"A James lyric. We should do an Ian McDonald Manics book really, because there’s a lot of subtle interfaces. I think there’s two songs, ‘As Holy As The Soil’ and ‘Anthem…’ that really go for that kind of Dexys soul thing. Trying to write an old fashioned standard. It was originally called ‘Composition Rights’, I said, 'That’s a bit fucking John Cale isn’t it? Who’s going to know what a fucking Composition Right is?' [He said], it's rites as in ‘rites of death’. So I said, 'Well nothing sums us up better than ‘Anthems for Lost Causes’ does it?' He did all of that. The brass arrangements took ages, we were really trying to get the feel of Sam Cooke or something, for ‘As Holy As The Soil’ as well. We were trying to imagine someone like Amy Winehouse singing it."
"A James lyric. We should do an Ian McDonald Manics book really, because there’s a lot of subtle interfaces. I think there’s two songs, ‘As Holy As The Soil’ and ‘Anthem…’ that really go for that kind of Dexys soul thing. Trying to write an old fashioned standard. It was originally called ‘Composition Rights’, I said, 'That’s a bit fucking John Cale isn’t it? Who’s going to know what a fucking Composition Right is?' [He said], it's rites as in ‘rites of death’. So I said, 'Well nothing sums us up better than ‘Anthems for Lost Causes’ does it?' He did all of that. The brass arrangements took ages, we were really trying to get the feel of Sam Cooke or something, for ‘As Holy As The Soil’ as well. We were trying to imagine someone like Amy Winehouse singing it."
-Nicky Wire