| "Distant Colours" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Manic Street Preachers | ||||
| from the album Resistance Is Futile | ||||
| Released | 16 February 2018 | |||
| Recorded | November 2017 | |||
| Length | 3:30 | |||
| Label | Sony | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Nicky Wire, James Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore | |||
| Producer(s) | Dave Eringa | |||
| Manic Street Preachers singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Distant Colours" is the second single taken from the Manic Street Preachers' thirteenth album Resistance Is Futile (2018). [1] It was released on 16 February 2018. [2]
The lyrics were written by vocalist James Dean Bradfield, rather than Nicky Wire, and inspired by disenchantment and Nye Bevan's old Labour. James said that "Musically, the verse is downcast and melancholic and the chorus is an explosion of disillusionment and tears." The video itself was by their long-standing visual collaborator Kieran Evans and stars actor Sarah Sayuri. [3]
About the political aspect of the song Wire added that "I can't direct my anger at a single thing, politics is so overlapping and everything is so complicated that I think it's really trite to direct it at specific targets" (...) "That's the malaise we find ourselves in. It's the classic case of Tony Benn being the ultimate icon of socialism, and he never wanted to be in the European Union! Everyone keeps using him as a totem on the left, but are desperate to stay in the EU. People don't know their history, they toss things out there." [4]
Talking further about the song Bradfield said that "It was just a song that came together in an amalgam of confusion and dejection at the general election and the American Presidential election," he tells Clash. "I was just trying to kind of trying to figure out how you could define yourself by knowing what your enemy was like you did when you were 16 years old. Which, for me, was 1986, '85, '84. All those years. And I just decided that you couldn't any more because, obviously, the left has fractured, the centre left has fractured, the centre ground was unoccupied..." [5]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Distant Colours" | 3:30 |
Manic Street Preachers
| Chart (2018) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Scotland (OCC) [6] | 93 |
Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, in 1986. The band consists of Nicky Wire and cousins James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore. They form a key part of the 1990s Welsh Cool Cymru cultural movement.
Generation Terrorists is the debut studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 10 February 1992 through record label Columbia.
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours is the fifth studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 14 September 1998 by record label Epic.
"If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 24 August 1998, through Epic Records as the first single from their fifth studio album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998). The track sold 156,000 copies in its first week and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart in August 1998. Outside the United Kingdom, the song reached number one in Iceland and the top 20 in Norway and Sweden. It became the band's only song to chart in North America, peaking at number 19 on the Canadian RPM Alternative 30 chart.
Lifeblood is the seventh studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. Recorded in 2003, it was released on 1 November 2004 by record label Sony Music UK.
New Art Riot E.P. is an EP by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. Released on 25 June 1990 by the Damaged Goods record label, it was the band's first release to feature the four-piece line-up of James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards and Sean Moore.
Postcards from a Young Man is the tenth studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 20 September 2010. The Manics began recording the album in October 2009 at their Faster Studio in Cardiff and finished in June 2010. The album was intended by the band as "one last shot at mass communication".
Rewind the Film is the eleventh studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was recorded in 2013 and released on 16 September 2013 by record label Columbia. The sound is very different from previous records and is more acoustic-driven. It features guests Lucy Rose, Cate Le Bon and Richard Hawley.
Futurology is the twelfth studio album by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 7 July 2014, through record label Columbia. The album features collaborations with Green Gartside, Nina Hoss, Georgia Ruth, Cian Ciaran and Cate Le Bon.
"Anthem for a Lost Cause" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It is the second single released from the band's eleventh studio album, Rewind the Film.
"Futurology" is the second single released by the Manic Street Preachers from their twelfth studio album, Futurology. The song features keyboards from Super Furry Animals member Cian Ciaran. The single was released on 22 September 2014. It is a duet between James Dean Bradfield, the main vocalist, and Nicky Wire, the band's bassist.
"Together Stronger (C'mon Wales)" is a song by Manic Street Preachers, released as a single in May 2016. This song is the official song for the Wales national team ahead of UEFA Euro 2016. All profits from the single sales were given to the Princes Gate Trust and Tenovus Cancer Care. The song began life as a reworking of the Frankie Valli song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". After the publishers refused permission to use the song, the band went and set the words to an original tune.
Resistance Is Futile is the thirteenth album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 13 April 2018 through Columbia Records.
"International Blue" is a song by Manic Street Preachers, released as a single in December 2017. This song is the first single for the album Resistance Is Futile (2018), written by James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore.
"People Give In" is a song by the Manic Street Preachers. It was released in July 2018 as the sixth single from their thirteenth album Resistance Is Futile.
"Dylan & Caitlin" is a song by the Manic Street Preachers, released on 9 March 2018, taken from the album Resistance Is Futile (2018), and written by James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore.
"Liverpool Revisited" is a song by the Manic Street Preachers, it was the fourth single taken from their album Resistance Is Futile. Written by Nicky Wire, it was released on 6 April 2018.
"Hold Me Like a Heaven" is a song by the Manic Street Preachers, the single, it was the fifth taken from the album Resistance Is Futile, was released on 4 May 2018.
The Ultra Vivid Lament is the fourteenth studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 10 September 2021 through Columbia Records.
"Orwellian" is a song by Manic Street Preachers, released as the lead single from their 14th studio album, The Ultra Vivid Lament, on 14 May 2021, alongside a YouTube lyric video.
