Futurology – another masterpiece by MSP

Just 3 days ago (on 7 July 2014) Manic Street Preachers have released their 12th studio album titled Futurology. Already after the second listen of the full album I consider it a masterpiece! It has never happened to me with any album by Manics! Great job!

Musically it's simply superb and unique - great energetic rock, with a strong futuristic feeling, combined with some slower and calmer tracks. Lyrically it's very good – not really controversial, sometimes angry, at moments quite personal, but mostly true and insightful.

Only Manic Street Preachers can release so different, yet so fantastic albums one after another (their previous masterpiece was Rewind The Film). Futurology takes all the best from all their earlier albums and it is the most universal Manics album. Perfect!

Below there is a sample that I found on the net. It gives an idea about the album, but I think the sample could be better. The start of the sample is particularly annoying because the actual sample starts at 0:33. Moreover there are too long breaks between the tracks.

The song that caught my attention instantly was Black Square (13:46 – 15:45), but it’s one of the lighter tracks on the album and on the CD it sounds much better! Three other unforgettable songs are: Walk Me To The Bridge, The Next Jet To Leave Moscow and Sex, Power, Love and Money.

All the songs sound better on the CD than on the sample, believe me.

The sample features some quotes from every song, but my favourite quotes are different. They are below the sample.



Here are my favourite quotes (not every quote is actually on the sample):

1. Futurology (0:33 – 2:03)
We’ll come back one day
We never really went away

2. Walk Me To The Bridge (2:15 – 3:38)
So long my fatal friend
I don’t need this to end
I reimagine the steps you took
Still blinded by your intellect

3. Let's Go To War (3:50 – 5:03)
And all the false economies
Speak falsely of your dreams

4. The Next Jet To Leave Moscow (5:15 – 6:46)
So you played in Cuba
Did you like it brother?
I bet you felt proud
You silly little fucker

5. Europa Geht Durch Mich (feat. Nina Hoss) (6:58 – 8:17)
More words and less meaning
Communication disappearing

6. Divine Youth (feat. Georgia Ruth Williams) (8:30 – 10:04)
And I sing to myself
My civil wars within
The victories and failures
I daily lose and win

7. Sex, Power, Love and Money (10:15 – 11:29)
We could have been heroes
But failures more fun

8. Dreaming a City (Hugheskova) (11:41 – 13:34)
[There are no lyrics on this track.]

9. Black Square (13:46 – 15:45)
“Art is never modern
For art is eternal”

10. Between the Clock and the Bed (feat. Green Gartside) (15:56 – 17:19)
Between the Clock and the Bed
There’s only space and hell

11. Misguided Missile (17:31 – 18:57)
I am a self obsessed fool
Self centred and bruised

12. The View from Stow Hill (19:09 – 20:40)
The misguided tweets
The sad facebooking
Cheapness surrounds me
But I’m not looking

13. Mayakovsky (20:52 – 22:49)
[There are no lyrics on this track, except for the name Mayakovsky at one moment toward the end of the song.]

(Thursday, 10 July 2014)