turned out not to be as revelatory as everyone expected – simply because, well, it was the version we had now gotten used to hearing live, with a more pronounced guitar, bulkier chorus and James’ rawer vocal performance. And while the album version will always be the classic version for me, there is something to say about how well the song works as a more direct anthem as well. The A Night of National Treasures version of the song (released on the “Show Me the Wonder” digital single) is probably its definitive live version, turning it into a real moment of triumph with both James and Wire really getting into its sheer live power in the final chorus (“One! More! Time!”).
The subject matter, as already mentioned, is another real person character study by Wire. The “Silent Twins” – June and Jennifer Gibbons – were two Welsh identical twins who made a vow of silence when young, only communicating to each other with their fiction writing being their only real dialogue to the rest of the world. Both turned to a life of small crime and ended up locked up in a mental hospital for over a decade. The sisters had secretly promised themselves that should one of them die, the other should start to live a normal life; Jennifer died in 1993 out of nowhere, though June later advised that the sisters had come to the conclusion that the only way for them to be free was for one of them to die and Jennifer chose she would be the one, though no foul play or clear reason for her subsequent death was ever found. The lyric is another early sign of Wire getting back in touch with his Welsh roots and beginning to use his home nation as a source of inspiration as he explored for his own writing voice after Richey’s disappearance. On the album it stands out in what is otherwise a collection of songs from a very personal perspective, but Wire’s turn of phrase is very beautiful and alluring throughout “Tsunami” and paints a vivid picture in line with the rest of the album, even if you don’t know the context. The music video for the song also uses lines from a poem by the Gibbons sisters as lines of floating text interspersed between band shots. It’s a very simple video but very beautifully and stylishly shot, and perhaps surprisingly one of my favourites of theirs despite its lack of high concepts or unique execution.
Overall, it’s one of my favourites on This Is My Truth – and given the album’s status in my canon, that’s high praise. One of their best singles, obviously as well.
And with that single release, we also got some remixes. The Stereolab version is the better one of the two – its colourful and psychedelic organ jingle is so dang joyful you can’t help but love it and its whiplash switch to a fingersnapping lounge twang in the choruses is a moment of inspired mad excellence. The Cornelius remix is similarly busy and hyperactive in sound, but this time in a more optimistically chaotic way as the high intensity acoustic guitar and the hyperenergetic drums mingle together. Interestingly the Cornelius remix comes with an alternative vocal line where “disco dancing with the rapists” has been replaced with “disco dancing with the patients”. Perhaps a censored line was recorded in anticipation of radio demands and the early line was sent to Cornelius for remixing, but because the broadcasters didn’t actually balk at the original lyric as expected, Cornelius’ remix remains an oddity?
Rather surprisingly, neither of the Tsunami single sleeve quotes come from the Silent Twins. Ted Hughes’ “Before us stands yesterday” graced CD1 and CD2 got “I have to change to stay the same” as said by Willem de Kooning (himself another person who inspired a Manics lyric).
Where can this pisstake remix be found? It sounds very bizarre.
Hello! I’ve now added a link to the Myspace page containing it to the article.
I loved that song so much I named my late cat after it. Silly maybe but well…
I love the quotes in the video such as “Two bodies, one mind”. (citing this by heart, hoping not to make any slight typo) Also the line, “Inhale the anxiety in between” is very strong.
Some people state that there is a metaphor relating to Nicky and Richey here. Because the Silent Twins never spoke until they were separated, and suddenly the surviving one started to talk again. Some people see a metaphor here because Nicky and Richey were so close that they were almost like twins, and when the Manics decided to move on and continue recording it was like Nicky writing the lyrics on his own, like “speaking again”. I never really believed in this metaphor though, it was something I read on a Manics discussion forum. While I know the guys like metaphors, I think this one –while possible– is looking a bit too far. I believe it’s about the Silent Twins and any Nicky/Richey connection is purely coincidence.
Amazing song, and love the video.