The title really says it all ‘Everything Must Go’ shows a big movement away from older ground of the Manic Street Preachers. Some people, me included feel the Manic peaked with their first album, but this remain a stunning album. The loss of Richey made a huge difference to the Manics. Although he did not contribute much on stage with his guitar the whole sound changed notably. Edwards wrote most of the songs in a split with bassist Nicky Wire and can lay claim to being one of the best lyricists of the 90s. It must have been a hard decision was made to carry on as a trio as all the Manic were school friends from a small town in South Wales, and this was the first result with a new look. From the earlier work and especially ‘The Holy Bible’ the words can hit you with the beauty of expression. You can clearly tell the differences between a song written by Rickey, and one by Wire. This album contains a mixture, and it is apparent. Just the title of ‘Small Black Flowers that Grown in the Sky’ makes an image that makes you wonder sort of mind can come up with that. Generally later songs like ‘A Design for Life’ or ‘Australia’ work better as songs with melodies that run together better, instead of ‘Kevin Carter’ where James Dean Bradfield has been forced to work around Richey Edwards lyrics. That is not to say the newer songs don’t carry a strong message, with a strong empathy for workers and liberties the Manics songs still remain one of the only chart bands to mean anything. The sound on ‘Everything Must Go’ as a result is almost totally different. The strings are out on several songs, and some of the songs are real anthems. The album was produced by Mike Hedges, and it results in an almost Phil Spector feel to the open spaces. A change indeed, but still results in a great album and up with the best of the Manics.

‘A Design for Life’ perhaps best 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 the best of old Manics and new Manics.

Some people do not like the fourth track ‘Enola/Alone’. It is not unlike others with the wide atmospheric feel added in production, if a little overproduced. Maybe looks a little poor in comparison, but I like the upbeat and soaring track. James Dean Bradfield’s vocals are great on this, as is for the rest of the album while the lyrics are not the stand out on the album, still remain solid and better than most could do.

‘Small Black Flowers that Grow in the Sky’ as said earlier stands out as a real Richey moment. It is a much slower pace than the guitar driven earlier tracks, and uses a Welsh harp for a real feel. It is a dark and mysterious track that would not have looked out of place on ‘Holy Bible’, so seems a little out of place, but remains a thought provoking song.

The album is wrapped up with another epic tune – ‘No Surface All Feeling’ manages to be simple yet stunning. It does push the point a little, but again manages sublime lyrics a simple sound and is just so easy and great to listen through.