Miss Black America God Bless Miss Black America

Eye make-up, military outfits, quote-ridden sleeve notes and a political edge - Miss Black America could almost pass for Holy Bible era Manics covers band. Lazy journalism? Hardly. I'm just stating the blatantly obvious and if my honesty causes offence, so be it.

It is only in the all-important sound department that such generous comparisons fall flat. Musically MBA lack the dark flashes of arrogance that made the Manics such a powerful force back in the mid-nineties and more often than not, Seymour Glass's vocal sounds oddly out of place. His lyrics may be vitriolic but the is only one way to describe his delivery: woefully tame.

Miss Black America have a passion and perhaps more importantly, they have an agenda. Having read Tom Lee's interview with Glass I can only admire what he is trying to achieve. Perhaps a few albums down the line Miss Black America will provide an adequate soapbox for Glass's views - until then however, his words will continue to fall upon deaf ears in a similar way to those of the Socialist street campaigners that he so despises.