In stores Friday: Manic Street Preachers - 'Resistance is Futile'

photo: Alex Lake

As a fan from Day One, I'm always excited by the news of fresh music by the Manics. Read the press release below for details...

"International Blue" is the first new release from Manic Street Preachers in four years and is available now in the U.S. It is taken from the band’s 13th studio album Resistance is Futile, out via Shornday/The Orchard on April 13. The single was inspired by the city of Nice in the mid winter sun and the life’s work of French Nouveau realism artist Yves Klein.

Nicky Wire (bass guitar, lyrics) explained “I’d been digesting the lyric for five years, since being in Nice and finally joining the dots between Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue and the vast open blue of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a moment of connection that felt perfectly natural – not forced or intellectualized. A different kind of enrichment that feels increasingly difficult to find. The track itself is carried by the kind of naïve energy that powered ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’”.

James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) added “Often I just need a great title to set me off. Seeing the word 'blue' struck a chord and set off memories of pure pop records we grew up with – things like the ‘Story of the Blues’ by Wah!, ‘Moon is Blue’ by Colourbox, Orange Juice’s ‘Blue Boy’ and’ In Bluer Skies’ by Echo and the Bunnymen. I immediately thought of the kind of shiny freedom pop we used to hear on the radio as kids and that quickly became the M.O. in my head when writing. I just wanted to make a great Manic Street Preachers driving song; something that evoked the heat haze you see on empty open roads in America. I wanted to channel a Springsteen/War on Drugs sensibility, but through our European filter. Sometimes, aiming for a feeling is enough to make it work”.

Of their first new recordings in four years, the band said: “The main themes of ‘Resistance is Futile’ are memory and loss; forgotten history; confused reality and art as a hiding place and inspiration. It’s obsessively melodic - in many ways referencing both the naive energy of ‘Generation Terrorists’ and the orchestral sweep of ‘Everything Must Go’. After delay and difficulties getting started, the record has come together really quickly over the last few months through a surge of creativity and some old school hard work.”

Following the twin musical departures of 2013’s largely acoustic Rewind the Film and the glacial electronics of 2014’s Futurology, the songs on Resistance Is Futile are the first recorded in the band’s new Door to the River studio (near Newport, UK).

The band head out on tour in the UK in April and play their biggest shows in a decade. They will also be playing several festivals including Robert Smith’s Meltdown and will play with Guns ‘n’ Roses at shows in Germany and Denmark.

Manic Street Preachers recently received the Inspiration Award at the Q Awards at the Roundhouse in London. Previous winners include U2, David Bowie and Patti Smith. The band performed a greatest hits set on the night with support from Sleaford Mods.

Track listing:

1. People Give In
2. International Blue
3. Distant Colours
4. Vivian
5. Dylan & Caitlin
6. Liverpool Revisited
7. Sequels of Forgotten Wars
8. Hold Me Like a Heaven
9. In Eternity
10. Broken Algorithms
11. A Song for the Sadness
12. The Left Behind