It’s not solely down to the below ‘Live Acoustic’ take on the Manic Street Preachers’ spry Dylan & Caitlin being more readily disseminable that we’re featuring this particular rendition, because – stripped of the lavish strings which embellish the album version – the duet between Catherine Anne Davies (aka The Anchoress) and James Dean Bradfield then resonates with the striking clarity of, for instance, the Mountain Goats’ sublime Your Belgian Things. Never a bad thing and, comparably evocative of the collaborative Rewind the Film (2013), this envisaged “conversation between Dylan and Caitlin Thomas” stands as a sort of hungover response to the execrably loved-up Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, “America corrupted and lied” its only even vaguely politicised lyric. These seem fewer and further between than anticipated for a record entitled Resistance Is Futile, even though increasingly, this also seems a really pretty apposite title. For this is lovely, and so too eminently loveable, stuff.

Resistance Is Futile is available from April 13^th via Columbia / Sony Music, while the Manic Street Preachers play The SSE Arena on May 4^th and the Royal Festival Hall on June 19^th.