Nicky Wire
I Killed the Zeitgeist
(Sony BMG)
Electric folk gave us feedback - that jagged, often disconcerting spasm of fuzzy noise usually created because someone placed something, perhaps a microphone or guitar pick-up, too near an amplifier. It's been put to great use down the years from psychedelic and punk to thrash metal and even techno, and now Nicky Wire sparingly uses such mischief as an ingredient of his first solo foray.
The Manic Street Preacher has also done well here not to let his weapon of choice - bass guitar - be eclipsed by either the delusion of being a poetic working-class warrior, or that yearning for place extolled by fellow band member James Dean Bradfield in his recent solo effort.
Instead, we have Wire giving the likes of New Order's Peter Hook a run for his plectrum with the title track that opens the album.