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Originally Posted by whiterevolver
Superbly inventive album musically and a great companion to RTW (which I also adore). I take them as a duo and think this is the best collection of Manics recordings this side of KYE. I give it a 7.5 but clicked on 8 because I've had a glass of red wine and am feeling warm.
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In Olympic boxing terms, Everything Must Go and Holy Bible contest the gold medal (think the former just edges the latter for me) and it's Futurology and Journal for Plague Lovers going for bronze. My only real sticking point with Futurology is the omission of Empty Motorcade and Last Time I Saw Paris, which I would add instead of Sex, Power, Love and Money and Between the Clock and the Bed (which I like, but feel might have been more at home on Rewind the Film). Oh yeah and View From Stow Hill would have been the perfect ending with no need for Mayakovsky.
Taken as a duo, Rewind the Film and Futurology are indeed a very strong body of work. Apart from a Between the Clock and the Bed though, I think the themes of the two albums are quite different even if the titles suggest differently. For me, Resistance is Futile is the follow up to Rewind the Film in terms of theme. I've always thought the line in Builder of Routines "How I hate middle age / in between acceptance and rage" summed up where they were at that time. I think even the title Resistance is Futile suggests that they had moved further towards acceptance, but like the samurai on the album cover still had that sense of pride and identity in a world that had changed.