Manic Street Preachers - Postcards from a Young Man

[Mojo]

Manic Street Preachers - Postcards from a Young Man
Released 20th September 2010
Columbia Records
Alternative Rock/Pop.

1. "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love" – 3:32
2. "Postcards from a Young Man" – 3:39
3. "Some Kind of Nothingness" – 3:52 (feat. Ian McCulloch)
4. "The Descent – (Pages 1 & 2)" – 3:30
5. "Hazelton Avenue" – 3:27
6. "Auto-Intoxication" – 3:52 (feat. John Cale)
7. "Golden Platitudes" – 4:28
8. "I Think I Found It" – 3:10 (Lyrics by Bradfield)
9. "A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun" – 3:43 (feat. Duff McKagan)
10. "All We Make Is Entertainment" – 4:18
11. "The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever" – 3:42
12. "Don't Be Evil" – 3:18

The Manic Street Preachers apparent goals and direction have forever seemed somewhat of a moving target. What is generally considered the bands most defining work, 1994's The Holy Bible, never really achieved more than cult status. The follow-up's Everything Must Go and This Is My Truth... were huge, commercial successes and since then the band have walked the line between attempts at commercially successful, radio-friendly pop music and tributes to a darker, rougher, edgier period in their history.

This album, according to the band, will be the former. A pop album in every sense of the word. To quote both James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire, Postcards from a Young Man will be "one last shot as mass communication."