Music

It sure is tough to grow old gracefully in the hallowed rock pantheon. The eyeliner stops giving you that androgynous edge and starts making you look like a tranny (that goes double for donning dresses); political sloganeering takes on that irksome holier-than-thou tone and what was a slight beer belly turns into a thirty-something spare tyre. It becomes all too easy for bands to kick back and become sanitised versions of their former selves. To their credit the Manic Street Preachers have managed the transition from their glamarama-socialist-outsider roots to purveyors of sophisticated mainstream anthems with dignity.

As you might expect with Bradfield’s solo effort coming just a year after the Welshmen announced a two-year band hiatus, ‘The Great Western’ picks up where ‘Lifeblood’ left off. Hand-clap happy lead single ‘That’s No Way To Tell A Lie’ bears their signature spacious wash of sound with some zippy ’80s synths and extra ‘Sha-la-la-las’. But what marks this out as a solo record is, bar this single, blustery rhetoric has been largely replaced with a more personal lyrical bent. ‘An English Gentleman’ is a simultaneously jaunty and melancholy ode to the late Philip Hall, their publicist and mentor, meanwhile ‘Still A Long Way To Go’ is a commanding torch-tune that builds from a lullaby-sweet verse to a crescendo of aching melodies and crashing strings.

Elsewhere Nicky Wire couldn’t resist lending a hand on the lyrics for ‘Bad Boys And Painkillers’. One of the album’s finest moments, it picks over the similarities between missing Manic Richey Edwards and tabloid troubadour Pete Doherty. Both seeking solace in substances, both on an eternal quest for perfection, apparently. By and large Bradfield seems in a truly chipper mood. The plucky ‘Run Romeo Run’ and ‘Émigré’ are lighter than anything the Manics have produced of late and it’s rather refreshing to hear a rock star in his late 30s who isn’t preoccupied with apocalyptic doom and gloom . Now we’ll have to wait till September to see what Nicky can do.