Manic Street Preachers have announced they are back in the studio working on a new full-length, which is not only being recorded by sound documentarian Steve Albini but also uses the lyrics of long-missing Manics member Richey James Edwards.
The forthcoming album, tentatively titled Journal For Plague Lovers or I Know I Believe in Nothing But It Is My Nothing, is set for a spring 2009 release, the Welsh trio told NME, adding that Albini has already recorded nine tracks with the band. The album will also only feature lyrics penned by Edwards, who went missing in 1995 and whose words the band have kept ahold of ever since.
"We've had these lyrics for 14 years and we all felt compelled that this was the right time to do it," bassist Nicky Wire told NME. "It's a follow-up to [1994 album] The Holy Bible in a lot of ways.
"There's a small amount of editing involved, because some of them [Edwards-written passages] are prose and they needed to be made into lyrics, but they're all Richey's."
The Manics also recently released a statement about the album to fans via email. Here it is:
We thought you would like to know that we have been making music. We have been in the studio with Mr. Steve Albini recording live to tape analogue no digital hiss no Pro Tools no safety nets. Quite scary, daunting but invigorating.
All the songs we are recording are lyrics left to us by Richey. Finally it feels like the right time to use them (especially after the last 18 months being so amazing with [the 2007 album] Send Away the Tigers).
Musically, in many ways it feels like a follow up to the Holy Bible but there is also an acoustic side tender, romantic, nihilism, "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky-esque.
It's a record that celebrates the genius of his words, full of love, anger, intelligence and respect. We have to make this great. Wish us luck.
We hope to release the record next April or May. The working titles are Journal for Plague Lovers or I Know I Believe in Nothing But It Is My Nothing.
Love
Nicky, James and Sean
Manic Street Preachers "She Is Suffering
The forthcoming album, tentatively titled Journal For Plague Lovers or I Know I Believe in Nothing But It Is My Nothing, is set for a spring 2009 release, the Welsh trio told NME, adding that Albini has already recorded nine tracks with the band. The album will also only feature lyrics penned by Edwards, who went missing in 1995 and whose words the band have kept ahold of ever since.
"We've had these lyrics for 14 years and we all felt compelled that this was the right time to do it," bassist Nicky Wire told NME. "It's a follow-up to [1994 album] The Holy Bible in a lot of ways.
"There's a small amount of editing involved, because some of them [Edwards-written passages] are prose and they needed to be made into lyrics, but they're all Richey's."
The Manics also recently released a statement about the album to fans via email. Here it is:
We thought you would like to know that we have been making music. We have been in the studio with Mr. Steve Albini recording live to tape analogue no digital hiss no Pro Tools no safety nets. Quite scary, daunting but invigorating.
All the songs we are recording are lyrics left to us by Richey. Finally it feels like the right time to use them (especially after the last 18 months being so amazing with [the 2007 album] Send Away the Tigers).
Musically, in many ways it feels like a follow up to the Holy Bible but there is also an acoustic side tender, romantic, nihilism, "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky-esque.
It's a record that celebrates the genius of his words, full of love, anger, intelligence and respect. We have to make this great. Wish us luck.
We hope to release the record next April or May. The working titles are Journal for Plague Lovers or I Know I Believe in Nothing But It Is My Nothing.
Love
Nicky, James and Sean
Manic Street Preachers "She Is Suffering
