Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers have released a lyric video for International Blue, their new single, and the first track to emerge from the upcoming Resistance Is Futile album, the follow-up to 20145’s Futurology.
“I’d been digesting the lyric for five years,” says bassist Nicky Wire, “since being in Nice and finally joining the dots between Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue and the vast open blue of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a moment of connection that felt perfectly natural – not forced or intellectualised. A different kind of enrichment that feels increasingly difficult to find. The track itself is carried by the kind of naïve energy that powered Motorcycle Emptiness”.
“Often I just need a great title to set me off,” adds frontman James Dean Bradfield. “Seeing the word blue struck a chord and set off memories of pure pop records we grew up with – things like the Story of the Blues by Wah!, Moon is Blue by Colourbox, Orange Juice’s Blue Boy and In Bluer Skies by Echo and the Bunnymen.
“I immediately thought of the kind of shiny freedom pop we used to hear on the radio as kids and that quickly became the MO in my head when writing. I just wanted to make a great Manic Street Preachers driving song; something that evoked the heat haze you see on empty open roads in America. I wanted to channel a Springsteen/War on Drugs sensibility, but through our European filter. Sometimes, aiming for a feeling is enough to make it work”.”
Resistance Is Futile is available to pre-order now. The band kick off a UK tour at the Echo Arena in Newcastle on April 23. Tickets are on sale now.
Manic Street Preachers Tour Dates
Apr 23: Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Apr 25: The Sse Hydro Arena, Glasgow
Apr 27: Arena, Birmingham
Apr 28: Arena, Manchester
May 01: Venue Cymru Arena, Llandudno
May 02: First Direct Arena, Leeds
Jan 04: The SSE Arena, Wembley, London
May 05: Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
