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Rating: In the past, I confess I have never been a great fan of the Manic Street Preachers, especially those that included the late (although his fate is actually unknown) Richey 'Manic' Edwards. Too epic, too redundant, their style seemed to me a kind of baroque neopunk that had made them irreparably unpleasant to me. But already in 1996 with "Everything Must Go" and the track "A Design For Life" things changed.
The emphasis of the first three albums gave way to a melancholic and intimate rock, sung with great emotion and involvement by James Dean Bradfield, without losing the energy and rock spirit of the Welsh band. The new course was perfected with "This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours", a masterpiece album, which included, among others, their most successful composition ever: that bittersweet torch-song "If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next" which dominated the airwaves in the summer of 1998. Then two minor albums "Know Your Enemy" and "Lifeblood", interspersed with a collection of hits.
2007 sees them return to the scene and with caution, I approach this new CD enclosed in a mysterious cover depicting two busty teenagers dressed respectively as an angel and devil, both with a sly expression. "Send Away The Tigers" reads the title... "Send Away The Tigers"... and it would almost seem like an admonition addressed to the two girls depicted in the artwork. The lettering used and the R's written backward seem curiously to recall the style of "The Holy Bible", an album prior to "Everything Must Go" and considered at the time a "transition" work.
But the listen to the first track is an unexpected surprise: "Send Away The Tigers" starts with a wall of guitars, a driving rhythm, and an extraordinary vocal in a building chorus, where Bradfield's 'falsetto' literally breaks your heart. It is a pulsating bass and a captivating drum that open the subsequent "Underdogs", an exciting neopunk ride, and the intriguing voice of Nina Persson of the Cardigans that gives vital energy to the duet with Bradfield in the striking single "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough".
It continues with two intriguing glam ballads "Indian Summer" and "The Second Great Depression" (the latter very close to the style of the excellent Mansun, a band with whom the Preachers shared many live stages in 1998). And then again the raw rock'n'roll - à la Stones - of "Rendition" and the epic majesty of "Autumnsong" which seems an unlikely cross between Guns'n Roses, Queen, and Marc Bolan's T-Rex, after a shared session with David Bowie and the Sex Pistols. Still street rock with 'glam' veins in "I'm Just A Patsy" and "Imperial Bodybags" to close with the unusual sweetness of "Winterlovers" which, among explosions and implosions, closes the album but leaves in store a hidden surprise precisely three minutes into the track: a personal and very 'bluesy' reinterpretation of John Lennon's track "Working Class Hero", curiously inserted as a hidden track.
"Send Away The Tigers" is undoubtedly a masterpiece, an album that attests to the health and well-being that rock of the 2000s still enjoys. And it goes straight into my 2007 playlist. Great respect for the Manic Street Preachers who, despite the ups and downs in their career, have returned in sparkling form and as if they had rejuvenated by at least ten years.
More than the Darkness!!!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Underdogs (02:49)
This one's for the freaks
For you're so beautiful
For all the devotion
Written in your soul
This one's for the freaks
For the lost and weak
For the butterflies and devotees
And the disciples of our destiny
And like the underdogs we are
Shining bright but now disappeared
And like the underdogs we are
Passing like some fading stars
Like some fading stars
This one's for the freaks
Beaten down and crushed
The shy and withdrawn
Or just out of touch
May you stay like freaks
May you make mistakes
May ya will never break
For underdogs revenge is sweet, revenge is sweet
And like the underdogs we are
Shining bright but now disappeared
And like the underdogs we are
Passing like some fading stars
Like some fading stars
This one's for the freaks
This one's for the freaks
People like you need to fuck
Need to fuck people like me
This one's for the freaks for the lost and weak
This one's for the freaks
03 Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (03:55)
Your love alone is not enough not enough not enough
When times get tough they get tough they get tough they get tough
Trade all your heroes in for ghosts in for ghosts in for ghosts
They're always the one's that love you most love you most love you most
Your love alone is not enough not enough not enough
It's what you felt it's what you said what you said what you said
You said the sky would fall on you fall on you fall on you
Through all the pain your eyes stayed Blue they stayed Blue Baby Blue
But your love alone won't save the world
You knew the secret of the universe
Despite it all you made it worse
It left you lonely it left you cursed
