" Just the End of Love" is a song by Manic Street Preachers

Manic Street Preachers

Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards and Sean Moore. The band are part of the Cardiff music scene, and were at their most prominent during the 1990s...

 and both the opener and the lead single of their tenth album Postcards From a Young Man

Postcards From a Young Man

Postcards from a Young Man is the tenth studio album by the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, which reached the number 3 spot on the UK Charts. The Manics began recording the album in October 2009 at their Faster Studio in Cardiff...

.

The song was made Record of the Week on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 and added to the BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

, BBC 6 Music

BBC 6 Music

BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....

 and XFM

Xfm

Xfm is a brand of two commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie pop, and owned by Global Radio.-History:Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob, who later co-founded NME Radio in 2008. Xfm subsequently expanded to a network of four stations; there are...

 playlists.

Music video

The music video was premiered on GMTV

GMTV

GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...

 on 26 August 2010. It is set in a 1970s chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 tournament and stars actor Michael Sheen

Michael Sheen

Michael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...

, who portrays a chess master loosely based on Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

 opposite Anna Friel

Anna Friel

Anna Louise Friel is an English actress. She rose to fame in the UK as Beth Jordache on the Channel 4 soap Brookside.-Early life:...

.

Reception

The single was enthusiastically received by BBC Wales' James McLaren, who stated "Well I like it, I really do. It's got a theatrical pop verve to it. A sweeping string-laden hook, classic Bradders growly verse and a widdly solo in the middle eight. The melody is simple but delivered with classic Manics panache." This Is Fake DIY

This Is Fake DIY

This Is Fake DIY is a United Kingdom-based music webzine dedicated to alternative music. It is named after a song by the Scottish alternative rock group Bis....

 described it: "It's simple, it's catchy and it's enjoyable, and will have many casual radio listeners rifling through their back catalogue to discover what they've been missing all these years." The NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

commented that it had "nostalgia...but also an unmistakable sense of vitality and urgency". In an early review of the album, the NME described the track as "quite literally the daftest, campest, most outlandish stadium pop song the Manics have ever put their minds to. But in a really excellent way, with one of those choruses you only need to hear once to remember forever." The Fly

The Fly (magazine)

The Fly is a free music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. The magazine is published by the HMV owned MAMA Group.The magazine started as a listings leaflet in Camden, north London, for the Barfly music venue on Chalk Farm Road...

called it a "brilliant start" to the album, saying that it "sets out its grandiose stall from the off as James Dean Bradfield's FM-friendly riff gives way to a warm orchestral flourish".

The single entered the UK Charts at #28 , making "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love" their lowest charting single since "Life Becoming a Landslide

Life Becoming a Landslide EP

"Life Becoming a Landslide" is an EP by the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. The title track is taken from their second album Gold Against the Soul. It remains an important insight into the mindset of the band's lyricist/guitarist Richey Edwards, and a poignant exploration of the...

" (1994).

CD 1

1. "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love"
2. "I'm Leaving You for Solitude"
3. "Ostopolitik"
4. "Distractions"

CD 2

1. "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love"
2. "Lost Voices"

(Manics website exclusive format)

Digital download 1

1. "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love"
2. "I'm Leaving You for Solitude"
3. "Distractions"
4. "Ostopolitik"

Digital download 2

1. "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love"
2. "Lost Voices"
3. "I Know the Numbers"

Chart performance

>

Chart (2010)	Peak position