Journal for Plague Lovers is the ninth studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 18 May 2009 by Columbia Records.

Topics include The Grande Odalisque by Ingres, Marlon Brando, Giant Haystacks, celebrity, consumerism and dysmorphia; all reiterating the genius and intellect of Richard James Edwards.

Four of these appeared on the 1996 album Everything Must Go: "Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier", "Kevin Carter", "Removables" and "Small Black Flowers that Grow in the Sky".

"Dolphin-Friendly Tuna Wars", that's one; "Alien Orders/Invisible Armies", that's one [the band have recorded an instrumental that takes its title from this lyric]; "Young Men", which is quite Joy Division.

"[5] The final track, "William's Last Words", has been compared to a suicide note, and although Nicky Wire rejects this suggestion[6] Bradfield observes, "you can draw some pretty obvious conclusions from the lyrics.

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.

A music video directed by Douglas Hart was also produced, featuring the band performing in their then studio in front of the Jenny Saville painting used on the album cover.

Mankowski concluded that 'in Edwards' lyrics, a number of metaphors reconfigure the malleability of the physical body and expand the concept of how self-fashioning can be applied in relation to it'.

A Deluxe Edition CD was released, includes a second disc with demo versions of all thirteen album songs and a hardback 36-page booklet featuring Edwards' original lyrics and artwork.

The top four UK supermarkets stocked the CD in a plain slipcase, after the cover was deemed "inappropriate" due to the belief that the red on the boy's face was blood.

[17] Journal for Plague Lovers scored a rare five-star review in Q magazine, which argued that by "breathing life into Richey Edwards's own last words", the band "crafted not a memorial but a celebration".

[30] John Doran from NME awarded the record an 8/10 grade, arguing that Journal for Plague Lovers should not be burdened with expectations of becoming "The Holy Bible Mark II" but was simply "an outstanding album in its own right".

[33] David Cheal of The Daily Telegraph was critical, however, accusing them of being "a plodding indie-rock trio whose ambition has consistently outstripped their ability"[34] and giving the record only two stars out of five.

"[24] Likewise, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic remarked that "they were making inroads in this direction on 2007's Send Away the Tigers – for tight, clanking, cantankerous guitars" and commended the album for its sense of hope: "Journal for Plague Lovers winds up being The Holy Bible in reverse: every moment of despair is a reason to keep on living instead of an excuse to pack it all in.

"[18] Journal for Plague Lovers was placed at number 10 on Metacritic's list of the fifty best-reviewed albums of 2009,[35] and was placed on numerous critics' ranking lists for the year, particularly from British music magazines: All lyrics are written by Richey Edwards; all music is composed by Manic Street Preachers (James Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore, Nicky Wire)Manic Street Preachers Additional musicians Technical personnel