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Rewind The Film
Manic Street Preachers
(Columbia Records)
Four stars
"It's the longest running joke in history, to kill the working classes," the Manic Street Preachers rail on 30-Year War, this album's closing track.
Bristling with rage about Hillsborough and Orgreave, it's a sharp contrast on an album steeped in melancholy.
Title track Rewind the Film steps away from the triumph and indignation of the last three albums and muses in the glow of 8mm cinefilm.
This sense of reflection infuses the album with a sadness only tempered by the band's Soul Boy sound.
With the amps turned down from 11 and the production kept crisp and clean, these are stark and unsettling Motown moments.
The warmth only seeps in on Show Me The Wonder that seeks solace in natural magic.
The collaborations, crafted songwriting and genre dabbling are all careful sleights of hand to create the illusion of light in an album brooding in the shadows of regret and resignation.
