Manic Street Preachers criticise lack of politics in modern music

09 May 2014, 11:25 | Written by Luke Morgan Britton

(News)

(Manic Street Preachers)

With their classic album The Holy Bible turning 20 years of age this year, the Manic Street Preachers have spoken out about the lack of political protest in music today, arguing that there’s “nothing akin” to their landmark LP.

Speaking to NME, singer James Dean Bradfield is quoted as saying: “I go to gigs and I barely hear a political or radical statement from any musician these days. It’s really weird that we’ve been through so many wars and economic crashes and we had the English riots a couple of years back and it barely seems to touch the surface of the musical canon. People seem almost baffled by how to channel that indelible tension into music”

Bassist Nicky Wire - who worked as lyricist on The Holy Bible with long-lost member Richey Edwards - added: “[Political protest] needs to come from four young people in the middle of nowhere who are angry and articulate and have found a way to channel that. I still get the same instincts, undeniably, and it still seeps through, but there should be someone else, there really fucking should. Twenty years since ‘In Utero’, 20 years since ‘The Holy Bible’ – it still doesn’t feel like there’s anything akin to that.”

As well as The Holy Bible turning 20, the Manics will also release a new album this year in the form of Futurology. Listen to a track from that here.