[Originally published on Orange.co.uk]It’s been a difficult decade for the long-suffering Manics devotee: forced to witness the band’s steady decline from fiery glam insurrectionists to bland everyman rock has-beens.
It seems even the hitherto blindly loyal glitter‘n’tiara brigade have abandoned the cause, judging by the disappointing lack of sparkle in tonight’s audience.
Thankfully, this pre-Christmas greatest hits set finds James, Nicky and Sean in defiant mood – re-energised after their solo outings and critically rehabilitated after a (partial) return to form with eighth album Send Away The Tigers.
Any set which begins with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ is setting the bar high, while 'Little Baby Nothing''s high-octane refrain of ‘cultural alienation, boredom and despair’ is delivered with irrepressible lustre. But newies such as the guileless ‘Autumnsong’ are not disgraced in such illustrious company, while a blistering ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ sounds every bit like their best single of the noughties.
The Richey-era material already seems like it's being beamed in from another lifetime, but songs such as ‘La Tristesse Durera’ and ‘Roses In The Hospital’ have lost none of their incendiary potency. We can even forgive them the odd throwaway number such as ‘Ocean Spray’ because, well, it's Christmas.
From the moment a beefed-up cover of The Cult’s ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ segues into ‘Motown Junk’, the Manics can do no wrong. Closing with their stately proletarian elegy ‘A Design For Life’, this is a band trading on past glories, but doing so with undeniable class.
It seems even the hitherto blindly loyal glitter‘n’tiara brigade have abandoned the cause, judging by the disappointing lack of sparkle in tonight’s audience.
Thankfully, this pre-Christmas greatest hits set finds James, Nicky and Sean in defiant mood – re-energised after their solo outings and critically rehabilitated after a (partial) return to form with eighth album Send Away The Tigers.
Any set which begins with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ is setting the bar high, while 'Little Baby Nothing''s high-octane refrain of ‘cultural alienation, boredom and despair’ is delivered with irrepressible lustre. But newies such as the guileless ‘Autumnsong’ are not disgraced in such illustrious company, while a blistering ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ sounds every bit like their best single of the noughties.
The Richey-era material already seems like it's being beamed in from another lifetime, but songs such as ‘La Tristesse Durera’ and ‘Roses In The Hospital’ have lost none of their incendiary potency. We can even forgive them the odd throwaway number such as ‘Ocean Spray’ because, well, it's Christmas.
From the moment a beefed-up cover of The Cult’s ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ segues into ‘Motown Junk’, the Manics can do no wrong. Closing with their stately proletarian elegy ‘A Design For Life’, this is a band trading on past glories, but doing so with undeniable class.
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