Everything Must Go (Manic Street Preachers album)

For the album by Steely Dan, see Everything Must Go (Steely Dan album).

Untitled

Everything Must Go is the fourth album by Manic Street Preachers, released in 1996. It contains five songs with lyrics by Richey James Edwards, who disappeared and presumed to have died circa 1 February 1995 and was the last album to feature his contributions until Journal for Plague Lovers. The working title of this album was Sounds In The Grass - after a series of paintings by Jackson Pollock. The album was a commercial and critical success and a fine example of Britpop in the mid 1990s.

Music and lyrics

Everything Must Go, which takes its name from a play by Patrick Jones, Nicky Wire's brother, represents a change of style for the Manics. Their previous album, The Holy Bible, had been a stark, disturbing album with a minimal amount of instrumentation whilst this album embraces synths and strings, has a more commercial feel and fits with the Britpop movement that was prevalent at the time. The lyrical focus of the album is also shifted, due in part to Edwards' departure. Instead of introspective and autobiographical tracks such as 4st 7 lbs, Wire's predilection for grandiose, historical and political themes dominates. These themes would continue through their next album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.

Subjects tackled on the album include the tragic life of the photographer Kevin Carter, on the track of the same name, Willem de Kooning, and the maltreatment of animals in captivity on "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky". The latter track, with lyrics by Richey James Edwards, can also be interpreted as an exploration of his mental state before his disappearance; the line "Here chewing your tail is joy" for instance may be as much about Richey's self harm as it is the tormented self injury of zoo animals.

Part of the rhythm guitar on "No Surface All Feeling" was played by Edwards before his disappearance, making it only the second time that Edwards' guitar-work was present on a Manic Street Preachers recorded track (the other instance being "La Tristesse Durera" on Gold Against the Soul.) Bradfield typically performs all the guitar parts for their recordings.

Critical reception

Writing for Q magazine in June 1996, Tom Doyle thought that Everything Must Go had "little in common" with its predecessor, The Holy Bible, and saw the album as a return to, and improvement upon, the "epic pop-rock" sound of Gold Against The Soul. He noted the band's choice of producer, Mike Hedges, as a possible contributing factor to the overall change in sound, and drew parallels to the lyrics of Kurt Cobain and the "reverb-laden" music of Phil Spector. Nicholas Barber of The Independent described Everything Must Go as "the most immediate, assured and anthemic British hard-rock album since Oasis's Definitely Maybe". He also thought that the record was more accessible when comparing it to the "crushingly heavy-going" sound of The Holy Bible, especially, he noted, for a band "who once would have spat at the breadhead, corporate-sell-out idea of a hummable ditty." Vox magazine's Mark Sutherland saw Everything Must Go as the group's "most approachable" album, describing it as a "record so superb it might just make intelligence fashionable again", and surmising that the album "proves that, professionally, at least, the Manic Street Preachers don't miss Richey."

In 1998, Q readers voted it the 11th greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 39 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". The album also won the award for Best British Album at the 1997 Brit Awards.

Chart performance

As with the lead single "A Design for Life", the album peaked at #2 in the UK charts. "Everything Must Go", "Kevin Carter" and "Australia" were also released as singles and reached the UK Top 10. So far the album has gone double platinum in the UK.

10th Anniversary Edition

A 10th anniversary edition of the album was released on November 6, 2006. It included the original album, demos, B-sides, remixes, rehearsals and alternate takes of the album's songs, spread out over two CDs. An additional DVD, featuring music videos, live performances, TV appearances, a 45-minute documentary on the making of the album, and two films by Patrick Jones, completed the three-disc set.

Tracklisting

All tracks written by Bradfield/Moore (music) and Wire (lyrics), unless otherwise noted.

1. "Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier" (Lyrics by Wire/Edwards) – 3:29
2. "A Design for Life" – 4:16
3. "Kevin Carter" (Music by Bradfield/Moore/Wire, lyrics by Edwards) – 3:24
4. "Enola/Alone" – 4:07
5. "Everything Must Go" – 3:41
6. "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky" (Music by Bradfield/Moore/Wire, lyrics by Edwards) – 3:02
7. "The Girl Who Wanted to Be God" (Lyrics by Wire/Edwards) – 3:35
8. "Removables" (Music by Bradfield/Moore/Wire, lyrics by Edwards) - 3:31
9. "Australia" – 4:04
10. "Interiors (Song for Willem de Kooning)" – 4:17
11. "Further Away" ^[A] – 3:38
12. "No Surface All Feeling" – 4:14

Personnel

Manic Street Preachers

• James Dean Bradfield – lead vocals, guitars, piano
• Richey Edwards – guitar on "No Surface All Feeling"
• Sean Moore – drums, percussion, trumpet, backing vocals
• Nicky Wire – bass, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• John Green – hammond organ, keyboards
• Martin Ditchum – percussion
• Julie Aliss – harp
• Gini Ball – violin
• Sally Herbert – violin
• Anne Stephenson – violin
• Chris Pitsillides – viola
• Clare Orsler – viola
• Martin Greene – string arrangements