manic street preachers futurology

The second of two albums which the band themselves describe as 'the last great phase of the Manics' will be released next year under the title 'futurology'. It has been described thus far as 'new wave' and 'krautrock, but only time will tell how far removed from the tender 'rewind the film' it will be.

When the band went into their own Cardiff based studio to start the sessions which led to the two albums, they found themselves being pulled into two directions, the first of which was the acoustic style songs of 'rewind..' which deals mostly with the topic of growing into middle age and the retrospective viewpoint of someone realising they are no longer the 'generation terrorist' of their youth.

Both Nicky Wire and James Dean Bradfield have described the second album direction as being more 'spiky' and electric guitar led. The lyrical subject matter has not yet been discussed, and neither have any prospective song titles.

the following is from the belfast telegraph-

"After a reluctant two-year break in December 2011, the Welsh trio - James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore - are back into the swing of things, with the release of their 11th record, Rewind The Film and a UK tour.

The next one, Futurology, is expected in May, although recording it at the same time as Rewind The Film was a complete fluke.

"Originally Nick wanted to make one album called 70 Songs Of Hatred And Failure. Sean and I just looked at each other and told him to go away and come back when he was ready to be reasonable, but we had so many songs," said James.

The 44-year-old continued: "We realised seven months in that what we'd been doing was a complete car crash, not holding together, and then we had this eureka moment when Nick realised we'd made two albums.

"The next album feels different, more Germanic, it's really good but we're going to have to understate the release of it. It's not an easy pitch."

James said they do question their longevity in the industry: "There are lots of questions we ask ourselves, others being 'Is it ridiculous that we're still doing this job at the age of 44?', or, 'Have we got anything left to say after 11 albums?'

"We have been true to how old we feel sometimes, and this record is exactly that. It's filled with self-doubt and the creep of mortality, but there's a song on there called 30 Year War, one of the easiest songs we've ever written."

He added: "It shows we are still quintessentially the same band, occasionally engaging in politics, asking the same questions and really enjoying doing it."

1. 'Futurology'
2. 'Walk Me To The Bridge'
3. 'Let's Go To War'
4. 'The Next Jet To Leave Moscow' (featuring Cian Ciaran)
5. 'Europa Geht Durch Mich' (featuring Nina Hoss)
6. 'Divine Youth' (featuring Georgia Ruth Williams)
7. 'Sex, Power, Love and Money'
8. 'Dreaming A City' (Hugheskova)
9. 'Black Square'
10. 'Between The Clock And The Bed' (featuring Green Gartside)
11. 'Misguided Missile'
12. 'The View From Stow Hill'
13. 'Mayakovsky'