Send Away The Tigers [Enhanced]

I'm going to get straight to the point: Send Away the Tigers is a fantastic album.

It's the sound of a band waking up and realising what it was about themselves that made them sound so powerful, unique and exhilarating and then applying that to record. It's also like they've finally managed to strike the perfect balance between their more abrasive 'punky' moments and their epic, grandiose numbers - bringing the two together to create something truly thrilling.

To name but four songs, Rendition and Send Away the Tigers will make your heart beat faster (or maybe even stop it for 168 seconds), and The Second Great Depression and Autumnsong will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

When MSP are on this kind of form they are still very special indeed, and alongside The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go, a trilogy of classic Manic Street Preachers albums is now finally complete.

Whilst Manic Street Preachers will probably never be able to revive the energy and darkness of "The Holy Bible", "Send Away The Tigers" does resemble, in the main, "Everything Must Go". Indeed, the opening bars on Indian Summer could be Design For Life part II. The album doesn't have a weak track. It was delivered last night and, apart from sleeping, I haven't stopped listening to it. A real return to form from what some thought was the disappointing Lifeblood (though I found it refreshing to listen to a band that have grown up), this album still follows in the vein of Lifeblood, whilst harking back and warmly reminiscing previous glories. Highlights for me, at the moment, are Indian Summer, Autumnsong and the title track. Well worth the money - essential listening.

Oh, and the title actually refers to Tony Hancock, who would apparently use the phrase when trying to rid himself of his depressive moods.

Send Away The Tigers is the Manic Street Preachers' eighth studio album and, for a number of years before this album, the music press and the world, as a whole, really lost interest in anything the Manic Street Preachers had to offer. Even 2005's Lifeblood, which was a very good album indeed, was largely met with indifference. A couple of solo albums last year, James Dean Bradfield's critically acclaimed The Great Western and Nicky Wire's almost universally panned I Killed The Zeitgeist appeared to stir interest in the Manics again and this, coupled with the fact that Send Away The Tigers is simply too good to ignore has led to this album being probably the most well-received album since Everything Must Go.

There is a good reason for this, naturally. This is, very probably, the best Manic Street Preachers album since 1996's Everything Must Go. Speaking in terms of consistency and letting the quality of the music speak for itself, it even tops the highly successful This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours from 1998. It is, in part, a return to the roots of the band, but is also a very contemporary, urgent and relevent album - striking the balance between being political and angry over injustice rather than preachy and recapturing their fire and spirit without descending into unlistenable, unpleasant heavy punk rock which, in my opinion, I don't think the Manics every truly pulled off. They are always at their best when their propensity for melody is combined with powerful music and intelligent lyrics which provoke thought and discussion.

Send Away The Tigers, a reference to Tony Hancock's description of drinking to chase away his demons, is without doubt the album that Manics fans have been longing for for over a decade. Had this album been released as a follow-up to Everything Must Go, it would probably have been lauded as one of the best albums of all time, but it's a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time despite the positive reviews and enthusiasm this album has generated. There are a handful of classic songs contained within this CD - Indian Summer, The Second Great Depression and Autumnsong are just three of the most notable songs, but this is a very strong release from start to finish. The only negative I can really offer (apart from the rather disappointingly ordinary album cover) is a wholly superfluous version of John Lennon's Working Class Hero as a 'hidden' track. To be honest, I think the album would have been better off without it. Other than that, it's just a brilliant album. Play it loud.