ONCE they raged about dictators, serial killers, literary legends and political thinkers.

Now those angry young men are misty-eyed with nostalgia, wistfully harking back to the mid 80s, when Torvill and Dean won ice-skating gold. That's right... ice-skating gold. Lifeblood's production is so polished, traces of Mr Sheen are visible on the CD. Where guitars once screeched like rusty chainsaws, plush, soothing arrangements now dominate.

These middle-aged Manics are finding adult orientated rock incredibly MOR-ish. Bizarrely, as the world gets more polemical, they've retreated into a retrospective cocoon, warmed in an epic 80s rock glow. Of course, they still court controversy.

Who else would attempt to rehabilitate a disgraced Republican president in the current political climate? First single The Love Of Richard Nixon, alongside soaring opener 1985 - with that Torvill and Dean reference - is a highlight; an understated chink of melodic beauty, sugar-coated in Nicky Wire's contrary lyricism.

The September 11 reference in A Song For Departure, however, reeks of sixth-form sewers. How they miss Richey Edwards' intellectual drive.

Updated: 11:28 Thursday, November 18, 2004