Of the handful of bands still left from the early nineties, this is the one that we seem to will to regress, feeling a collective desire to get the balaclava out of the cupboard and spray-paint a slogan on a Primark t-shirt. We also play our normal game of seeing which Manic has put on the weight and which has lost the most (surprisingly Sean on this occasion, looking good). Send Away The Tigers takes it name from a favourite saying of Tony Hancock, when referring to his depressive need to drink excessively, and whilst it does encapsulate what could be defined as a classic Manic sound, it is far from just a rehash of old glories.

It starts with a mournful church organ, reminiscent of the opening of Lifeblood, before cascading into a rush of guitars in a wonderful opening track, lyrically all over the place but grounded by the brute force of powerchords and its strident rhythm. If you need a category the sound is closest to Gold Against the Soul, and indeed this is more the sort of album you might have expected back then rather than The Holy Bible, a more melodic rock sound instead of the taut, claustrophobia of their third album. Songs like Indian Summer and The Second Great Depression chug with waltz time precision, big choruses underscored with light strings and huge guitars. Renditions thunders along with militaristic beats and talk of revolution, whilst Imperial Bodybags features some fine vocals from James and a myriad of guitar tracks.

In fact, on the first run through the whole album is pure entertainment – it is only on subsequent listens that the cracks appear to show. Underdogs, with its talk of freaks, attempts to do a “Misshapes” with none of Pulp’s subtlety or charm and just sounds clumsy and rather embarrassing. Autumnsong and I’m Just a Patsy are the two weak spots, lyrically a mess and musically offering nothing new. Winterlovers though closes things well, with the addition of Working Class Hero as a bonus track. There is enough good stuff here to make you glad they got to number eight, especially with an album that contains so much energy and passion.