With Journal for Plague Lovers, the Manics appear to have got the easiest critical ride this side of a New Order album - the association of tragedy appearing to impact on the critical faculties of many. A concept that seemed relevant this evening… The Manics' Steve Albini-produced album of music set to Richey Edwards' lyrics was quite the disappointment, and should possibly have just been an e.p. - The Holy Bible, it wasn't…

The drawbacks of Journal… become apparent after Killing Joke-style opener 'Peeled Apples' when the new album was played in full. The double whammy of 'Jackie Collins Existential Question Time' and 'Me and Stephen Hawking' are a reminder of the clumsy sub-Smash/Clash-wannabes of yore, Edwards' hallowed lyrics hampered by James Dean Bradfield's boorish shouting amid the kind of guitar solos that make you appreciate Kiss for their avant-gardeness…Even worse was a reading of 'This Joke Sport Severed' delivered with the understated aplomb one would associate with the works of Billy Corgan; after that it just got a bit boring…

Towards the end of the Journal-set, things improved with 'Pretentsion/Repulsion' and 'Virginia State Epileptic Colony' - though the highlight of the latter was its riff recalling Elastica's 'Waking Up.' The best was even saved for last with Nicky Wire taking lead vocals for 'William's Last Words' in that post-Lou Reed-style found on records by Denim and Luke Haines.

Where I'd been hoping for a main set consisting of the new LP, an emphasis on The Holy Bible and Richey-associated songs like 'Kevin Carter' and 'Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky' with a few token oldies, I was sadly let down with a second set of greatest hits that felt like an apology or compensation…

A vile stadium sing-along pitched somewhere between The Alarm and Dire Straits occurred around the choruses of 'Motorcycle Emptiness', 'You Love Us', and the dire 'You Stole the Sun from My Heart.' I didn't make it to the end, but was glad to miss lads raising their overpriced plastic pints in reverence, seemingly oblivious to the lyrics of the song: we only want to get pissed… It was bizarre that only one track from The Holy Bible was played, and that was a tepid version of 'Faster' pre-empted with a lame punch line about corrupt politicians from Wire that reminded me how radical Michael Portillo is. Very odd that Holy Bible-material was less significant than the singles from the execrable This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours. Plumping for their best selling LP to appease the masses was tragic and if Edwards had been present, I'd have expected to find him laughing. Where the fuck was the edge the Manics once had? Do they really want to end up as an indie Simple Minds?

Only an accurate 'La Tristesa Durera' and a Nina Perrson-less 'Your Love Alone is Not Enough' stood out in the second half - sad that the slightly comic Manics I saw live in Reading 1992 were more real than their later selves, who have all the passion of a reformed-Genesis.

Tonight, like so much of the Manics' career, was better on paper than in actuality; there is a reason why I haven't seen them since 1996.