Manic Street Preachers Send Away The Tigers by: Dean Van Nguyen Mon:02-Jul-07 Label: Sony BMG Year: 2007 WB rating 61 out of 100

It’s been three years since Manic Street Preachers had seemingly made their final, anticlimactic curtain call with the unceremonious release of Lifeblood. The softer, Coldplay-like set should of ended their love affair with the British public, and for a while the band seemed willing to fade into the night, releasing a couple of average solo albums under the radar. It would have been a sad way for an act that were amongst the most significant in the world to go out, and so we should be thankful they are back, and so is the kind of fist pumping, aggressive rock anthems they were once known for.

Send Away The Tigers is the sound of a band who know they are past their best, but are going to power through it by turning up their sound and hoping no one will notice the song writing isn’t what it used to be. In saying that though, this is an album better than it has any right to be. It has, after all, been almost a decade since the Manics were anywhere near their peak, and they have been long since written off as a band unable to hit the same heights.

The Manics have regressed from the sound of Lifeblood, harking back to their early work that gained them comparisons to Guns ‘n’ Roses. Everything about their sound is huge, the vocals, the solos, the drumming. The opening, and title track, is the most obvious example, even sporting vocals that lean heavily to Axl Rose.  It’s followed up by ‘Underdogs’ which further lays out the bands intentions, the song rocking so hard its message is almost completely lost under the power chords and Sean Moore’s crashing drums. Frontman James Dean Bradford acknowledges the band’s fall from grace, and their need to re-establish themselves; “like the underdogs, we are shining bright but now disappeared” he screams.

Less impressive is first single ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’, its cheeky nod to one of the band’s biggest single ‘You Stole the Sun Straight From My Heart’ comes off as more self parody than cleverness, an admittance of the reality of their plight. ‘Indian Summer’ comes closest to reviving past glories. It’s the kind of loud, overblown anthem the Manics once made their trademark, and could of easily of slid onto their 1996 classic Everything Must Go.

The second half of the album isn’t quite as strong, and I was left hoping for a change of pace, perhaps a return to the more melodic sounds of This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. Instead it plods down the finishing stretch, the songs sounding much the same, diluted. As a once-off ‘I’m Just A Patsy’ is a decent rocker, but by this stage the Manics one trick is wearing thin. Similarly ‘Rendition’ starts well, a killer riff over Moore’s powerful drums, but the rest of the track languishes, the melody largely forgettable, while ‘Winterlovers’ is a decent stab at making an operatic, Queen-esqe anthem.

And so despite the promise, and that it’s their best album since 1998’s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, Send Away The Tigers it’s still only ‘kind of’ a return to form for the Manics. Whether it’s the last assault from the old warhorse is to be seen, but its confirmation that their days as one of the world’s most interesting bands are long over.