"Manics man’s contemplative paean to Chilean activist/ artist Victor Jara."
If you were to read out the above line at a film-pitch meeting, it’s unlikely you’d get a green light and the budget you were dreaming of. In the hands of Manic Street Preachers singer Bradfield, though, it becomes a dream realised.
Written around songs and lyrics by playwright Patrick Jones (Nicky Wire’s brother) and recorded in near-isolation, Bradfield playing just about everything himself, at the Manics’ studio, the doomed poet’s life is made over again with a musical playbook that references Rush as easily as it does Johnny Marr and Man.
It’s extraordinary, reading like the loose pages of a novel, scattered notes cast adrift on the singular piano refrain of a song like There’ll Come A War, the gentle lull of Under The Mimosa Tree, or the instrumental guitar whirlwind that is Seeking The Room With The Three Windows.
Bradfield’s invention knows no bounds as he shines light on the darkest corners of history.
