Manic Street Preachers have destroyed the derelict foundations of rock and roll and reconstructed them to create a musical form that surpasses the dryness of today’s music. With a history that may devastate the talents of many bands, the Manics have elevated themselves beyond the need for approval, the need to prove themselves. The band’s tenth studio album, Postcards From a Young Man, serves their desire to infiltrate the mainstream with bold cultural statements and criticisms of today’s political failings.
Described by the band as “heavy metal mo-town”, fans can expect something more like Lifeblood meets This is My Truth. A gospel choir features on four of the album’s tracks, layering the music with a golden shrillness that intertwines gracefully with the soaring strings and guitars. The intention of the band to “go for big radio hits” is evident in songs like “(It’s Not War) Just the End of Love”, which revolve around the catchiness of the chorus and are less focused on lyrical depth. Echo & The Bunnymen‘s Ian McCulloch features on “Some Kind of Nothingness”, a definitive Manics song, puncturing the wounds of life’s melancholy hues in its dismal notes.
“All We Make is Entertainment” is brimming with the cheek and glamourous didacticism which makes other music insignificant, dim, and powerless in comparison. “Hazelton Avenue” chimes with the immensity of James Dean Bradfield’s impeccably constructed guitar solos, a tune which stamps itself into your brain after the very first listen, a musical achievment if there ever was one. “Golden Platitudes”, which for the first few listens may be mistaken for a filler, grasps the raw sensitivity of Bradfield’s voice with an overwhelming strength, gently balancing the occasional screaming and harshness which appears in other tracks.
A sharper, edgier, Manics sound is bared in the album’s finale “Don’t Be Evil” which confronts the values and idiotic mission statements which dictate our society today. Nicky Wire’s politically underlined lyricism is re-birthed with a blindingly relevant freshness, “Don’t be evil, just be corporate, and fool the world with your own importance”. If there was ever a band that deserved to impose its reigns on our faltering, decaying society, its the Manic Street Preachers.
Review Score: 9/10
