Manic Street Preachers, A Place To Bury Strangers, and more albums to know about this week
Music Reviews music review
Manic Street Preachers, Resistance Is Futile
[Shornday/The Orchard]
Grade: B
In an NME interview prior to the release of Resistance Is Futile, Manic Street Preachers bassist/lyricist Nicky Wire invoked both David Bowie’s Station To Station and the Manics’ own hard-rock opus, Generation Terrorists, when discussing the record’s earworm lead single, “International Blue.” If anyone can live up to these lofty touchstones, however, it’s the veteran Welsh rockers. Resistance Is Futile, the band’s thirteenth studio album, distills the Manics’ pomp and melancholy into buoyant pop songs with biting electric guitars, sugary synths, and majestic strings. As its name implies, “Liverpool Revisited” is an earnest Britpop throwback, while marbled ’70s-rock licks anchor the urgent “Broken Algorithms.” On the lighter side, “Hold Me Like A Heaven” blooms into a harmony-drenched song with candied pop aspirations, and the piano-spliced “Vivian” recalls Duran Duran’s crushed-velvet glam ballads. Resistance Is Futile, well, embodies its title.
RIYL: Getting up early in the morning to watch English football. Britpop nostalgia. ’80s hard rock. Gooey melodies.
Start here: The frothy, string-swept jangle-pop number “Dylan & Caitlin,” a duet with Welsh singer the Anchoress, was meant to evoke Elton John and Kiki Dee’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” (Mission accomplished.) [Annie Zaleski]
Derek Smalls, Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)
[BMG]
Grade: C
Maybe The Simpsons isn’t keeping Harry Shearer as busy as it once did. Besides his annual holiday live show with his wife, Judith Owen, he has also returned to the recording studio for a new album from Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls. Smalls Change offers a sometimes-poignant look at the aging process from the point of view of a lifelong rocker. As “Rock And Roll Transplant” wryly notes, “Rock ’n’ roll never forgets / But it sometimes has trouble remembering,” and its unhinged keyboard solos should please Tap followers. Famous friends like Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen show up to guest star; unfortunately, Fagen’s appearance is wasted on an ode to Derek’s penis, “Memo To Willie” (“Willie don’t lose that lumber”). Shearer’s vocals, especially on a four-minute-plus opus like the title track, unfortunately demonstrate why he was never that band’s lead singer, detracting from another promising rock opera like “Faith No More.” For die-hard Tap fans only.
RIYL: “These go to 11.” Simpsons oddities. “Jazz Odyssey.” Lukewarm water.
Start here: “Gimme Some (More) Money” is a fun Spinal Tap callback, with David Crosby on backing vocals and Paul Schaffer (Artie Fufkin himself!) tearing up the piano. [Gwen Ihnat]
Purchasing via Amazon helps support The A.V. Club.