Everything Must Go

I have occasionally listened to Manic Street Preachers, mainly from their album Critical Thinking, released last year. They're a Welsh alternative rock band influenced by punk, post-punk, and glam rock. They were originally a four-piece group. However, after lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards disappeared, the group became a trio, with Everything Must Go as their first release as such.

Let me make this clear: I haven't listened to anything off The Holy Bible yet. It's gonna be really intriguing when I do, because, from what I gather, Everything Must Go went in a different direction from that record, embracing synths and strings for an anthemic rock style that felt in line with the Britpop movement at the time. Also, because Edwards was no longer with the band, Nicky Wire became the band's de facto lyricist, focusing on historical and political themes throughout. While songs address Edwards's disappearance and its impact on the band, drawing parallels to other artists who have suffered, like South African photojournalist Kevin Carter and Dutch abstract artist Willem de Kooning, this album is also surprisingly optimistic. It comes across as a strident celebration of life and expression to keep the band moving forward, despite the tragedy and unfortunate media coverage, while also pleading for fans to stick with them through this shift on the title track. The album is wonderful in that regard, and it certainly helped that the band took full advantage of the streamlined approach in their music, incorporating sweeping hooks, ornate strings, and a production style that certainly harkened back to the Wall of Sound.

Honestly, I couldn't find much to complain about, as Everything Must Go is an amazing record that showcased a band overcoming the empty void left by their long-gone bandmate. I very much look forward to the other Manic Street Preachers record to find out what was left behind.

What a great album, full of catchy choruses, great hooks and lyrics with a bit of bite to them. It's maybe not the most consistent album, but the majority of it is excellent. You can feel a kind of hangover of Richey Edwards coming into this, especially on songs like Small Black Flowers that Grow in the Sky. Then you have some more bombastic, sing-along tracks on the other side. Both work though. Then you're chucking in some all-timer songs like A Design for Life, and you're set.

Very good!

4.5 rounded up.

Big, poppy, rock records with dramatic vocals are really not my thing.

I've never been interested by the manics and this is not the album that will change my mind. It's just the standard mid of the 90s rock pop album. Next.

All of the angriest and spikiest elements of The Holy Bible have been smoothed out for Everything Must Go and what's left is a very fresh, bubbly radio rock album, which could not be more pleasant or listenable. I personally miss that spikiness but I can't honestly say they put a foot wrong. Where the Manics have lost that explorative breadth of musical styles they have gained a confidence and depth in their chosen style of choice.

I do like this album. The last album with Richey’s lyrics and afterwards they never really sounded as vital again.

Day 25

Am I tearing up? A good British album that maintains its solid quality the whole time? Thank you, generator 🥹

Fav track: A Design for Life

1.83

radio music

Pretty good rock album, but nothing to write home about

Wasn't my cup of tea. Can't really pinpoint why, apart from the fact that I didn't like the voice and the guitar sound.
"Enola/Alone" and "No Surface All Feeling" were standouts though.
2/5 - below average

Brit pop - all songs sound mostly the same

Unfortunately, I found this album much less interesting than the Holy Bible. Some songs approached a 4 (Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier, Design for Life, Everything Must Go) but most others were annoyingly basic and repetitive or just "meh". Not their best work. 2.7/5 -> 3/5

More Britpop??? I thought these brothers were post punk??? What the fuck??? Anyway this is boring as SHIT dude. I cannot stand these guys. The playing is uninspired, the vocals are annoying, and the topics that the vocals harp on feel more pretentious than radical, especially since they’re using the vehicle of… Britpop. Also, this is corny! People, they’ve got a song called “Enola/Alone!” Can you fucking believe it? There are some okay melodies in there, some okay songs, that much I can confidently say. But it’s still really annoying. Real bad. Do not recommend.
4.8/10

Bloody hell it must be about 20 years since I’ve listened to this one. I used to love the Manics but stopped listening to them when I went full Metalhead lol.

I really enjoyed revisiting this, I might have to delve into their discography to see what I’ve missed.

Top Track - Kevin Carter

This one’s tough because a bunch of it is really cool and a bunch is insufferably cheesy broadway shit.

Oof, I didn't expect this one to be one where I'd have a visceral negative reaction to. It's not awful. It's not even bad, it's really good. But for some reason the vocals are just killing me, and the music isn't really elevating things for me either with it kinda sounding very 90's in a way I'm not a fan of..

The vocals are reminding me kinda of James LaBrie from Dream Theater, who's not a vocalist I particularly like, but he's fine in the context of Dream Theater, whereas the vocals here are absolutely not working for me.

But yeah. One of the very few albums where I just don't like it despite it being good.

Got to admire a band who can open a proper anthemic rock song with "Libraries give us power".

I remember writing a list of my 10 favourite music acts when I was about 9 or 10. MSP made the cut, alongside Celine Dion. Would love to remember the rest. I feel like Robson & Jerome could have been on there. And Portishead.

This was entirely new to me, and I'll say it was really fun to listen to. Great stuff, highly enjoyable, I'll go back to more tracks from them.

Dit album voelt iets.minder chemisch als het vorige album dat we kregen. De zang is vergelijkbaar. Het is een licht afwijkende stem, die bij de nummers met iets meer kracht fijn uit de verf komt. In totaal is het album iets minder enerverend, en zou ik iets lager waarderen dan The holy bible. De titeltrack zorgt ervoor dat dit album weer redelijk bijtrekt