You stole the sun straight from my heart from my heart from heart
With no excuses just fell apart fell apart fell apart
No you won't make a mess of me mess of me mess of me
For you're as blind as a man can be man can be man can be
I could have seen for miles and miles
I could have made you feel alive
I could have placed us in exile
I could have written all your lines
I could have shown you how too cry
Your love alone
Is not enough
Your love alone
Is not enough
I could have shown you
Shown you how to cry
Your love alone
Is not enough
Your love alone
04 Indian Summer (03:54)
If God persists, persists in saying yes
I guess we'll have, we'll have to test ourselves
Maybe the Summer, will come and clear our minds
And find the impulse, to love the sunshine
I guess we'll have to test, until there's nothing left
We said the truth was fixed, it's lost without a trace
This crime is eternity
When time lost its certainty
The Indian Summer
Maybe this time
We'll kiss and we'll not shake hands
Indian Summer, still hurt and broken
And leave all this material belief
Remember the reasons
The reasons that made us be
I guess we'll have to test, what's darker than ourselves
We said the truth was fixed, it's lost without a trace
This crime is eternity
When time lost its certainty
The Indian Summer
I guess we'll have to test, until there's nothing left
We said the truth was fixed, it's lost without a trace
This crime is eternity
When time lost its certainty
The Indian Summer
The Indian Summer [x3]
06 Rendition (02:59)
Rendition, rendition, blame it on the coalition
All the emeralds that are missing, oh I wish we still had Jack Lemmon
Rendition, rendition I never knew the sky was a prison
It's a long hard revolution, oh good god I feel like a liberal
For tomorrow I will beg, steal and borrow
And at the moment I'm jumping at sorrow
I wish I knew what I did wrong
Can anybody hear the screaming of us? The screaming of us
In the long hard revolution
Rendition, rendition, blame it on the coalition
The CIA will stay invisible, oh good god I sound like a liberal
Rendition, rendition, I never knew the sky was a prison
It's a long hard revolution, oh good god I feel like a liberal
For tomorrow I will beg, steal and borrow
And at the moment I'm jumping at sorrow
I wish I knew what I did wrong
Can anybody hear the screaming of us? The screaming of us
In the long revolution
For tomorrow I will beg, steal and borrow
And at the moment I'm jumping at sorrow
I wish I knew what I did wrong
Can anybody hear the screaming of us? The screaming of us
In the long revolution
08 I'm Just a Patsy (03:11)
I am just a patsy
The Oswald in Lee Harvey
Made of my own misery
The footprints of history
I am just a patsy
I sell vague conspiracy
I'm slow and I'm easy
And I'm waiting for delivery
I'm just a patsy for your love
I need an angel from above
To a life depraved and lost
Inevitable like scars and dust
I'm just a patsy for your love
Even with the most control
Tied to fragments born and grown
All fucked up with nowhere to go
The best thing I ever saw
I am just a patsy
I sell vague conspiracy
I'm slow and I'm easy
And I'm waiting for delivery
I'm just a patsy for your love
I need an angel from above
To a life depraved and lost
Inevitable like scars and dust
I'm just a patsy for your love, love, love
A patsy for your love, love, love
I am just a patsy
I'm just a patsy for your love
I need an angel from above
To a life depraved and lost
Inevitable like scars and dust
I'm just a patsy for your love
09 Imperial Bodybags (03:30)
Imperial bodybags, coming home in dribs and drabs
Life is numbers, with doggy tags
Filled with holes and coming back
So come on up the sky?
Can't make out this line very well
Never had a chance to wave goodbye
Thrown away and unhappy
Driven by hypocracy
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Like a lover who has lost her faith
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Fades away
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in home-made flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in home-made flags
And here we love the kids
We're still human like everyone else
I have no idea what this line is at all
Stuck in school
Always willing to stick by the rules
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Like a lover who has lost her faith
Nothing's finished it just fades away
Fades away
Fades away
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
Imperial bodybags, Prom Queen disposible
Children wrapped in homemade flags
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Other reviews
By principles
'An album that provides a lot of energy but does not shun false steps.'
'Despite this, "Your love is not enough" turns out to be a great pop song that slightly recalls the atmosphere of "This is my truth, Tell me yours".'
By GrantNicholas
From the first notes of the beautiful title track, a perfect brit-rock number, you can tell that boredom will be a sensation rarely encountered through the remaining nine tracks.
"Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" presents itself as a truly devastating melodic impact guitar britpop piece.
