‘Underdogs’ – with its edgy backwards R – is a taster of the Manics forthcoming 8th studio album ‘Send Away The Tigers’. On receiving a copy through the post, the first emotion experienced was one of mild surprise that there was, in fact, a new Manic Street Preachers album on the way. This, however, had turned to apathy and resignation by the time I went to play the song five minutes later. Ten years ago, it would have been a much anticipated event, but after several indifferent albums and side projects that came and went almost unnoticed, do they have anything to offer the contemporary music scene?
But wait… could I be surprised for a second time this morning with a fresh, new approach from Blackwood’s finest socialist hit makers? Have Nicky, James and Sean found a new direction just as their career seemed to be dwindling? Well, yes and no. For if this song is anything to go by, the direction in which the Manics are heading is backwards. As if sensing the growing indifference towards their music, it seems as though they are aiming to rediscover something they lost ten years ago and have never been able to recapture since, namely: rawness, vitality and perhaps crucially, critical acclaim.
For musically ‘Underdogs’ is essentially a cross between the early angry punk rock of ‘You Love Us’ and the more polished, anthemic ‘Everything Must Go’. The restrained dampened chords of the verse build into a trademark soaring James Dean Bradfield chorus and it is a song that is unmistakeably theirs. Lyrically it is typical ‘us versus them’ Manics fare and actually ends up like their own take on Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’ with lines like “This one’s for the freaks / You’re so beautiful / For all the devotion written in your soul”. Inspiring it ain’t, but they have certainly succeeded in resurrecting something that takes you back to a brighter time for the band.
Manics fans will no doubt be perfectly happy with it, though, as not only is it new material from the band it attempts to recreate some of their best moments. The problem is, it’s always impossible to recreate the past. No matter how you try to do things, or in the case of a band, sound, like you did ten or fifteen years ago, that youthful exuberance and passion cannot be reinvented. As a result, rather than a return to their roots, it smacks of an attempt to recapture former glories.
No matter what the results of ‘Send Away The Tigers’, the Manic Street Preachers will remain one of the most revered bands of their time. On this evidence, though, it seems unlikely they are going to add much to their legacy.
For more information you can visit: http://www.manics.co.uk
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