Everything Must Go - Manic Street Preachers > Reviews > Ah Ah, Ah Ah, Critics, Critics...

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money

Advantages:	it's the manics and it's brill
Disadvantages:	not everyone likes it but then they're either goths or metalheads

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The fourth and possibly most eagerly awaited of all the Manic Street Preachers' albums, 'Everything Must Go' could well be described as a 'recovery' album. Released the year after Richey's disappearance, the album sports some Richey-written lyrics and some lyrics from Nick alone. Contrary to popular belief, EMG was not the first album on which Nick wrote a track with all his own lyrics. He wrote 'This Is Yesterday' on 'The Holy Bible' and was most distressed when it was published alongside an article about Richey asking whether rock lyrics could kill. 'Everything Must Go' is an album from a band on the road to recovery, not all there yet. Which is probably why it was so popular. There are hints of darkness and depression ('Kevin Carter' and 'The Girl Who Wanted To Be God') and shades of optimism ('A Design For Life').

Track 1 - Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier - 3:29
Lyrics: Wire & Edwards
Music: Moore & Bradfield

Opening with the sounds of waves lapping against a beach and far-off strumming, 'Elvis' shows maximum verse/chorus contrast. In the verse it's just James and a clean sounding electric, after the lines 'overweight and out of date' it's an all-in rock out, starting with a powerful A5 chord. The song mixes dark lyrics 'the future's dead, fundamentally' with an optimistic and soaring guitar solo at the end. The song ends with a quote from a poem called 'Dixie'.

Track 2 - A Design For Life - 4:16
Lyrics: Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

Arguably the Manics' best known and most successful record, 'A Design For Life' was originally written by Nick as a poem in the period after Richey's disappearance. He showed it to James, who put it to a 12/8 guitar riff and turned it into an Ivor Novello songwriting award-winning song. ADFL is 9/10 the song that the Manics will finish a gig on, most probably because of its significance to them and their fans and its anthemic qualities. Just read the lyrics out to yourself and feel the hairs on the back of your neck jump. Go on. Strings are used to their maximum potential here and to great effect they are, too.

Track 3 - Kevin Carter - 3:24
Lyrics: Edwards
Music: Moore, Bradfield & Wire

My personal favourite from the album, 'Kevin Carter' is all about the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. Carter was part of the 'Bang-Bang Club' in apartheid South Africa along with Joao Silva, Ken Oosterbroek and Greg Marinovich. He took a picture of a child being stalked by a vulture which subsequently made him the darling of the reporting world. He attended gala dinners and such events - all because he had used a hopeless situation to his advantage. He came to the point where 'the pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist' and killed himself. The bossa nova-style rhythm and drums generally are a joy to listen to, and this plays well alongside the straight-out powerchords chorus.

Track 4 - Enola/Alone - 4:07
Lyrics: Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

Track four, 'Enola/Alone' is the second song from the album that the lyrics were written solely by Nick. The song speaks of real loss, be it of a friend, girlfriend or whatever. The song fits nicely with track 11, 'Further Away'. Once when the band played it live, James added an extra verse quoting the Clash song 'Lost In The Supermarket'!

Track 5 - Everything Must Go - 3:40
Lyrics: Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

A song blatantly written about themselves, 'Everything Must Go' is written in a 'question and answer' style two lines pattern. It's all about trying to forget what went before and get on with it. The song apparently contradicts itself with the lyrics 'escape from our history' and 'i look to the future it makes me cry'. But if the sentiment can be taken as real, we don't have to take all the lyrics at face value.

Track 6 - Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky - 3:02
Lyrics: Edwards
Music: Moore, Bradfield & Wire

This song was written by Richey after seeing a documentary on TV about caged animals and the personality disorders they develop as a result of their confinement. The music is played on an acoustic six-string with a slightly altered tuning (a few more D's, I think). The song features one of the most poignant ending lines on the whole album - 'Here chewing your tail is joy.'. Indeed.

Track 7 - The Girl Who Wanted To Be God - 3:35
Lyrics: Edwards & Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

The song that wins the award for most interesting and subtle rhythm on the album, 'The Girl Who Wanted To Be God' is about Sylvia Plath, poet and wife of the late Ted Hughes. Plath commited suicide before Hughes became Poet Laureate and was known for her tortured writing style. This isn't the first time Plath features in a Manics song though. In 'Faster' from 'The Holy Bible', there's the line 'I spat out Plath and Pinter'. Plath was obviously a writer that Richey valued.

Track 8 - Removables - 3:31
Lyrics: Edwards
Music: Moore, Bradfield & Wire

Another Richey-lyric, ‘Removables’ speaks of the transience of things, how easily things just die ‘a bronze moth dies easily, unknown to others’. The title ‘Removables’ gives further evidence of this transience, how easy it is to remove something and not notice that it’s gone.

Track 9 – Australia – 4:04
Lyrics: Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

Possibly the most beautifully simple intro on the album, ‘Australia’ is another all-time Manics track. The vehicle for many vocal adlibs live, the song wins on sheer energy value. When I saw the Manics at Brixton in March much to my disappointment, but if they had it’s quite possible that people would have jumped from the balcony from the energy built up. ‘I wanna fly and run ‘til it hurts’. I really do.

Track 10 – Interiors – 4:17
Lyrics: Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

A song with a similar riffing style to that of ‘Kevin Carter’, ‘Interiors’ is one of the great Manic oxymorons. It is apparently downcast and melancholy, but in this melancholy state there is an uplifting element, more so than in the blatantly uplifting songs such as ‘Australia’ and ‘You Love Us’. ‘Motown Junk’, for example, is quite down in the doldrums, but can be one of the most uplifting songs the Manics play if you’re pissed off and frustrated. ‘Interiors’ is probably the best lyric written by Nick on the new album, I would argue better than ADFL, but many will disagree with me.

Track 11 – Further Away – 3:38
Lyrics: Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

This song hold particular significance to me, as alongside ‘If You Tolerate This…’ it was the first Manics song I learnt to play on my guitar! I still can’t play all the solo, though… The sister song to ‘Enola/Alone’, ‘Further Away’ is a song that wins on empathy value. You really can *feel* this song and understand it without having a degree in politics.

Track 12 – No Surface All Feeling – 4:14
Lyrics: Wire
Music: Moore & Bradfield

To be honest, you really can’t appreciate this song until you’ve danced or jumped up and down to it. It’s that simple. The verse is much softer, but the tension mounts as you get to the chorus. One of the melancholy oxymorons on the album, No Surface All Feeling is a great way to end an album with the distant vocals and drums in the forefront. The solo is a winner as well, climbing up the fretboard until it stops and slides down several times live.

Here the Manics at arguably their musical best, and they're meaning far more than on any other album. There's the songs speaking of their own personal tortures, but at the same time a realisation that there's more out there.