Manic Street Preachers have revealed that a new "definitive history" of the band will be published in September.
Written by one of Britain's best music writers, MOJO journalist Keith Cameron. with the full co-operation of James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore, 168 Songs Of Hatred And Failure "illuminates 35 years of songwriting history with immense skill, expert research, dedication and boundless patience", according to Wire.
"No one understands the inner workings and shared aesthetics of Manic Street Preachers like Keith Cameron: the humour, the misery, the eternal doubt, the culture-alienation-boredom and despair," the bassist adds.
"The art of writing about music and words is dying – the alchemy, the influences, the inexplicable accidents, the capacity songs have to transcend the people who wrote them; I’d like to think that art survives in this phenomenal book."
An official synopsis for the title reads: "Because it was music that saved them, it’s through the prism of their music that Keith Cameron tells the definitive history of Manic Street Preachers, drawing on many hours of new interviews to dive deep into 168 songs, from 1988’s debut single Suicide Alley to the late day peaks of 2025’s album Critical Thinking.
