page_title: Manic Street Preachers
section_title: Escape from History and Resistance Is Futile (2017–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Manic Street Preachers / History / Escape from History and Resistance Is Futile (2017–present)
caption_attribution_description: English: Manic Street Preachers at First Direct Arena, Leeds, West Yorkshire. Taken from the lower of the two raised tiers on the evening of Wednesday the 2nd of May 2018.
context_page_description: Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore, plus Nicky Wire. They are often colloquially known as "the Manics". They form a key part of the 1990s Cool Cymru movement.
  Following the release of their debut single "Suicide Alley", the band was joined by Richey Edwards as co-lyricist and rhythm guitarist. The band's early albums were in a punk vein, eventually broadening to a greater alternative rock sound, whilst retaining a leftist political outlook. Their early combination of androgynous glam imagery and lyrics about "culture, alienation, boredom and despair" has gained them a loyal following and cult status.
  With their debut album, Generation Terrorists, the Manic Street Preachers proclaimed it would be the "greatest rock album ever", as well as hoping to sell "sixteen million copies" around the world, after which they would split up. Despite the album's failure to meet this level of success, the band carried on with their career. The group became a trio again after Richey Edwards disappeared in February 1995. The band went on to gain critical and commercial success despite his absence.
context_section_description: In February 2017 the band revealed a teaser trailer for a new documentary entitled Escape from History, charting the band's journey from The Holy Bible, through to the disappearance of lyricist and guitarist Richey Edwards, to the huge success of Everything Must Go. The documentary aired on Sky Arts on 15 April. The band also stated that they would release a new album later in that year.
  The band released a special edition of their album Send Away the Tigers on 12 May. 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the record and the Manics said that "this is a very important album" in their career. The special edition featured a remastered album as well as B-sides and rarities spread over two discs, plus a DVD which features the band's 2007 Glastonbury performance, rehearsal footage, an album track-by-track, and promo videos.
  On 17 November 2017, the band announced that their thirteenth album, Resistance Is Futile, would be released on 13 April 2018. After much delay, the band wrote "The main themes of 'Resistance is Futile' are memory and loss; forgotten history; confused reality and art as a hiding place and inspiration", the band say in a statement. "It’s obsessively melodic—in many ways referencing both the naive energy of 'Generation Terrorists' and the orchestral sweep of 'Everything Must Go'. After delay and difficulties getting started, the record has come together really quickly over the last few months through a surge of creativity and some old school hard work." It is the first album to be recorded at the "Door to The River" new studio.
  In January 2018, Manic Street Preachers signed a new publishing contract with Warner/Chappell Music, leaving their longtime home Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
  On the new album, the Manics launched their first single "International Blue" as a download on 8 December 2017. The second single "Distant Colours" was released, also as a download, on 16 February 2018. About the first single the band said that there's was certain naive energy and widescreen melancholia on the song that is reflected through the whole album, comparing it to Motorcycle Emptiness. Furthermore, the album focused on "(...)things that make your life feel a little bit better. Rather than my internalised misery, I tried to put a sense of optimism into the lyrics by writing about things that we find really inspiring." Said Wire, taking inspiration from David Bowie and seen as almost an escape and a wave of optimism, just like the previous album was described.
  On the other hand, "Distant Colours" was written by James Dean Bradfield, rather than Nicky Wire, and inspired by disenchantment and Nye Bevan's old Labour. He said: "Musically, the verse is downcast and melancholic and the chorus is an explosion of disillusionment and tears." The third single "Dylan & Caitlin" was released as a download on 9 March 2018. The fourth single "Liverpool Revisited" is about a magical day in the city, Nicky added that: "It was on the Everything Must Go (anniversary) tour and I got up really early at sunrise to walk around Liverpool, polaroid camera in hand on a balmy day. It sounds clichéd I know, but Liverpool in the sun does take on a hypnotic quality, with the Mersey and the stone." The band also revealed that they were to support Guns N' Roses during their summer tour. The fifth and final single, "Hold Me Like a Heaven", was released as a download on 4 May 2018. Wire said that the song was inspired musically by David Bowie's Ashes to Ashes, something that the band wanted to write about, and Nicky thinks that this the closest that the band is going to get, sharing also that lyrics were informed by the work of Philip Larkin.
  The album sold around 24,000 copies in the first week, entering the UK Albums Chart at number 2, despite being number 1 during the week, it was the highest new entry on the chart. However, on physical sales the album peaked at number 1, both on CD and vinyl.
  In October 2018, the band announced a twentieth-anniversary collector's edition re-release of This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. It was made available on digital, CD, and
caption: Manic Street Preachers at the First Direct Arena, Leeds in May 2018
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