Manic Street Preachers - Send Away The Tigers

Manic Street Preachers, they of dead/missing “guitarist”/songwriter fame, return with their new album, “Send Away The Tigers”.

Androgynous bass player, Nicky Wire has earmarked this as the album where they “went back to their roots”. So that means lots of “Generation Terrorists” riffage, solo’s and sloganeering? Well, maybe just a teensy bit of it.

I’ll be honest from the start, half of this album is shite, appalling actually. But the other half is OK, really. Not mind-blowing, and certainly not the old Manic’s that I love, but it’s quite good.

First things first, we might as well deal with the first single, “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”, featuring the vocals of Ikea warehouse worker, Nina Persson, getting the weekend off from eating Dime bars, meatballs and forklifting flat-pack palettes.

It’s one of those summer pop anthems, it’s the type of thing that the Manic’s did on “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours”. You know the thing, the “You Stole The Sun From My Heart” type of fayre. In fact, the title of that song actually features as a lyric in the new single. It’s by no means offensive, and it’ll no doubt have fans of Sterephonics and that ilk in raptures.

The first two songs on the album, title-track “Send Away The Tigers” and “Underdogs” are really quite bad. The title track is maybe the weakest song on the album, so I’ve been racking my brains as to why it’s the opening track. Is it some sort of post-modern fucked up Manic’s thing? I really don’t know, but what I do know, is that it’s gash.

“Underdogs”, features the line “this ones for the freaks” about 1400 times. I’m presuming that it’s some sort of dedication or ‘thank you’ to the fans who have stayed with them. It’s awful like. It’s working class sentiment doesn’t quite cut it.

The single, “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” is the third song, and then it’s pretty much hit and miss after that, but the better songs are in the second half. James Dean Bradfield welcomes back the screeching lead guitar in the openings of “Rendition” and “Autumnsong”. These two, along with “Indian Summer” and “Second Great Depression” are surely the contenders for the next singles.

When Nicky Wire had said they had returned back to their roots, I’m not entirely sure what effect this had. In parts we have the same sort of solo’s that Bradfield wanked over in “Generation Terrorists” and “Gold Against The Soul”, I would imagine that the solo’s would go on even longer in the live shows. But other than these few things, they haven’t really went back to their roots in terms of songwriting. They are still a post “Everything Must Go” band. Although it does seem from the recent promo work that Bradfield has laid off the pies a bit.

The only thing that comes close to the ‘old’ Manic’s is the hidden track, a cover of Lennon’s “Working Class Hero”, which is almost the same idea that they had when they covered Nirvana’s “Pennyroyal Tea”. And covering a Lennon song? Have they completely sold out following the removal of the “I laughed when Lennon got shot” lyrics from live performances of “Motown Junk”, maybe this song is some sort of subliminal apology or retreat.

Don’t let them tell you that this is blah blah blah and that it’s blah blah blah, because it isn’t. It’s OK, it’s now what we have come to expect from bands like the Manic’s, an album with a couple of decent songs and a handful of forgettable ones.

If Richey is still around, come back mate, even if it’s just to give them a journal of all the fucked up lyrics you’ve been compiling for the past 12 years. That might be a start.

The album is out on the 30th April.

This is the first single..........