Manic Street Preachers "you can draw some pretty obvious conclusions from the lyrics." Wire, who admitted finding the task of editing this song "pretty choking", eventually composed the music and sang lead vocals after Bradfield found himself unsuited to the task. Bradfield commented that "Journal for Plague Lovers" was an attempt to finally secure the legacy of their former member Richey Edwards and the result was that, during the recording process, it was as close to feeling his presence since his disappearance: "There was a sense of responsibility to do his words justice. That was part of the whole thing of letting enough
Manic Street Preachers title track and "The Guerilla Tapestry". Bradfield plays guitar on both songs. Furthermore, the track "Hiraeth" features a section called "Spoken Word", in which Nicky Wire talks about Welsh identity. In February 2006, the band contributed a cover version of "The Instrumental" to the album "Still Unravished: A Tribute to the June Brides". In February 2008, the Manics covered Rihanna's hit pop song "Umbrella". Their version appeared on a CD titled "NME Awards 2008" given away free with a special souvenir box-set issue of "NME" magazine, which went on sale 27 February. Additionally, the Manics' version of the song was