James Dean Bradfield ‘The Great Western’

added 26 July 2006 at 09.20

Two years ago when Manic Street Preachers’ singer-guitarist James Dean Bradfield announced from the stage of the Hammersmith Apollo that, “…you won’t see us for two years” it wasn’t difficult to feel a pang of sympathy for him; this, after all, was the man charged with the unenviable job of setting Nicky Wire’s (and, until his unresolved disappearance, Richey Edwards’) seething and near-unstructured polemical outpourings to music, and if anyone deserved a rest from such a tortuously alchemical role, it was Bradfield.

And yet we’ve been here before, albeit briefly. Among the debris of the overlong disappointment and common-room politics of 2001’s ‘Know Your Enemy’ sat ‘Ocean Spray’. Inspired by the death of Bradfield’s mother, it was not only the singer’s first stab at carrying the lyrical can for the Manics but the one of the band’s most affecting and emotionally honest songs. Understandably, the experience proved traumatic – it’s taken him nearly five years to repeat the process - but the news that Bradfield was to return with a solo album provoked more than a little interest and once again the singer informs his songs with his own particular world view.

Named after the railway line built by Brunel and used to commute between his homes in London and Cardiff, Bradfield has clearly had plenty of time to ruminate on his life during his sabbatical and it’s this reflective mood that colours ‘The Great Western’. ‘An English Gentleman’ pays tribute to their late mentor and publicist Philip Hall while the stuttering ballad ‘Which Way To Kyffin’ and the superbly restrained bombast of ‘Émigré’ consider the dichotomy of the boy from Blackwood – security amongst family, community and familiarity – and the star from London and all the fears and worries that that entails as elsewhere with ‘On Saturday Morning We Will Rule The World’ the hunger that originally drove the young Manics is poignantly evoked.

Though Bradfield takes personal stock throughout much of this album, he still hasn’t lost his taste for iconoclasm. ‘That’s No Way To Tell A Lie’ sees Bradfield take aim at Catholicism’s role in Africa’s AIDS epidemic with a subtlety and deftness of touch that lays down the demarcation lines between him and Wire (who supplies the lyrics to lush sweeps of ‘Bad Boys And Painkillers’).

Indeed, ‘The Great Western’ seems to pointing the way forward for the Manics. Though maturity is something rarely levelled at them, Bradfield’s insights are likely to give his day job a much-needed shot in the arm and an extended lease of life. Looks like that train is going to keep on rolling.

Julian Marszalek

James Dean Bradfield ‘The Great Western’ (Columbia) Released July 24th, 2006.

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