Even In Exile. James Dean Bradfield

With a career spanning 30 years James Dean Bradfield is slowly getting on in life. I have to admit that I have missed the last albums of his band Manic Street Preachers as they seemed to have become too predictable to me. So I was not standing first in line for a solo album. It seems I have moved forward quite a lot since that initial reaction to his album. There's a simple conclusion: it's good.

Writing about Even In Exile however has to start with a different introduction. All the lyrics are inspired by the poems of one Victor Jara. I don't read poetry but the name faintly rang a bell. My thought was a poet from the Spanish civil war but no, he was a Chilean poet, teacher, singer and politician in the Salvador Allende government. He was murdered under the Pinochet government in 1973 aged 40.

This brutal ending of the life of an inspirational person due to political differences and not caring for individual lives due to these differences is something that resonates in the late 10s and early 20s. I only have to watch the news in the past few days to know. Bradfield saw political oppression on the rise and an infatuation of the many with "the strong man" become a "normal" topic. That made Even In Exile a necessary album for him to write.

Bradfield was introduced to the writings of Jara by poet Patrick Jones and was inspired to write a concept album on the work and life of Victor Jara. With Jones contributing by writing the lyrics. Of course many aspects of Even In Exile sound familiar. Foremost because of his voice but also because of aspects in the music, which he writes for his band. This is not where the story stops though. Even In Exile has a looseness and in a sense frivolity that his band does not often have. The (stadium) rock elements are, at times, ditched and replaced by acoustic guitars, a piano, a harmonica, etc. The big gestures are in place of course but are neutralised in the right places, creating an at times open atmosphere.

From the very first time I was able to play the record I found I was pleased, but so was my girlfriend. We both found Even In Exile to be a great album. In other words this could be an album that ought to be able to catch the attention of a lot more people that the guitar loving Britpopfan I am. After the introduction 'Recuerda' and the masterfully forceful 'The Boy From The Plantation', it is 'There'll Come A War' that sets a different tone. Solemn, with an almost classical piano over a deep dark beat and atmospherics, the song is one of promise for the rest of the album. And of expectation. From a song like this many more surprises may follow.

Both promise and expectation are delivered with the ease and self-assurance only a confident and accomplished artist can deliver. 'Seeking The Room With The Three Windows', the next song, comes close to a progrock exercise with its guitar motifs and less expected changes. It reminds me of Fish-era Marillion but with a bite that Marillion usually was not capable of delivering. This instrumental has it the whole of the way. A piece of music I had never heard Manic Street Preachers play, for this reason only a solo album was a correct choice.

The piano in 'Thirty Thousand Bottles' sounds like it came before on the album, as if it is the leitmotif of Even In Exile. As if we should see the album as a rock opera. And why not? The piano intro gives the song a grandeur that belongs in a rock opera. By then I had been totally convinced to be listening to a great album.

What follows underscores that conclusion. There's no need to go into every detail that follows next. Expect loads of beautiful details in each song. Whether functional, little adornments or perhaps even in excess, they fit and underscore the beauty of the songs and music of Even In Exile. It may well be that James Dean Bradfield has released the defining album of his 30 year old career.

Wo.


Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g