Nicky Wire, bassist and lyricist for Welsh band Manic Street Preachers, has released a solo album as a follow-up to his 2006 debut, I Killed the Zeitgeist. Intimism is 12 songs released on Bandcamp, produced by Wire and Loz Williams, and mixed by Dave Eringa. He elaborates:
“This record is a collage pieced together over the last decade. It’s as me as me can be – a distillation of my purest indie fantasies, a place where all those broken lists of regret have found themselves realigned…. As the song says, “I am an ist / I am an ism / a lifelong affair with tunnel vision.”
Contact Sheets is the first track. It uses photographs as an analogy for life. ‘Contact Sheets, you just can’t delete, the ones that you hold, the ones that you keep.’ A great synth beat glides in and out of the song. Ballad For The Baby Blue has a country style, about a ‘rainy Swansea afternoon.’ It’s a happy, hopeful song, ‘a ballad for everyone,’ he sings, ‘a ballad when hope is gone,’ combining with a triumphant guitar solo halfway through.
You Wear Your Broken Heart Like A Dress is quirky, sounding like early Manics, and James Dean Bradfield plays guitar on some of the tracks. There’s a jazzy piano right at the end, which fits in neatly with the next track.
Migraine No. 1 comes in all Miles Davis with jazz swing and a trumpet (played by Gavin Fitzjohn, who has played alongside the Manics). It is a style change from the rest of the album as it veers into experimental jazz freestyle. Migraine No. 2 offers more of the same, with a comedic intro, ‘Nicky Wire is no more, he’s lying face down on the floor, his knees are f***ed, his back is sore…’.
The standout track for me is A Perfect Place To Grow. It is enchanting and vulnerable, with a Never-Ending Story type feel. It is nostalgic and evokes a fairytale, with Wire’s vocals in a tender mood and orchestration throughout. White Musk, a tribute to his late mother, wraps you in an embrace. ‘I spray White Musk on my pillow with love because it’s you that I trust from above.’ A haunting clarinet adds to this beautiful tribute.
I love Under Californian Skies with its evocative glam rock ‘n’ roll feel. ‘Under the bridge where I got sucked in, the boulevards and the Sunset Strip.’ James Dean Bradfield provides backing vocals as they declare, ‘I gave my soul to rock ‘n’ roll.’
Saudade, with jangly guitars, is rousing, recalling Wire’s 80s indie style and influences. The album finishes with As The Light Fades Away, which reflects on not just the album but life. ‘One more roll of film, one more song to sing…. Do not go gentle tonight’. It is the perfect ending.
In 2018, Wire released a collection of his artwork in the Tenby Museum and Art Gallery entitled Paintings and Polaroids. This album seems to sum up that title. A charming reel of vignettes of lives recalled creates a powerful but perceptive album.
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