Manic Street Preachers
Send Away The Tigers

THE REVIEW

'90's never ends.

This was the motto of the Manic street preachers (or for friends, Manics) to create this pleasant surprise of 2007. Or at least, for me it was a great surprise, after the disappointment I felt listening to that "Lifeblood" (2004), excessively catchy and pop for Bradfield’s deep voice and my poor ears.

However, dear readers, let’s be clear, I have never been a fan of the Manics, sure I am a friend of theirs (from how I call them you’ll have surely understood!). I adored "Everything Must Go"(1996), I was intrigued by the beautiful "The Holy Bible" (1994) and even the previous albums like "Gold Against The Soul" (1993) and "Generation Terrorists" (1992) captured me although not excessively. In short, I believe these Welsh are "good stuff" but I don’t think they have been able to write absolute musical masterpieces. I think the same of this magnificent "Send Away The Tigers," the surprise of 2007, which in my view fits perfectly between the immense "Everything must go" and the extraordinarily gritty "The Holy Bible".
Rarely do we see radical changes in bands that infest their own sounds: enriching them, changing them, dirtying them, embellishing them. But here the Manics erase "Lifeblood" and "Know your Enemy" from their discography and have fun rediscovering what they had done before.

James Dean Bradfield & Co. in this "Send Away The Tigers" introduce elements that recall the times of the "void of riding a motorcycle" or the "sacred bible" that made them so famous ("Imperial Bodybags" and the single "Underdogs") or they revisit the Brit-Rock/Pop sounds of the post-disappearance of the poor-never-found Richey James ("Indian Summer" and "Autumnsong", which with "Winterlovers" make the trilogy of the seasons, ironic the Manics, cheap joke from me, I admit). (Re) Fishing with a well-sharpened hook a bit of that glam that belonged to the Queen more than two decades ago ("Send Away the tigers").
An album that provides a lot of energy but does not shun false steps ("Winterlovers"). There is also a duet with Nina from the Cardigans. Where even Nicky Wire tries to do the backing vocals but with poor results, in fact, I will say more, appearing a bit out of place given the powerful voice of the skilled Bradfield and the crystalline vocal performance of the Cardigan(s). 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" (1998) with that music balancing between the rock roughness and honeyed pop sweetness.

In some songs, the string arrangement is enviable, almost on par with the best Oasis who, say what you will, but they hit the mark with melodies for winds and violins.

In short, we are in front of a beautiful album that injects energy and although it is very catchy, we will never see the Welsh throw their talent into the hands of commercialism, as many excellent bands have - lately - done ("Coldplay" and "Muse" above all) also because maybe Bradfield is obviously ugly (atypical for a rockstar, right?), but who am I to judge? And then he has a damn great voice (that often helps me sing along the Manics’ songs).

The final gem - of which I want to immediately inform you - is that after the final track, there is the now usual ghost track. Nowadays in the indie-rock world, if you don’t make at least one ghost track per album and make an album longer than 40 minutes, you are considered the last of the dumb. It is, however, the cover of "Working Class Hero" by the late Lennon, which I have never liked to be honest, I had never heard nor listened to the song, but oh! maybe Lennon’s one is bad but, as the Manics play it, I like it!

Having said this, I take my leave and express my precise rating for this album (the 4 stars are purely indicative): 7.1

Happy Listening and thank you for reading so far. See you next time.