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Rating: Only a few months have passed since the release of their latest album, and the Manics are already ready to showcase the potential of the acclaimed Futurology.
Recorded at Cardiff's Faster Studios and the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, the album is definitely their most European (musically) and full of revival sounds (especially krautrock) that the trio has ever released. They tell the press: "While the previous Rewind The Film might be pictured as a forty-five-year-old looking at himself in the mirror, Futurology represents the idea of looking forward and the positivity of our energies".
A lot more electricity envelops the successive tracks, and the cover well represents the themes brought up; the frost, the snow, and the cold of war that Bradfield and Wire attempt to melt in favor of human progress. The guitar is not absent, and the arpeggios and riffs created on the base of the songs are also interesting, just listen to Let's Go To War and its rhythms halfway between a dance piece and rock à la Clash.
The massive use of keyboards does not hide the wild rock that's decidedly post punk of Sex, Power, Love And Money (the uncles Public Image Limited thank them). The common trait with the previous installment is undoubtedly the variety of guests. Among all stands out the part sung in German by Nina Hoss in Europa Geht Durch Mich.
Wire wrote Walk Me To The Bridge during a tough time followed by the possible decision of leaving the band, ultimately managing to transform that energy into something positive. Everything returns, I think I grasp the concept behind the album's meaning.
In short, they sound divine. The bass remains omnipresent and indispensable to the sound textures, while Bradfield's guitar sweats and stands out (Dreaming A City). Subsequently, the trio engages in various tours for the twentieth anniversary of the old glories that are The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go. Progress goes on, but the memory of what made them who they are cannot be silenced. What more could you want from the Manic Street Preachers?
Tracklist and Videos
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