On the fifth anniversary of the original list, I've updated The Manic Street Preachers' 100 greatest songs. It's now almost 50k and is getting ridiculous

AEW completes the Wembley hat trick better than Sir Geoff Hurst

The album that seemed impossible to make, and then seemed to aim for an impossible task, 'Everything Must Go' was at once a miracle and a necessity in 1996

2025's most incredible musical achievement was Hallelujah the Hills somehow finishing a 54 song record. I try to rank them from 'Less Great' to 'More Great'

The annual Necessary Evil Hall of Fame inducts two more artists into the most prestigious fraternity in recorded art

For the last time ever, let's look at the statistics behind 2025's best albums and songs #NecessaryEvil2025 #NE25

40 MARINA: Princess of Power 39 Manic Street Preachers: Critical Thinking 38 Clipping: Dead Channel Sky 37 Mogwai: The Bad Fire 36 Tame Impala: Deadbeat 35 Lonnie Holley:&n…

Remember 2025? It was a while back, admittedly, but here are the official 118 best songs #NecessaryEvil2025 #LegitBosses2025

Finally, at #1 is #ICONOCLASTS, the utterly jaw dropping sixth album by #AnnaVonHausswolf #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Our annual #Prince journey takes us to 1986, the exceptional #Parade, and the break up of the Revolution #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Yo ho ho, bottle of FUN, seasons greetings and a legitimate prize draw #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#3 is #EUSEXUA, a career best by #FKATwigs, and also a chance for me to slag off other artists' reverence by reproduction #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#Rosalía is #3 with #Lux Her fear is my fear Her rage is my rage Her love is my love Her blood is my blood #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Listen, idiots, #TheScholars by #CarSeatHeadrest is the #5 best album of the year and a lot of you are fucking deaf #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #6 is #SudanArchives with #THEBPM, like a living parody of a large language mode fed every musical evolution of the past century #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Holy shit, #HallelujahTheHills actually did it! Their incredibly ambitious opus #DECK is at #8 #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #9 #NourishedByTime's #ThePassionateOnes is some pristine Mumble Funk and an incredible leap from their debut #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Into the top #10, with #CleoReed narrating salt and lime being rubbed into zero hour wounds on #Cuntry. (This post seriously has a CONTENT WARNING though!!) #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #11 #Lorde puts her whole Lordeussy (perhaps literally) into the utterly fabulous #Virgin #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#Kendrick Lamar adds a little mustard with #GNX at #12. Just remember, worth $140 million, he's not like YOU #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#13 is #LambriniGirls with #WhoLetTheDogsOut, a rallying cry for all of us who do poos at friends' houses #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #14 is #TylerTheCreator with #DontTapTheGlass, sometimes it's just great to hear a master of their craft absolutely have a fucking riot. #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#PerfumeGenius lets us sit of the other side of Jason with #Glory at #15. No, I don't know what a capezio is either #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #26... No, #16, it's too good. #Blondshell with #IfYouAskedForAPicture. Have you ever wondered why she doesn't sing about being poor much? #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #17 is #SharonVanEtten with #SharonVanEttenAndTheAttachmentTheory. Or is it the debut album by #SharonVanEttenAndTheAttachmentTheory? Whatever, my wordcount is d #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #18 #Disiniblud (#RachikaNayar and #NinaKeith) force me onto a BIT of a tangent about suicides at Disney World #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#19 is the effervescent #FKATwigs with #EUSEXUAAfterglow. And nice seeing you, Twigs, won't be any more albums by you this year, nope... #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Listen, there's some disagreement over what the album's called, but #AlanSparhawk with #TrampledByTurtles is at #20 #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#21 is #MoonchildSanelly's #FullMoon and it is your God-given duty to appreciate her booty #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #22 #LittleSimz changing producer on #Lotus might have been a forced decision, but it works beautifully #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#Wednesday are #23 with #Bleeds, an incredible career best collection of lumpenproletariat anthems that could only be improved with a Scarecrow Festival #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

My favourite genre - practiced by #NoJoy with #Bugland at #24 - is "Absolute Bangers" #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #25 #Ninajirachi says that #ILoveMyComputer, but I wonder if it's more of a physical thing #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#26 is #WetLeg with the disgustingly American spelling of #moisturizer #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Listen #PushaT, I'm big enough to name #LetGodSortEmOut by #Clipse as the #27 best album, maybe our feud is over? And I won? #NE2025 #NecessaryEvil2025

OK, this is complicated, but #AndSoIWatchYouFromAfar's #Jettison was released in 2022, but it's actually the 28th best album on 2025 #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

Rather than talk about #IrisSilverMist, another extraordinary album by #JennyHval at #29, I decide to get Kirked #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #30 #Oklou is marvelously tapping into Peak Millennialcore Vanilla Midgets with #ChokeEnough #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

I end up having to do a fair bit of of dancing about architecture for the #LosThuthanaka album at #31 #NE2025 #NecessaryEvil2025

#Yeule's #EvangelicGirlIsAGun is the #32 best album of the year, OK? Please make sure you appreciate context before you read this review #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #33 I collaborate with Shaun Ryder to explain why #DannyBrown's #Stardust is so incredible #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #34. #Samia gets me fantasising about bovine excision and being left dead, empty and #Bloodless #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #35. #LonnieHolley remains in his imperial phase with #Tonky, though I argue whether protesting with love is really the answer #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #36 in #TameImpala's #Deadbeat, forcing me to bravely take on the Woke Fraudtano Mind Virus #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

#Mogwai are #37 with #TheBadFire. National treasures. The greatest Scottish band of all time. A discography of absurdly high quality. Boooooriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #38, the incredible #Clipping with the incredibl(y bloated) #DeadChannelSky, and an excuse for me to complain about both Cyber Punk and that cunt David Lammy #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025

At #39... yeah, it's #ManicStreetPreachers with #CriticalThinking, another perfectly decent album #NE25 #NecessaryEvil2025