King Kenny was tasked with finding the next manager, and at one point point put his own name forward. My heart would have been more than happy with that, but my head would struggle with it. In the end, a decision has been made that satisfy’s the head, but less so the heart. Saying that, the heart can be quickly won over. Welcome Roy Hodgson, with a vast managerial career spanning multiple decades and clubs he comes into Liverpool with all my best wishes.  Fingers crossed!

Anyway-i’m not usually a phone whore so I’ll stop that now. What I admit I am is incredibly fickle, soooooo… Nirvana are fucking quality aren’t they, I find myself enjoying their stupidly heavy stuff too which is a wee bit unlike me.

This is Alex signing off..

Who’d have thought i’d make so many great discoveries in such a short amount of time? (in the last month). Firstly, Crackdown, the GTA ish Xbox 360 game has been sat on my shelf for about 6 months, I had a quick go previously but wasn’t overly impressed. Well last night I started it, and tonight I finished it in what turned out to be about a 12 hour kicking, shooting and jumping fest. Absolutely brilliantly fun game which I would reccommend to anyone.

The 2nd great discovery in the last month is the mighty Nirvana. I’ve pretty much ignored them due to my lack of appreciation for Smells Like Teen Spirit. I always knew that Unplugged was good and had enjoyed it pretty much from start to finish but in the last couple of weeks i’ve had In Utero (which is surely their masterpiece?) on repeat. Its loud, angry and distorted. And in other places its charming, orchestral and sombre. And in 1 place theres Very Ape, which from what i’ve read is aimed the market Kurt Cobain didn’t want to get into, but ultimately did.

I take pride as the king of literature
I’m very ape, and very niceI’d recommend them but I think i’m the only person who didn’t listen to them the first time around. And finally, special mention still goes to the mighty Manic Street Preachers – the new album still delights, the melodies are everywhere, it truely is a remarkable able and a great testament to the lyrics of Mr Richey Edwards. RIP. An additional mention to the wonderous musician ship of James Dean Bradfield – great guitarist and real sound director of the MSP.

• Bioshock
• Fallout 3
• Fifa 2009
• Call of Duty: World at war
• Halo 3
• Burnout Revenge
• Rockband 2
• Grand Theft Auto 4
• Soul Calibur 4
• Viking

Now, as I said, she had very limited competition, and maybe thats due to me missing some really obvious contender, but I doubt there can be anyone greater. So, why is she great, lets consider the facts:

1) She wrote Wuthering Heights…
2) … at the age of 18, that is incredible
3) Shes clearly mental
4) Her lyrics are generally great
5) Her music is wonderful
6) She is weird, weird is good
7) She let the Futureheads cover Hounds of Love, really highlighting how poor they are
Running Up That Hill is one of the greatest opening tracks in existence
9) In particular the production on it shines, the drums are brilliant…
10) … and she wrote and played on it, and produced it
11) In a world of subhuman fame desperate whores she turned her back on all her success to spend time raising her family…
12) … and returned 12 years later with a blinding album
13) She was the first ever female artist to get to number 1 in the UK with a self written song

Now surely, all of that is more of an inspiration to women the world over than Sporty ‘I’m wearing adidas and have a chest like an ironing board’ Spice doing some shit backflip on a dinner table in a shit video to a shit song that neither she or any of the other shit members wrote. The shitters.

Kate Bush rawks

So admist a flurry of excited posts all due to a new CMS (ok, i admit it, i’m a geek) i must deliver the body blow, there will be no updates for the rest of the week as Alex is off to Bonnie Scotland with the good old Brilliant Gas Corp…

But before we get there, we must endure the FIVE hour drive – oh my god 

*cries*

Often, further down the treacherous path of an artists career he will cast off his more recent works and declare that he is going back to his roots. This is a sort of artistic midlife crisis, in that by getting back to your roots you show everyone how young and cool you are.

Now, at some point i’m going to get onto reviewing the album pictured on the left, but firstly, I must clarify. Young people are idiots. Not all of them, but as a general rule they are idiots. I was an idiot, probably still am, but as I get older I get a little less idiotic by the day. So, fuck your roots, and just make great art.

Or, if you’re the Manic Street Preachers, fuck the faux punk, in all honesty the punk stuff you did wasn’t that great, the goth stuff was awesome, the working class stadium rock genius, but fuck the punk, just be what you are, a fantastic rock band. Oh, you’ve followed my belated advise 2 years previous in releasing what was surely the best album of 2007?

Now, as is often with me, all of this reeks of overstatement, but for once, its not. Send Away The Tigers is a glorious rock album, solid song writing, communism free lyrics and some fantasic pop songs, pop songs Girls Aloud would be jealous of (but that might be overstatement as girls aloud are clearly the pinnacle of pop entertainment – sarcasm is the lowest form of wit apparently, (its not), so believe when I say, that is not sarcasm).

Songs then, Send Away The Tigers, great opening to the track, great opener to the album. Works on a level with Elvis Impersonator from Everything Must Go, sets the scene while being great in its own rights. Underdogs took a bit longer to catch on, yeah its rocking, but its not what this album is about. Its good, but the following gets ridiculous.

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough is pop genius, Nicky Wire must’ve been punching the air in his little welsh cottage when he heard what JDB had done with his lyrics. Duetastic (inventing words is cool, cool is youth, alex is a hypocrite). So here it got good, next.

Well, next it gets serious, Indian Summer is the one track I read everywhere that everyone was loving but I just wasn’t getting, now I do. It is genius. But, you guessed it, it gets better. I once read in an Oasis forum someone saying that ‘You’re not alone’ by Embrace is the best chorus ever, and that Noel Gallagher would never write a chorus that good. That person was an idiot (they were probably 12). So, I won’t make the same mistake, The Second Great Depression isn’t the greatest chorus ever, but this is the chorus that raises the bar on 2007, and raises the bar on this album. Fantastic.

Rendition is also great, but I will move on. Autumn Song is what the person who recommended the album to me would call ‘a little treat’, and by that he would mean it is the  greatest thing on the album, an absolute joy with the most uplifting chorus since Acquiesce, i’ll say it again, joy(ous).

I’m Just A Patsy is poptastic, yet again kicking the actual pop artists into touch. Probably the third best track on the album, works perfectly in its place. Imperial Bodybags is like Underdogs pt2, its rocking, it goes places, but its not Autumn Song.

Winterlovers, is ok, but come on, what can follow Autumn and Patsy? 

So, all in all, a great album, its not all highs, theres some that would only class as great and not genius, but for fucks sake, its got Autumn Song on it!

4.4 out of 5