Everything Must Go (1996)

The material is important. Any composer will tell you. Without good material, production value can only cover a certain texture, guitar parts can only count the ears for so long. The material is important. It gives the band the foundation on which they stand. And at a time when the Manic Street Preachers had lost their lyricist/guitarist to empty uncertainty, all they had was good stuff.

But for Nicky Wire, bassist and secondary lyricist, this task proved daunting, as he now became the group’s primary songwriter and idea person. Vocalist/guitarist James Dean Bradfield also found himself under pressure, not knowing how to arrange his music without Edwards’ intellect to guide them. But with the blessing of the Edwards family to continue playing and the serendipitous opportunity to work with producer Mike Hedges, the Welsh trio reunited in Chateau De La Rouge Motte, France in 1995 to record their fourth album, one that stripped much of their what they had. he had fought beforehand.

Strangely, given the sinister and gloomy setting the band found themselves in, ‘Everything Must Go’ turned out to be a much livelier record than ‘Gold Against The Soul’ (1993) or ‘The Holy Bible’ (1994). Whereas ‘Bible’ lacked any complicated instrumentation aside from some spiraling solos, ‘Everything’ was embellished with bee-bop harmonies, pleasing string work, and reserved orchestration. With jangly rockers ‘Kevin Carter’ and the title track at the center of the album, skiffle singer ‘Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier’ opening the album and the sumptuous acoustic ballad ‘Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky’ closing the second. Halfway through, this record proved to be as great an archetypal Britpop record as any released in 1996. Fittingly, it’s only the closing track ‘No Surface All Feeling’ that would have fit ‘Bible’;

Edwards’ shadow runs through the record (some of his leftover lyrics were used on the album), but this turned out to be the album where Wire called the shots. ‘A Design For Life’ proved to be his calling card, what ‘Faster’ was to Edwards (a display of anarchic sentiments detailing humanity’s downfall and failures), ‘Design’ was to Wire (the proclaimed socialist appeal to the plight of their fellow workers). Wire, more aware of the impact of singles than his mentor, gave ‘Design’ a refrain forever entrenched in the minds of festival audiences for generations to come, giving the band a much-needed no in the UK. United. 2 hits ‘Australia’ and ‘Further Away’ continued this trend of singing choruses, acknowledging that the modern music market favored 45s over records. Edwards’ words, used on ‘The Girl Who Wanted To Be God’ and ‘Small Black Flowers…’ proved that the band hadn’t lost their taste for the viperine.

The biggest revelation on the record is just how competent singer James Dean Bradfield proved to be. Always a better singer than his contemporaries Brett Anderson, Jarvis Cocker or Damon Albarn, previous records emphasized the volume of his guitar parts, meaning his voice tended to sound abrasive and shrill. Here, he takes a much more nuanced approach, lending a soulful resonance to the overdriven pop of ‘Kevin Carter,’ a whisper quiet sing-along of ‘Enola/Alone,’ while the title track’s chorus is just a few notes short of opera. This, over echoing stacattos and beautiful orchestration, and you have a quintessential pop record.

You can’t help but be happy for the band, nineteen years later. A strong reinvention that proved to be a commercial success, a strong new direction and innovative pop structure, ‘Everything’ proved to be the band’s second straight masterpiece. Where ‘Bible’ managed to sound completely different to any other band, ‘Everything’ managed to fit into the pop movement and prove their superiority over other Britpop bands.