Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If the early part of The Manic Street Preacher’s career was an abundance of the brutal thought wrapped up in the assurance of a protection from four lads from South Wales then as the group have got older, as the more the world feels more insane and the feeling of being abandoned becomes more prevalent day by day, the more The Manic Street Preachers are needed to offer a light on the insidious, on the corrupt and corruptible and the need to understand that to feel angry is not just a feeling it is a right.
Some bands have that initial spark but they then mellow, they become a group of the comfortable, the hunger hasn’t left them but it is shrouded in many cases in the relaxed, secure calm. There are many that don’t go down that route though and The Manic Street Preachers are firmly in that camp. The evidence is there once more to see in the latest album release Futurology.
The music on offer by the three men may seem in places to have a more Avant garde feel to it, the kind of pop posturing that seemed to infiltrate U2 in the 1990s however the difference between them is that even on the most pop like songs, there is a fury, the raging heart of resentful star in the heavens sending out its resentment of all it has created, the rage masking a love that won’t let go of the fact that all is still unequal in this world. They might not be able to break the status quo on their own but they have chipped away bit by bit and the result is that Futurology won’t win the war but will certainly provide the impetus to keep on believing in the fight.
The tracks all have a purpose, they sound unsullied, not tempered by time and have the excellent ability in which to inflame the dying passion in the listener. Tracks such as Let’s Go To War, the excellent Europa Geht Durch Mich, Misguided Missile and the stunning Between The Clock and The Bed are the first shots by a band hopefully refusing to ever lay down and let the world dictate to them just how they should be, it is magnificent and impressive.
The Manic Street Preachers have once again showed the reality of life that the fight has only ever paused because the life we have has become one of endless chatter and no reflection. The rush to conformity but leaving the dying soul laying latent somewhere in the back of the mind like a nagging fly buzzing, desperate to find a way out has become too intrinsic in society, there are ways to counteract it, listening to Futurology is a hell of place to start.
Ian D. Hall