A gorgeous, reflective paean to murdered Chilean musician and activist Victor Jara, James Dean Bradfield’s new solo album ‘Even In Exile’ is an understated gem.
Toiling to resolve their populist tendencies with artiness, ‘Resistance Is Futile’ might be the most emotionally honest Manic Street Preachers album yet.
by Ed Biggs When the Manic Street Preachers began their career on the cusp of the 1990s, they conceived of themselves as a reaction, a contemptible sneer against what they saw as an insular, pretentious music industry that had forgotten to connect with its public. In an era of static, navel-gazing indie and hedonistic, deliberately self-unconscious Madchester rave music, the Manics were gloriously, defiantly out of step with the prevailing trends.