A spare, but melodic acoustic track, just James and a guitar, then counterpointed beautifully by Lucy Rose's sweet gentle husky voice. As an album opener, it sums up the tone of what's coming in the rest of the album very well.
Taking James' electric beast of a guitar out of the mix, gives the song an airy feel, as if with the next gust of wind, it could lift the entire song away forever.
'I can't fight this war anymore, time to surrender, time to move on' sings James, but 'This sullen Welsh heart, it won't leave it won't give up'. However much the Manics want to lay down their instruments, their ideals, their principles, their sullen Welsh hearts just won't let them because, 'the act of creation saves us from despair'. They might be getting old and tired, but they're not going to stop just yet. Thank god.
Show Me The Wonder
The one blowsy, upbeat song on the album. Show Me The Wonder has James belting out the song like a Vegas era Elvis, with the brass adding a surprising Motown-y edge, which shouldn't work, but does. I love this song, it makes me want to dance, it puts a smile on my face and warm glow in my heart. The Manics still love making music and they’re still suckers for a feel good tune.
Rewind The Film
After the bluster of Show Me The Wonder, the album slows down to a gentler, plodding pace, starting with gentle acoustic plucking layered over electronic swoops and then the big surprise, Richard Hawley’s deep baritone channelling Johnny Cash singing the majority of the song. After a shift from the gentle Axelrod sample, there’s a change and James’ vocal kicks in and acts like a shaft of sunlight into the song lifting it up a level.
Not my favourite track, I dislike the Axelrod sample, but love Richard and James singing.
Builder Of Routines
A short and swift little song, it starts with a sinister plinking of keys, repeated and layered under the song, urgent and precise. James voice really vitalises the song and drives home the message (in a still angelic falsetto) that they’re ‘So sick and tired of being 4real’, Nicky is tired of being oblique and is just saying what he wants.
Lovely flugel horn solo gives the track warmth and lifts it before the plinking returns.
4 Lonely Roads
Sung entirely by Cate Le Bon and written entirely by Nicky Wire. It will no doubt divide opinion. Cate has a breathy delivery that makes it a little hard to hear what she’s singing, which is something coming from someone used to trying to decipher James over the years. The melody is pretty and delicate, Nicky has every right to be proud of it, even if there is a rogue tambourine on it being beaten at random intervals. The melody of the track is simple and the break where you would expect a big fuck-off guitar solo from James, is a little odd, but it fills the hole until Cate takes us to the end which seems a bit messy with a piano improvising on the tune.
I prefer Nicky’s demo, sung by him to Cate Le Bon’s take on it but it begins so prettily and with a lot of promise.
(I Miss The) Tokyo Skyline
Japanese like strings are a bit of blunt addition, but add a mournful air and the underlying electronic rhythm makes you feel as if you were on a bullet train. A different sound to every other song on the album, with James singing lines that don’t rhyme or indeed scan very well, but entirely mirror the feeling of being foreign in a culture that you don’t belong to.
It fades away with the sound of the ‘train’ disappearing into the distance, leaving you hoping it will come back to pick you up.
Anthem For A Lost Cause
An old fashioned waltz of a song, one of the densest sounding songs on the album, with James crooning beautifully, plenty of horns bolstering the sound and intricate guitar playing. The chorus is eminently sing-along-able and it’s the big fat beating heart at the centre of the album. It’s James offering us his music and it’s up to us to pick it up and take it away. I adore it, it sweeps you away into the centre of it and swirls you around in its richness. It makes you want to take someone by the hand and dance with them. Beautiful.
However, it ends a little abruptly, making you feel bereft…
As Holy As The Soil (That Buries Your Skin)
…which is how you should feel as you listen to this song. A love song to Richey, Nicky sings in remembrance of his friend, the song is about loss, regret and entreats Richey to come home even if it is ‘for seconds’. A duet between Nicky and James, Nicky sings the verses and James give some punch to the chorus. Nicky’s voice is the strongest that it’s ever been and could carry the whole song, but James with his voice’s characteristic strength and beauty brings a new level to the song, it stops it being a maudlin or mawkish, it feels like a celebration rather than a lament. The horns again give the track warmth and heart.
My favourite song on the album. Wonderful!
3 Ways To See Despair
An acoustic strummed song, with a ponderous rhythm, it feels dark and claustrophobic and is hard to get into. The only track with an electric guitar on it and with the refrain ‘I pray that you’ll be beautiful again’ repeated, downbeat and, dare I say it, despairing.
Running Out Of Fantasy
Starting with a scratchy electronic pinging and then a simple acoustic guitar and James’ voice confidently singing, with a piano and some strings joining in the fun about half way through. After the sparseness of some of the songs, it’s a song with a lot of words and it’ll take a few listens before you get all of the lyrics. It’s actually nice to find a song that is so lyrically dense and it’s atmospheric and oh so achingly beautiful.
Manorbier
A first, the only instrumental that’s made it onto a Manics album, starts atmospherically with James’ guitar sounding a little out of tune and then James shows off his mastery of the theremin, which swoops and swirls around mischievously. The songs builds in texture throughout with James’ one man choir lifting it at the end and ending in a Phil Spectorish ‘wall of sound’. A lovely experiment which is such a happy, mischievous and joyful piece of music.
30 Year War
The trumpet sounds a lament at the start of 30 Year War and then hand claps start over a lively bass line. A robust, strong song about their disgust at Thatcherism, both historical and present, it’s punchy, strong and shows that the Manics have still got so much fire in their bellies and they’re still angry and they still won’t take it lying down. They coruscate ‘The endless parade of old Etonian Scum’ still lining the front benches, but they end by asking ‘I ask you again what is to be done?’ with the punchy bass line sounding intense and passionate and insistent! The song starts with a lament of what has been lost and has ended with a call to arms. Bring on Futurology.
Overall
The most diverse I’ve heard the Manic Street Preachers sounding for a long time, by turns delicate and fragile, mischievous and joyful, celebratory and warm and angry and passionate. A step change from Postcards From A Young Man, but unique and important. Sean is the heartbeat of the band, he keeps the rhythm and brings the soul with the strong brass elements. Nicky’s still writing passionate, beautiful, important lyrics and James! Well he’s sounding wonderful, the acoustic sound gives us a chance to hear his superb voice not drowned out by his electric beast of a guitar.
I’m glad the Manics are still making music and making it with such passion and vigour and delight. Long live the Manic Street Preachers.
Bring on Futurology! I want big fat guitar solos on that one!
by Fuck Yeah MSP/ Manic Street Preaching
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