At the end of June, Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield released two new singles from his upcoming solo album Even In Exile, which is due for release on August 14.

The album is a follow up to his well-received debut solo album The Great Western, which was released in 2006, and reached number 22 in the UK album chart. Even In Exile is inspired by the life of Chilean political activist, singer-songwriter, poet, theatre director, and teacher Victor Jara, who served as a cultural ambassador under President Salvador Allende in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and was tortured and shot following the Chilean coup of 1973.

The two lead singles from the album were released concurrently last month and are titled There’ll Come A War and Seeking The Room With The Three Windows. Lyrics for the new album were written by Welsh poet and playwright Patrick Jones, who is the brother of Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire. However, Seeking The Room With The Three Windows is an entirely instrumental track, a raucous four-minute whirlwind of intense electric guitar riffs layered over some South American influenced acoustic guitar.

There’ll Come A War is more laid back in sound, with just a simple piano melody over a looping drum beat. It’s a track that burns with a lyrical intensity reminiscent of much of the best of the Manics work, as Bradfield sings: “With songs from bursting lungs / Not death from guns / To protect dissent / To resurrect / Where the rocket's red glare / And the marching machines / Will all but fade / Where we are judged by not what we took / But what we gave”.

The Manic Street Preachers, who are working on a follow up to 2018’s Resistance is Futile, are planning to return to the stage with two free shows for NHS workers in Cardiff in December, before jetting off to Scandinavia to support Green Day on tour in May.

Pre-order Even In Exile through the Manic Street Preachers official website.

Even in Exile track list:

1. Recuerda

2. The Boy From The Plantation

3. There’ll Come A War

4. Seeking The Room With The Three Windows

5. Thirty Thousand Milk Bottles

6. Under The Mimosa Tree

7. Form The Hands Of Violeta

8. Without Knowing The End (Joan’s Song)

9. La Partida

10. The Last Song

11. Santiago Sunrise Watch the official video for There’ll Come A War here.

You can listen to the official audio for Seeking The Room With The Three Windows here.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.