Your Love Alone Is Not Enough is the first single to be released from the new Manics album, Send Away the Tigers. The song features a bizarre alliance with Nina Persson of The Cardigans.

Do you know, with the resurgence of 90’s bands at the moment, it’s like 90’s nostalgia has already started. The problem is, when you get a wave of nostalgia, you get bands reforming to cash in. In the case of the 90’s, most of the bands haven’t even broken up yet. It’s like they were hibernating or something….

The thing about Your Love Alone is that it’s a bit too happy-poppy to be the Manics. Aren’t these the same guys who wrote the excellently melancholy Motorcycle Emptiness and If You Tolerate This?

No…I can’t criticise this song at all. It’s got the kitchen sink: shimmering guitar sounds, amazing string section in the chorus and a joyous, bop-along tune. They could have left out the bit where sinister-looking bassist Nicky Wire sings though – it just doesn’t fit the song.

I can’t help thinking this would have been an even bigger hit if it had been released during Manic Street Preachers and The Cardigans heyday. It would have been a release on the scale of the Snow Patrol/Martha Wainwright collaboration.

But hey, it’s just good to see the Manics back in the charts!