Praised by Kev in these pages before now, if I remember correctly, Manbreak are a welcome antidote to all the dreary new seriousness being peddled by the like of Elbow and Muse. "Dark Age" is the first single to be taken from their hopefully imminent second album, and it's close to brilliant. These Liverpudlians manage to capture all the isolation and dislocation that the aforementioned aspire to, but - shock! horror! no! - then gather it up in a huge structure of tune and melody: alienation you can sing along to, who'd've thunk it? The other two, Bill Laswell (it's that man again!)-produced tracks on this single don't make the grade so spectacularly, but why split hairs? Something very fine might be about to happen.

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