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
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