Following on from 2010’s Postcards From A Young Man, which the band described as “one last attempt at mass communication” (a successful one at that, with the record going gold in Ireland and the UK), the Manics have struck a much more introspective note with their latest album, Rewind The Film. Partly recorded at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, the album strikes a similarly melancholic note to David Bowie’s Low, one of the many landmark albums made at the studio.
One of the distinguishing features of the Manics continues to be Nicky Wire’s superb lyrics, which still provide a welcome strain of provincial spikiness amidst a sea of grating urban hip. When one considers Manics high points such as ‘If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next’ (one of the greatest songs of the ’90s), for example, it makes Alex Turner’s esteemed status as a wordsmith look decidedly ridiculous.
The celebration of working class resilience found on ‘If You Tolerate This...’ is renewed here on ‘30 Year War’, which moves through three decades of grievances, from Hillsborough to the UK Miner’s Strike, with Wire concluding that the current Tory government means that “The old boy network won the war again”. Honestly, no other band writes lyrics like this, and more’s the pity.
Other Wire gems that dot the album like bullet holes include “My ecosystem is based on hatred” (‘Running Out Of Fantasy’) and “I don’t want my children to grow up like me/It’s too soul destroying” (‘This Sullen Welsh Heart’). Rewind The Film completely eschews electric guitars for plaintive acoustic soundscapes, with the finest track of all coming in the shape of ‘4 Lonely Roads’, an exquisite champer-pop piece with a wonderful vocal from Welsh singer Cate Le Bon.
Eleven albums in and the Manics are still going very strong.

Key Track: '4 Lonely Roads'