FOR a band who've been threatening to split up since before they released their first album, the Manic Street Preachers have oddly ended up as one of British rock's survival sagas, more than a decade since they first put Wales back on the musical map.

So whether releasing a greatest hits compilation at Christmas and, now, a 35-track, two-CD compilations of rarities and B-sides is finally the full stop at the end of their career remains to be seen.

Whatever it is, Lipstick Traces will have a place in the hearts of old-school Manics fans who would have turned their noses up at the glossy Forever Delayed best-of album.

Like many B-side albums, it gives a refreshing new perspective on the band, from across their six-album career - though it does remind you how limited the Manics' musical imagination was, compared to the angry, political and poetic intelligence they demonstrated in their lyrics.

You wonder how on earth songs as good as 4 Ever Delayed, Dead Trees And Traffic Islands and the venomous Holy Bible-era Judge Yr'Self didn't make it on to the albums. Meanwhile, Disc Two boasts cover versions - some wonder-fully unlikely - mostly culled from live shows.

Fellow Welsh countrymen Super Furry Animals also hit major label success in the mid-Nineties, but they never achieved the Manics' commercial peak, despite their likeable quirky and boldly experimental psychedelic pop.

Phantom Power, is full of warm melodies, lush, loose, arrangements and off-the-wall lyrics. Rustic blues influences and glam rock (single Golden Retriever) are added to the Super Furry recipe this time out, and they even go a bit Seventies metal on Out Of Control.

As ever, Gruff Rhys and friends are too much tied up in their own private universe to hit a universal chord, but more than ever, it's a pleasant place to visit.

Updated: 11:08 Thursday, July 31, 2003