Everything Must Go - Manic Street Preachers

Advantages: Polished perfection, Welsh lyrical craftsmenship, Driving rock beats and some mellow wonders, Why the manics are my second fave. band
Disadvantages: Nothing except the hauting calling for Richey James Edwards

...get the review goin eh. Everything Must Go is an album made around the turbulent division of the band when lead lyricist Richey Manic mysteriously disappeared in 1995 on the eve of US tour. Almost half of the albums material was produced before the disappearance songs like 'Kevin Carter'. After a period of intense mourning the band decided to ask Richeys parents for the permission to carry on as a three piece and thankfully they agreed. I fell that ...
...the bands change in direction. Everything Must Go drew influences from Art in the song 'Interiors' and one of the most moving songs he manics have produced 'Small black flowers that grow in the sky'. The order of the songs have been placed with precissional perfection sprouting rock ballads in between mellow musical craftsmanship. For instance Small black flowers drives straight into 'The girl who wanted to be god' which is one hell of a classic ... Read review

Advantages: 12 superb tracks and a glowing tribute to lost band member Richie
Disadvantages: None really.

...not quite as good as Everything Must Go and A design For Life. It starts with the drums and guitars joining to form the introduction and bring the song in on a high note before the vocals come in after about half a minute. The guitars really make this track as well and you can’t help thinking if this had been a different band would this have been anywhere near as good. “I Want to fly home until it hurts, Sleep for a while and speak no words in ...
...to say by this stage you really should have noticed just quite how good James’s vocals actually are. The song is a good one for singing along to as it’s a good easy going track that really flows along nicely with the aid of the drums. From there we move on to “Interiors (Song for Willem De Koonig)”, which is another decent track and quite easy going but upbeat all at the same time. It opens straight away with the vocals being joined quickly by the ... Read review

Advantages: See op
Disadvantages: See op

Everything Must Go is the first Manic Street Preachers since the mysterious disappearance of their guitarist and songwriter as well as the leading force Richey Edwards. This could be a real problem album; a large part of the band had gone and it was going to be interesting to see how they would fare. And in an answer it is a brilliant album. The media have got behind this album because of the circumstances, and as a result is has a lot of hype and ...
...catchy ones. 5. Everything Must Go Another real classic from the Manics, like Design for Life a very, very powerful song. Well written song, going backwards and forwards between arguments, and the chorus is really great. Nice lyrics if you real them, written again by Wire. 6. Small Black Flowers that Grow in the Sky Written by Richey Edwards, this is a more depressing and darker song. Some good hard lyrics, though less powerful as a song than some ... Read review

Advantages: Great lyrics, easy to listen to, fantastic music
Disadvantages: Different to older stuff, missing Richey

...The first track on’ Everything Must Go’ opens and closes in one of the most un-rock n’roll way imaginable, with gentle waves lapping on the intro and a poetry recital leading it out. Somewhere in the middle of ‘Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier’ though it explodes into a cracking rock song. An interesting way to open the album it has the Manics way of being typically anti-American and anti-commercialism but has a glossy end to it. Good song, but ...
...represents the change for the Manic Street Preachers. Instead of short and fast punk it is replaced with tuneful strings and melodies. You can almost whistle the tune, and that is a big shift. However the first words go – ‘libraries gave us power, then work came and made us free’ the later being a reference to the Nazi concentration camps slogans. How many rock songs now have ‘libraries’ as their first word? As a comeback song this can both be all ... Read review

Advantages: Some of the finest album tracks and singles of all time
Disadvantages: Not as good as The Holy Bible

...great songs to sing. Everything Must Go is actually the root of their new-found blandness, coming as a watershed after the disappearance of main lyricist Richey Edwards, but it is almost as good as their finest work and in my view the finest album of all time, The Holy Bible. 1996 was the year, the Tories were into their final year in government (ha ha ha) and girl power was about to explode with the Spice girls. Oasis were at their commercial peak ...
...to buy the album. Everything Must Go seems to begin underwater in the early seconds of Elvis Impersonator, the song reaches the surface when the harp kicks in and explodes out of the water when the electric guitar comes in the chorus. James Dean Bradfield’s voice sounded stronger than ever before as he roared “All American trilogy / In Lancashire pottery”. I don’t have a clue what this means but it doesn’t matter because ... Read review