James Dean Bradfield's Weirdest Guitar Solo? No poll apols

[Son of Stopped]

Inspired by my own post in the Album 15 thread.
What do you think James's weirdest guitar solo is? It can't be Engage With Your Shadow/endthread can it?
People Ruin Paintings is in with a shout from me. Archives of Pain I think might be too great than weird. All his great solos aren't that weird apart from Nixon.
Still sticking with Engage With Your Shadow which I'm so pleased even my keyboard knows the exact word sequence to type that. Go on keyboard, just for you, Engage With Your Shadow. See, I even clicked the ones that began with a capital letter!
So yeah, what do you think is James Dean Bradfield's weirdest guitar solo?
Patrick Bateman and Archives of Pain are rock so... I'm negating my fucking premise again.

[Europa Gluten Free]

I don't think Nixon is weird at all - in fact it's very MOR rock. Very The Edge sped up a bit in fact.

I'll have to have a good think about this.

[Glyn]

Intravenous Agnostic is the first to come to mind. Perhaps the memory of that flash website animation pre KYE helps but it still sends a shiver each time I hear it. Some wonderfully unearthly noises in that.

[IntlDebris]

I very rarely pay any attention to solos - they're usually my least favourite part of the song - but I definitely agree with Intravenous Agnostic, there's some uncommonly messy, noisy playing at the end of that. Some odd sounds in the My Guernica solo too. Isn't the Dead Martyrs solo pretty much just one note with some noises at each end?

I suppose the All Alone Here solo is a bit strange in that it sounds more like the kind of arpeggio you'd expect to be running throughout the song rather than a solo.

Nixon is unusual in a Manics context with the amount of effects on the guitar, but not that odd in general.

Having a skip through Futurology, the title track's solo is strange, what little of it there is. Empty Motorcade has two harmonic guitar lines with very different sounds playing at the same time, which is a bit different.

[bgdaniels]

It’s probably Diapause.

[Scarecrow]

Good question actually. He has a fair amount of solos that are fairly conventional, regardless of the style. The ones that came to mind for me were Intravenous Agnostic and Engage with Your Shadow, there may be a bizarre b-side solo I’m forgetting right now.

To be fair the People Ruin Paintings solo is odd for James.

[Routine Builder]

Hard to say, not as much as a guitar muso as I'd like to be. I offer the outro to Donkeys as I haven't come across anything like it but perhaps that's more rhythm than lead. Hard to distinguish between good and weird to be fair.

[Glyn]

Us Against You is a bit weird in a 'where did that come from ?' sense.

Agree with Donkeys and would also chuck in Sepia as songs which you perhaps wouldn't expect to have those solos.

The king of that for me though is Valley Boy. For a song so pedestrian to have a guitar solo so good, that you can actually hear someone whoop in the studio at the end of it, is really weird to me.

On a vaguely similar note I wonder if the wonderful solo to SYMM is one of the most neglected ones due to it being right at the end of a long song that a lot of people have said they struggle with.

[savemejebus]

Auto intoxication would probably count, even though it’s a short lead break.

[rosetree]

Originally Posted by Glyn

Us Against You is a bit weird in a 'where did that come from ?' sense.

Agree with Donkeys and would also chuck in Sepia as songs which you perhaps wouldn't expect to have those solos.

The king of that for me though is Valley Boy. For a song so pedestrian to have a guitar solo so good, that you can actually hear someone whoop in the studio at the end of it, is really weird to me.

On a vaguely similar note I wonder if the wonderful solo to SYMM is one of the most neglected ones due to it being right at the end of a long song that a lot of people have said they struggle with.

Valley Boy one is weird and just stunning! would love to hear it on the tour.

One of my favourte is PCP solo. I also sense the angst there.

[FacelessSenseOfVoid]

I would have gone with Diapause - very jazzy plus the keys after the solo make that whole break sound really unusual but in a good way. Plus the solo on Blank Diary Entry is very unorthodox for JDB (more so than People Ruin Paintings I'd say). TUVL did have some interesting moments!

[Son of Stopped]

Valley Boy!
And I found the guitars more sparingly in TUVL. Afternoon listening then but I'd always associated Quest For Ancient Colour the more guitar orientated.
Valley Boy solo really good call. Like a treat for James to solo!
Is The Chamber soundtrack any good or more Director influenced in the music?

[Routine Builder]

Going to throw the middle eight of Kevin Carter into the ring. More rhythm than lead but still a bit different and creates a nice breathing space in a claustrophobic soundspace. Also a top 10 single!

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by Glyn

On a vaguely similar note I wonder if the wonderful solo to SYMM is one of the most neglected ones due to it being right at the end of a long song that a lot of people have said they struggle with.

Great shout. I’ve often thought this. It’s not a well loved song among fans, I hardly know any who actually like it, but musically I’ve always found it to be one of the most unique and adventurous things they’ve ever done. The solo at the end is incredible, it sounds like something David Gilmour would have made.

[Dac X Lee]

To be honest, I weirdly liked SYMM ever since I was very young. Like, we're talking puberty here, preadolescence.
I found the lyrics to be pretty interesting and honest, and that sound added some kind of a mysterious feeling to the whole package, while the idleness of it kinda pierced into my sense of empathy.