"Empty Souls" is a song by Manic Street Preachers, and was the second (and last) single taken from their album Lifeblood.
The single edit features a lyric that was changed from the album version. The chorus line on the album version runs 'collapsing like the twin towers', but for the single it was changed to 'collapsing like dying flowers'. Interestingly, the backing vocals can still be heard to sing the original line, although this was most likely kept in by mistake.
The single reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, missing out on becoming the 1,000th number 1 in UK chart history to the latest in a series of Elvis number 1 single re-issues making the top of the charts at the time. It is said to be the political response from the band in relation to the September 11 attacks. The music video sees the band separated throughout, only to meet up at the end after treks through various parts of Berlin. This is probably linked to the idea of where the "empty souls" mentioned in the song actually go.
The DVD version of the single features two new songs which are both sung entirely by the band's bassist, Nicky Wire. The music for "Dying Breeds" is also entirely written by him, and the music for "Failure Bound" is the track "No Jubilees" played backwards. The video for "Dying Breeds" was directed by Wire's brother Patrick Jones, who made similar short videos for album tracks such as "1985".
Famous quotes containing the words empty and/or souls:
“Science with its retorts would have put me to sleep; it was the opportunity to be ignorant that I improved. It suggested to me that there was something to be seen if one had eyes. It made a believer of me more than before. I believed that the woods were not tenantless, but choke-full of honest spirits as good as myself any day,—not an empty chamber, in which chemistry was left to work alone, but an inhabited house,—and for a few moments I enjoyed fellowship with them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)