Sleep Next to Plastic

Sleep Next to Plastic, also known as Covers, is a compilation album by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers, released in 2022 on the Sony Music label. The repertoire includes covers of various artists recorded over three decades. It's the band's second album of covers, and their first since Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers) (2003).

Background
In 2021, the band released The Ultra Vivid Lament, the group's first album to top the UK Albums Chart since 1998. Around the same time, the group also started work on a special 20th anniversary edition of the album Know Your Enemy, released in 2001.

Production
In 2022, Manic Street Preachers recorded a cover of Madonna's "Borderline" for the BBC 6 Music Festival in Cardiff. The cover ended up spearheading the new project, which brought together the group's covers that were not yet available on digital platforms. Amongst them were songs by artists and bands such as Nirvana, Guns 'N Roses, Amy Winehouse, Echo & the Bunnymen and Paul Simon.

The project was released on 5 July 2022, and mixed with a playlist that brought together the covers presented on Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers) (2003). In the first version, the compilation was named Covers, and later renamed Sleep Next to Plastic.

In a press release, the Manic Street Preachers said that "Cover versions have always offered us a chance to pay direct, public tribute to records we grew up obsessing over, be that C86 bands or artists as diverse as Madonna, John Cale and Paul Robeson. Collectively, these covers are a heartfelt musical tribute to our formative influences".

Track listing

 * 1) "Borderline" – 4:08
 * 2) "Jeans Not Happening" (featuring Finlay George) – 4:02
 * 3) "(Feels Like) Heaven" (live at the BBC) – 4:15
 * 4) "Pennyroyal Tea" (live at the BBC) – 3:16
 * 5) "Let's Stay Together" (live at the BBC) – 2:44
 * 6) "Vision Blurred" – 2:59
 * 7) "Wake Up Alone" – 3:36
 * 8) "Bright Eyes" (full band version) – 3:29
 * 9) "In Between Days" (live at the BBC) – 2:17
 * 10) "Sweet Child o' Mine" (live at Cardiff Castle) – 6:12
 * 11) "All or Nothing" (live at the BBC) – 3:33
 * 12) "Bring on the Dancing Horses" (live at the BBC) – 3:45
 * 13) "Under My Wheels" (live at the BBC) – 2:59
 * 14) "The Instrumental" – 3:22
 * 15) "Summer Wind" (live at the BBC) – 1:55
 * 16) "Endless Plain of Fortune" – 4:06
 * 17) "Primitive Painters" – 3:42