Manic Street Preachers
Reistance Is Futile

"Futurology", the second in a diptych of albums released by the Manic Street Preachers over two years (between 2013 and 2014), seemed to many to be the perfect way to bid farewell to their audience.

An album that dared, after a career ideally divisible into two phases, with a period of (not even so extreme) stagnation in the middle, interrupted by the splendid "Send Away The Tigers" of 2006. Instead, the band led by James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire decided to surprise once again, and four years after that excellent effort (the longest gap ever between two albums for the historic Welsh band) released this new "Resistance Is Futile", produced by Dave Eringa, Gavin Fitzjohn, and Guy Massey, and recorded in a new studio built near Newport.

For this new adventure, the Manics return to a more classically rock approach and opt for a sound marked by the band's signature style. The experimental patina and kraut fascinations of the previous episode have vanished (traces can only be found in the—truthfully not essential—"In Eternity"), as the Welsh trio steers (as explicitly declared by the band itself) towards a fusion of styles that combines the grit of "Generation Terrorists" with the orchestral sweep of the essential "Everything Must Go". And the mission can be considered largely successful.

"Resistance Is Futile" is an inspired and fully realized album, starting with "People Give In", which encapsulates everything good about the Welshmen's offering; a pleasant melody fully centered that flows into an epic chorus screamed to the sky, with strings drawing wide and circular trajectories and an earnest and heartfelt interpretation by Bradfield. The single "International Blue", praised by many as a new "Motorcycle Emptiness", is gritty and very effective, and introduces us to a ballad in full Manics style like "Distant Colours", perhaps slightly pandering (not surprisingly chosen as the second single), but always with great class.

In the rest of the album, the palette of colors is fundamentally rock, even touching on metal with the overwhelming "Broken Algorithms" (really very close to certain Iron Maiden vibes); "Sequels Of Forgotten Wars" and "Song For The Sadness" could very well be outtakes from "Send Away The Tigers", while "The Left Behind" closes by citing the best of U2.

In the middle, a couple more concessions to classy pop (the delicate "Vivian" and the rounded ballad "Hold Me Like A Heaven"), a successful duet with the up-and-coming singer-songwriter The Anchoress ("Dylan & Caitilin", an imaginary conversation between Dylan and Caitlin Thomas) and the purely britpop nostalgia of the beautiful "Liverpool Revisited".

"Resistance Is Futile" is a fine record, surprising in inspiration and content. Another pearl to add to the now stellar career of the Manic Street Preachers.

Best track: Liverpool Revisited