By his own admission, one of the primary sources of inspiration for the new Manics opus "The Ultra Vivid Lament" was the Swedish quartet ABBA, whose melodies songwriter James Dean Bradfield has always held in high regard. He thinks there's hardly a better setting than this to package the band's socially critical messages in a way suitable for the masses ..
eclipsed: You recorded "Even In Exile" last year, a solo album about Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, for which lyricist Patrick Jones, the brother of your Manics bandmate and lyricist Nicky Wire, wrote the lyrics. Did the album pave the way for the new Manics work?
"It's pretty loud here," drummer Sean Moore apologizes right at the start of the call. The band's new studio is under construction. In fact, it hammers and drills in the background. In view of the unwritten law of the Manic Street Preachers to always allow a more conventional album to be followed by an experimental one, however, the question literally lies in the air as to whether the background noise might not also be an inspiration for the next work. "Why not?" Moore laughs back. "In the '80s I heard a lot of Einstürzende Neubauten, I really loved them. Maybe we should really think about a new sound!"
The eclipsed annual review 2009
The first decade of the third millennium is behind us. What this remains in the memory from a cultural-historical point of view is not yet quite clear. The fog has to clear a little. One thing, however, is already clear: Rock has asserted its position, which it regained in the nineties. Just in 2009 he reaped another amazing harvest.
MOTORPSYCHO
contaminated fruit
