Even In Exile

During the middle of a preplanned hiatus by Manic Street Preachers, James Dean Bradfield was introduced to the life and work of Victor Jara, a Chilean singer and writer who stood in opposition to the regime of General Augusto Pinochet until the dictators military murdered the activist in 1973. Bradfields introduction came through the poems of Patrick Jones. The brother of Manic Nicky Wire, Jones wrote a clutch of pieces about Jara but didnt plan to publish them, so Bradfield turned the prose into songs for Even in Exile. Keenly conscious of the possibility of wandering into cultural appropriation, Bradfield doesnt attempt to replicate or interpolate Jaras original music. When he does cover La Partida, its as an instrumental delivered with the widescreen grandeur thats his signature, either within the Manics or without, and that sensibility unites Even in Exile as a whole. Bradfield has a knack for turning political material into passionate melodrama and those instincts serve him well on Even in Exile, where the urgency of the melodies and performances are intertwined with Jones words. Even in Exile shouldnt be seen as a definitive biography of Jara but rather an impressionistic portrait of a dissident whose story remains gripping and inspirational decades after his death. The key to Bradfields album is how it respectfully salutes Jara while conveying the emotions and ideas stirred within the singer/songwriter -- a rare trick that is quite compelling on this urgent yet nuanced song cycle. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine