Manic Street Preachers – Postcards From A Young Man (2010)

The third one of the Manics' haul from a Falmouth charity shop is their 2010 release, described by the band at the time as "one last shot at mass communication".

They're still going strong.

I'm running out of things to say about the band, so straight to the music.

I'm feeling a strong start, with two solid rock tracks, the low charting single (It's Not War) Just The End Of Love and Postcards From A Young Man, the lyrics and feel are uplifting, until those awful strings kick in, and I come to realise that's what taints so much of Manics' work for me - those superfluous strings to give "depth" just feel wrong to me. Some Kind Of Nothingness is exactly as the title says, nothing, with guest Ian McCulloch adding nothing to a weak song, but his name.

But there's an uplift in The Descent, which would again be better without the strings, but now I've heard them, they become more and more intrusive. I've just listened to the demo with a muted electric guitar playing the string part, and it's much more satisfying.

Similarly Hazelton Avenue, but guest John Cale is enough embellishment for Auto-Intoxication, and it feels far more real for it. And it's where the temptation to add the strings was resisted, that the songs feel more exciting. I Think I Found It bounces along nicely, A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun is strong, as is the statement song All We Make Is Entertainment. And the album ends on a high with Don't Be Evil.

There's a feeling that whatever they try as a new direction, it still comes out sounding like a Manics album, and for me, this works best when they don't over-elaborate the arrangement, and this is evident in this album where the strings are absent from the second half and the improvement is evident.

Link to album tracks

3* - a solid album from the Manics, delivering their sound, best when they keep it simple.