Manic Street Preachers Say New Song Sounds Like ‘The Clash playing ABBA’

---

Manic Street Preachers have confirmed some new details of their upcoming album, stating that it sounds like ‘The Clash playing ABBA’.

The Welsh rock trio spent two weeks recording their upcoming 14th album at Rockfield Studios in Wales earlier this year. Despite the lockdown measures which made recording the album a different process to what they’re used to, the band are happy with the record because it boasts “miserable lyrics and great pop”. Speaking in the latest print edition of MOJO (via Contact Music), the Manics recalled their time recording the new full-length.

Bassist-and-songwriter Nicky Wire said “I recorded my entire fucking bass parts with a mask on. But it’s the most rehearsed we’ve ever been for an album.”

“The catchphrase was ‘like The Clash playing Abba’ – The Clash when you felt they could play in any style. It’s quite a subtle record. There are, always, guitars, but it’s very restrained for us, and really tasteful.”

He added, “It’s the usual thing, miserable lyrics and great pop.”

When recording at Rockfield it began to snow, frontman James Dean Bradfield saw this as a good omen.

“It was snowing.” He said “And when the first snowflake came down and you wake up to a beautiful blanket of snow, it was, ‘Yeah, this is going to be a really good record.’”

The band also admitted that the ongoing pandemic did have an influence on the songs.

James continues “I had a very smug idea of how I saw the world, but I’ve realised I’d undervalued absolutely everything in my life.”

“I think that’s what the album became about. That’s what the music did, it found a way out of lockdown.”

Nicky added, “There’s a lot of exploring the internal galaxies of the mind on this album, and understanding.”

“It didn’t feel like the right time for spite. It’s more internalised, bathed in a comforting melancholia, rather than a self-defeating one.” continuing “I certainly feel like these are some of the best words I’ve ever written.”