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Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers (Album)

Firstly I feel that there has to be some clarification made about 'Journal For Plague Lovers' for all that has been bandied around about the album it isn't The Holy Bible Part II and to come into this album thinking that will leave you feeling maybe a little short changed; that being said, 'Journal For Plague Lovers' certainly bears striking resemblances to the Manics Street Preachers high-point album only now they have aged and matured not only as people but as musicians allowing them to apply a more deft and structured musical discipline to the words of one Mr Richard Edwards.
Bequeathed with a volume of lyrics, pictures, quotes, drawings, and other thoughts and images by Edwards mere weeks before his disappearance on 1st February 1995 the remaining Manics Nicky Wire, James Dean Bradfield, and Sean Moore filed them away possibly with the thought of never letting them see light again but following Edwards finally being declared dead by his parents last year there seemed a sense that maybe his voice needed to be heard again by a much different world and culture to the one he left and so the task was set of once again structuring Edwards obscure writings into some form of melody and trying to do his words justice. To do this they chose to record live with Steve Albini in a manner more suited to their earlier style in order to give more urgency to the tracks and it's paid off.
In 'Journal For Plague Lovers' the Manic Street Preachers have not only done Richey Edwards justice in delivering to us the messages he felt he couldn't convey himself but they have also delivered a fitting tribute to the man allowing us the listeners to celebrate him once again, 'Journal For Plague Lovers' is quite possibly the album Edwards felt he couldn't make though in leaving his words in the hands of his friends and with them now having the heart and strength to deliver them, he has helped create another landmark in the career of the Manic Street Preachers.
The Holy Bible was a full on assault that never really relented and that is where 'Journal...' differs as we are treated to some gentle moments of release in 'This Joke Sport Severed', 'Doors Closing Slowly' and 'Facing Page: Top Left' with the former eventually writhing in strings and showing off Sean Moore consistent pounding on drums whilst the latter is a much quieter affair all harps and soothing vocals about neophobia amongst others and yet both tracks really show that Edwards was edging away from the thrash narcissistic sound towards a more mellow construct as also heard in Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky.
The title track comes across as a more in-depth Learn To Fly by the Foo Fighters which is at times disconcerting but Bradfield's voice and the way the chorus changes tact pulls you through. Giving way to 'She Bathed Herself In A Bath Of Bleach' which once again sees Albini deftly allow a sonic assault that is delivered through Bradfield's knack of crafting fine pop melodies giving the track a bizarre quality and also gives a quite morbid chorus to us all. The Manics have always professed their love of disco tunes and that era of music and have taken stabs at it previously and once again here they've gone for a disco back-beat that has been warped by The Cure to give us 'Marlon J.D.' it's quite an perturbing track akin to The Holy Bible but with an added once of funk that gives way to the familiar cut in of quotes and outro of scattergun guitar.
'All Is Vanity' is driven by Wire's hard-edged bass and a hard hitting sound reminiscent of the Manics of old, it's a full on blast of a track with the fine line of "It's a fucked up life, sunshine" but like a lot of the tracks on 'Journal...' there's an undercurrent of severe intensity and malevolence that's just hard to shift even in moments that shouldn't carry this sort of threat such as 'Pretension Repulsion' which is suitably innocent in it's musical delivery but contains shout-outs such as "Pornographic versus Pornographic" that serve to disturb the flow of the song yet only add to the meaning and intention. 'Virginia State Epileptic Colony' serves us up the catchiest moment on the album with it's chorus of "Pig, Pig, Piggy/V.S.E.C" all wrapped up in it's punky overtones and slinky piano that's interspersed with the usual Manics wit and quotations.
The finale is almost heartbreaking as in 'William's Last Words' Nicky Wire sings almost a ballad that is as close to a goodbye as we ever will get from Richey Edwards and it's delivered by Wire with a poignancy and sadness as Edwards pain is spelt out for us "Don't keep me any longer cos I'm really tired/ I just wanna go to sleep and wake up happy" and for those of us who didn't realise it first time around this is your chance to finally realise the poet that was Richard Edwards not a guitarist or a singer or a lyricist he was a poet for a generation in a way that not many ever are.
'Journal For Plague Lovers' is an inescapable piece of poetry that contains the sheer sensitivity and doubtful feelings of a man lost to us now, this is his epitaph and it's fitting that his three best friends have delivered in giving his words meaning in a world so evolved from his. As for the Manic Street Preachers well maybe this is a weight of their shoulders after all these years but in truth I think it was a necessary part of their evolution and one where they can rightly hold their heads high because this is a staggering, monumental achievement that deserves to be ranked alongside it's distant relative from 1994.

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Mark Stevenson

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Comment Posted on: May 4, 2009, 05:39 PM