Many of the songs from Futurology and Rewind The Film still feel new enough to me that I’m not sure whether I like them or tolerate them. Only a few of the songs from both albums had an immediate quality which grabbed me on first listen, while other have taken their time to sink their claws in. Tracks like Divine Youth are still floating in some nether realm for me, possibly due to the detached nature, possibly due to the fact that it’s yet another with a guest vocalist I don’t like in any capacity. The band has had a long history of guest singers, and yet I don’t think it’s something they excel at. They do pick distinct voices, but they tend to be singers who irritate me personally. The guest here is Georgia Ruth Williams (no, me neither), and while she sings with a distinct Welsh accent, it’s all so bland and feathery that it floats by like a momentary bad smell. When Bradfield comes in with his vocals, it is excessively jarring as he blasts at full tear. Musically, there are harps, guitars, strange synthetic bursts, but it’s very slow, and the complaint about how modern technology is melting away youthful angst, exuberance, and vitality comes off as sounding like the ramblings of a bitter old man rather than revealing the truths that reside in the sentiment.
Actual Lyrics (Georgia’s accent makes her vocals as indecipherable as a standard Manics song): Ice with a look of yesterday
2. We can’t stand the crowd/Weakest in the guard.
3. Grown up in your tender bones/bone up in your tender bones (?)
4. Niceing to myself (?)
5. The seven walls within
6. The victories and failures are daily losing wins.
7. Money is just spies
8. Feeding you don’t owe anymore.
9. Big toe it don’t recognise
10. Kids are growing old in a digital face/kids are growing old in a digital age
11. Exit evolution
Misheard Lyrics: Eyes with the look of yesterday
2. The weakest in the gang
3. No luck in your tender bones
4. And I sing to myself
5. My civil wars within
6. The victories and failures I daily lose and win
7. Money it just buys
8. A freedom you don’t own anymore
9. But don’t recognise
10. Kids are growing old in a digital haze
11. Is it evolution
The Spac Hole 