Hear "International Blue", the first single from Manic Street Preachers' new album

"I’d been digesting the lyric for five years, since being in Nice and finally joining the dots between Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue and the vast open blue of the Mediterranean Sea," explains Nicky Wire. "It was a moment of connection that felt perfectly natural - not forced or intellectualised. A different kind of enrichment that feels increasingly difficult to find. The track itself is carried by the kind of naïve energy that powered ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’”.

"Often I just need a great title to set me off," adds James Dean Bradfield. "Seeing the word blue struck a chord and set off memories of pure pop records we grew up with 0 things like the ‘Story Of The Blues’ by Wah!, ‘Moon Is Blue’ by Colourbox, Orange Juice’s ‘Blue Boy’ and ’In Bluer Skies’ by Echo and the Bunnymen. I immediately thought of the kind of shiny freedom pop we used to hear on the radio as kids and that quickly became the M.O. in my head when writing. I just wanted to make a great Manic Street Preachers driving song; something that evoked the heat haze you see on empty open roads in America. I wanted to channel a Springsteen/War on Drugs sensibility, but through our European filter. Sometimes, aiming for a feeling is enough to make it work."

The new record follows 2014 LP Futurology and a plethora of anniversary celebrations, including their summer Send Away The Tigers extravaganzas. Resistance Is Futile is the Manics' first LP recorded in their Newport(ish) studio Door To The River.

As well as the album news, Manic Street Preachers have announced a new spring 2018 tour, beginning at Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena on 23 April and finishing at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena on 5 May, with support on all dates coming from The Coral. Tickets for the new shows will be on sale from 9.30am on 24 November. Find out more.