FOLLOWING up a Greatest Hits LP with a collection of B-sides, rarities and covers could smack of commercialism from a band that, throughout its career, has maintained a vitriolic stance to the corporate greed of today's musical outfits.

It could. And it does.

As fans clamour for a real record to revive those wonderful days of the Holy Bible or Everything Must Go, Lipstick Traces seems like a band going through the motions.

Sure, there are plenty of good tracks in evidence here, drawn from the Manic's extensive back catalogue. Prologue To History is a great piano-driven rocker, the thrashy Judge Y'Self (last track recorded before Richie's disappearance) and 4 Ever Delayed are triumphant moments.

Disc 2 largely features hit-and-miss cover versions, the brilliant Out Of Time and funky Wrote For Luck on one hand, the irrelevant Last Christmas on the other.

Reports of The Manics lot are wildly inconsistent. I saw them play a victorious, if slightly short, slot at Glastonbury this year, only for sources to tell me they failed miserably to get out of second gear at Manchester's Move Festival, just weeks later.

Shame that the CD lacks one of the best Manic's tracks ever, Black Holes For The Young, a stunning duet between Bradfield and former singer with The Audience, one Sophie Ellis Bextor.

Worthy enough, but a buy for die-hard Manics fans only.