Sleeve: Band portraits in a Tate Modern-esque gallery.

Sleevenotes: None, but lots of the Manics' trademark slogans and quotations.

Content: Careful rewrite of Manics history, heavy on the big rock ballads in the Design For Life/Motorcycle Emptiness vein, light on the early 90s sloganeering glam punk days. Too many duff tracks from This Is My Truth.

High point: A Design For Life. Good to hear You Love Us again too.

Low point: You Stole The Sun From My Heart. It sounds like The Scorpions, for God's sake.

Any glaring missions?: Desperately steers clear of tracks from Richey James Edwards's angst-laden epitaph The Holy Bible (apart from the token Faster). But then, you didn't really expect The Intense Humming Of Evil to be on there, did you?

Anything new: Two not-bad but not-essential new songs. A few non-album singles - Motown Junk and Suicide Is Painless. Extra CD of remixes, by everyone from Mogwai to Massive Attack.

Excuse for release: Rumours of their imminent demise. But they've been threatening that since the first album.

Ideal gift for: Anyone who thinks Everything Must Go was their first album.

Updated: 10:28 Thursday, December 05, 2002