Everything Must Go (Manic Street Preachers album)
Encyclopedia
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 at the height of Britpop
in the mid 1990s.
, 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 7lb", 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" (which is a quote from the film "The Best Years of Our Lives"). 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.
, 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
.
in the UK and is their most successful album to date, spending 80 weeks in the top 75 albums with the album still in the top 5 a year after its release.
, completed the three-disc set.
Additional personnel
Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards and Sean Moore. The band are part of the Cardiff music scene, and were at their most prominent during the 1990s...
, released in 1996. It contains five songs with lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
by Richey James Edwards
Richey James Edwards
Richard James Edwards was a Welsh musician who was rhythm guitarist and lyricist of the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. He was known for his politicized and intellectual songwriting which, combined with an enigmatic and eloquent character, has assured him cult status...
, 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
Journal for Plague Lovers
Journal for Plague Lovers is the ninth studio album by the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 18 May 2009, and features posthumous lyrics by Richey Edwards, who vanished on 1 February 1995, and was presumed deceased in 2008. It is the only Manic Street Preachers album...
. The working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
of this album was Sounds in the Grass after a series of paintings by Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
. The album was a commercial and critical success at the height of Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
in the mid 1990s.
Music and lyrics
Everything Must Go, which takes its name from a play by Patrick JonesPatrick Jones
Patrick Jones is a Welsh poet, playwright and filmmaker. His work is often in collaboration with the rock band Manic Street Preachers; his brother, Nicky Wire, is their bassist.-Biography:...
, Nicky Wire
Nicky Wire
Nicholas Allen Jones, known as Nicky Wire, is the lyricist, bassist and occasional vocalist with the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers.-Early life:...
's brother, represents a change of style for the Manics. Their previous album, The Holy Bible
The Holy Bible (album)
The Holy Bible is the third studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 29 August 1994 by Epic Records and was the last of the band's albums released before the disappearance of lyricist and guitarist Richey Edwards , on 1 February 1995.Edwards was...
, 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
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
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 7lb", 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
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours is the fifth album by Welsh band Manic Street Preachers. It was released in September 1998 on Epic Records, and in the United States the following year, on Virgin Records.- Background :...
.
Subjects tackled on the album include the tragic life of the photographer Kevin Carter
Kevin Carter
Kevin Carter was an award-winning South African photojournalist and member of the Bang-Bang Club.-Early life:...
, on the track of the same name, Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
, and the maltreatment of animals in captivity on "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky" (which is a quote from the film "The Best Years of Our Lives"). 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
Gold Against the Soul
Gold Against the Soul is the second album by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers released on June 14, 1993.All lyrics were written by Nicky Wire and Richey James Edwards, all music was written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore.-Album overview:...
.) Bradfield typically performs all the guitar parts for their recordings.
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 HedgesMike Hedges
-Career:Mike Hedges started as a tape-op at Morgan Studios in London in the late 1970s. Having graduated to engineer, he went freelance in 1981 and became an engineer/producer....
, as a possible contributing factor to the overall change in sound, and drew parallels to the lyrics of Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
and the "reverb-laden" music of Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
. Nicholas Barber of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
described Everything Must Go as "the most immediate, assured and anthemic British hard-rock album since Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
's Definitely Maybe
Definitely Maybe
Definitely Maybe is the debut album by English rock band Oasis, released in August 1994. It was an immediate commercial and critical success in the UK, having followed on the heels of singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker" and "Live Forever"....
". 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
Vox (magazine)
Vox was a British music magazine, first issued in October 1990. It was published by IPC Media, and was later billed as a monthly sister-magazine to IPC's music weekly, the NME....
'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
Brit Awards
The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...
.
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 platinumRIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
in the UK and is their most successful album to date, spending 80 weeks in the top 75 albums with the album still in the top 5 a year after its release.
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 JonesPatrick Jones
Patrick Jones is a Welsh poet, playwright and filmmaker. His work is often in collaboration with the rock band Manic Street Preachers; his brother, Nicky Wire, is their bassist.-Biography:...
, completed the three-disc set.
Track listing
All tracks written by Bradfield/Moore (music) and Wire (lyrics), unless otherwise noted.Personnel
Manic Street Preachers- James Dean BradfieldJames Dean BradfieldJames Dean Bradfield is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers.- Early life :...
– lead vocals, guitar, piano - Sean MooreSean Moore (musician)Sean Anthony Moore is the writer, drummer/percussionist and sometime trumpet player of the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers.-Early years:...
– drums, percussion, trumpet, backing vocals - Nicky WireNicky WireNicholas Allen Jones, known as Nicky Wire, is the lyricist, bassist and occasional vocalist with the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers.-Early life:...
– bass, backing vocals - Richey Edwards – guitar on "No Surface All Feeling"
Additional personnel
- 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