Welsh rock icons Manic Street Preachers have tantalised fans with a first glimpse of song titles and a potential track listing for their as-yet-unnamed fourteenth studio album. In a social media post published on Sunday, lyrical dynamo and bassist Nicky Wire released a handwritten list of “Ideas/Titles/Demos/Works in Progress” for the new record, along with a quote from the late writer and historian Jan Morris on the theme of ‘reconciliation’.
In a message accompanying the post, Wire said “When we finished in the studio 4 weeks ago we were making good progress on album 14-here’s a few titles/ideas still early days more writing and much more recording to complete.” In a sign-off note referencing a classic track from the band’s 1992 debut Generation Terrorists, he added “…hope you can all hear it sometime this year – stay safe – stay beautiful.”
When we finished in the studio 4 weeks ago we were making good progress on album 14-here’s a few titles/ideas still early days more writing and much more recording to complete-hope you can all hear it sometime this year-stay safe-stay beautiful pic.twitter.com/CVncKQ9YgW
— ManicStreetPreachers (@Manics) January 10, 2021
The touted song titles include Still Snowing In Sapporo, the site of key gig in the group’s successful Japanese tour promoting Gold Against The Soul in 1993. Whether the new track serves as another love letter to the Land of the Rising Sun – akin to 2013’s (I Miss the) Tokyo Skyline - remains to be seen. Singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield has previously spoken about the longstanding depth of the bond between the band and its Japanese fanbase, telling the Japan Times in 2019 that for detailed analysis of Manics lyrics: “…nowhere else really comes close to how Japanese fans and journalists did that with us.”
Another new song title, The Secret He Had Missed, is dedicated to the celebrated Welsh sibling artists Augustus and Gwen John; whose early works were inspired by their late nineteenth century upbringing in the idyllic surroundings of Tenby on the Pembrokeshire coast. Nicky Wire also hosted his own art exhibition in the town in 2018.
The Johns are the latest in long line of artists who have inspired the Gwent trio over a career spanning over 30 years: previous muses have included Dutch-American expressionist Willem De Kooning (Interiors); Pablo Picasso (My Guernica); Kyffin Williams (James Dean Bradfield solo track Which Way To Kyffin?); Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (Pretension/Repulsion); and most recently, post-war French painter Yves Klein on 2018’s International Blue. There’s also a nod to the motif of colour – which featured more than once on 2018’s Resistance Is Futile – in another new track title: Quest For Ancient Colours.
Last year Nicky Wire suggested that the new record would represent a change in musical direction from Resistance Is Futile, telling NME that: “It’s very broad – it feels like an expansive record. ‘Resistance Is Futile’ certainly felt more tight and ‘pop’ in a Manics sense. Everything was really melodic and concise. This album just feels broader. It’s got a wider landscape, sonically.”
Songs from the new album may feature in the Manics’ live performances in 2021, including two sold-out, rearranged Cardiff shows in support of NHS workers scheduled for July. James Dean Bradfield spoke about the band’s commitment to the cause in an interview with NME last autumn, saying: “I know a lot of people around me who work for the NHS and you could see the immediate strain that they were all under. We’re talking about proper stress from proper hard work that you’d never ever begin to realise how hard it is. They’re under immense strain. The NHS is the biggest employer in Wales, and all around us we saw people giving and giving and giving and not getting enough back. We just thought that this should be for them.”
2021 also marks the 20th anniversary of the Blackwood products’ sixth LP Know Your Enemy, which reached number #2 in the UK Official Albums Charts in 2001 and soundtracked the group’s subsequent gigs in Havana, which saw them become the first western rock band to perform in Cuba. That record – which contained grunge, rock, soul, folk and even highly-unexpected disco influences – spawned four top 20 singles in So Why So Sad, Found That Soul, Ocean Spray and Let Robeson Sing.
