Manic Street Preachers have just not been the same since Richey James Edwards, guitarist and lyricist mysteriously disappeared in 1995. Since then, their sound, passion, and words have felt dry and compromised. They not only lost a founding talent with Richey’s absence, they lost a friend.

Journal For Plague Lovers is the first album since 1994’s The Holy Bible to feature Edwards’ strange and enigmatic lyrics (they were written in a notebook left with vocalist/guitarist James Dean Bradford), but it should be immediately mentioned that it is not a sequel of some sort.

The Holy Bible, Richey’s last album before his disappearance, is arguably the finest musical achievement MSP have produced before or since. While Holy Bible featured frenzied and complex arrangements, sporadically changing rhythms and melody structure, Journal For Plague Lovers is far more stripped-down in execution, utilizing the basic trio and allowing the lyrics to become a centric element. Consider Journal a companion piece.

Being an icon in British rockland, MSP attracted the gifted Steve Albini for recording production (Pixies, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, The Stooges, Mogwai) and benefited from his attention to instrumental flourishes and timely arrangements. He utilizes orchestral compositions without saturation, encourages solo and simplistic styles when it serves the song. Most of the time this is sufficient, but I still long for some of the whimsical, epic arrays of their early 90s era. Perhaps this is nostalgic thinking, but I believe MSP are at their best when they can stun the listener with their sheer span of sound in a single track.

Still, Journal is one of those great albums that can stand alongside older releases as a pertinent addition to a collection, or as a relevant album of modern sensibilities and consideration. Edwards, it should be noted, was deemed an acolyte of wordplay in his day. None of the 15 years passed have diminished his genius and sharp observation of life, society and self.

Some word gems include: “Only a god can bruise/ only a god can soothe/ only a god reserves the right to forgive those who revile him,” “The Levi jean will always be stronger than the Uzi,” “Jealousy sows rejection with a kiss/ In silken palms that tear bone from skin,” and “I am not dead/ I demand I know my rights/ I know my rights/ You cover illness with flowers/ And flowers die”.

I miss Richey a lot some days, and obviously the Manic Street Preachers still do, too, but at least we have Journal For Plague Lovers to remind us that there is artistic merit in speaking about suffering.

Track Listing:

1. Peeled Apples
2. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
3. Me And Stephen Hawking
4. This Joke Sport Severed
5. Journal For Plague Lovers
6. She Bathed Herself In A Bath Of Bleach
7. Facing Page: Top Left
8. Marlon J.D.
9. Doors Closing Slowly
10. All Is Vanity
11. Pretension/Repulsion
12. Virginia State Epileptic Colony
13. William's Last Words