There was a huge sigh of relief amongst Manic Street Preachers when their latest album, Send Away The Tigers, was released. Gone was the limp synth pop, bluster and bombast, and in its place was a fresh, exciting sound that suited Messrs Wire and Bradfield down to the ground.
Autumnsong was the centrepoint of that album, a big anthemic number that cheekily swipes the guitar solo from Sweet Child O'Mine and sounds huge and epic, like it was meant to fill stadia across the globe.
It's a superb scarf-waver, although the only low point is the supremely barmy lyrics. You'll struggle to suppress a smirk when hearing James Dean Bradfield exclaim in his customary impassioned way: "what have you done to your hair?". It's a long way from "Natwest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds", that's for sure.
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