Manic Street Preachers. Critical Thinking.
Like fellow Welshman Dylan Thomas, the Manics will not be going gently into that good night.
The former working-class Caerphilly kids have never lost their knack of crafting prickly, polemical songs loaded with melodic sensibility.
Their 15th studio album is bursting with life and radical anger as they challenge apathy and conformity. The music is exuberant and uplifting throughout.
‘What happened to your critical thinking?’ spits bassist Nicky Wire over the robotic dance rock of the bolshy opening title track.
James Dean Bradfield is back on vocals for Decline And Fall, a sugar rush of euphoric pop with echoes of The Cardigans.
Brushstrokes Of Reunion – sadly not concerning Karl Howman’s Jacko – is a soaring gem, and reflective nostalgia pervades the more melancholic Hiding In Plain Sight, with Wire confiding, ‘I wanna be in love with the man I used to be, in a decade I felt free’.
The album is a triumph of 80s-style indie pop powered by punk’s undying spirit.
Dear Stephen urges Morrissey to ‘Please come back to us…It’s so easy to hate, it takes guts to be kind’ over a plaintive Smiths-style backing.
(Was I) Being Baptised pays a soulful tribute to New Orleans R&B legend Allen Toussaint, in a joyous song about the regenerative power of music.
Tracks range from the bittersweet pop of People Ruin Paintings – about humanity exploiting art and Nature – to angry closer One Man Militia.
‘I can’t breathe when I hate this much,’ Wire rages, adding, ‘I don’t know what I am for, but I know what I’m against…’
Other fine numbers include the blissful My Brave Friend and the glorious stadium pop of Deleted Scenes.
Much like Great Western Railway, the album has suffered frustrating delays but is finally out next Friday. Probably.
Gary Kemp. This Destination.
He doesn’t sound like Spandau Ballet now, but Kemp still writes songs that sweep you along. The vibe is closer to early Pink Floyd than the New Romantic era he recalls in wistful soft rocker Windswept Street (1978). Highs include Work and the Bowie-esque Take The Wheel which uses driving in rain as a metaphor for a relationship.
Cymande. Renascence.
The early 70s funk band sound more relaxed on their sublime comeback album, full of slow-burning songs like the soulful, string-driven Only One Way, featuring chart-topper Celeste, and the jazzier Coltrane. The sunny Road To Zion tackles mortality, while How We Roll finds Soul II Soul founder Jazzie B riding the blissful groove.
Andy Fairweather Low. The Invisible Bluesman.
The co-founder of Cardiff band Amen Corner – whose 60s hits included Bend Me, Shape Me – Low has worked with rock’s biggest names but here the guitarist-singer pays tribute to his first love, the blues. Cue deft, heartfelt covers of Delta Blues standards like Rollin’ And Tumblin’ and Bessie Smith’s Gin House Blues, which was Amen Corner’s first hit.