Album: Manic Street Preachers ‘Everything Must Go – 20’

There’s something a little bit odd about reviewing an album that’s the same age as me – a day older, in fact. Yet here we are: 20 years on and Manic Street Preachers are celebrating the anniversary of Everything Must Go with the release of a box set including CDs, DVDs, a vinyl and a book, as well as a double CD.

I suppose to a large extent Everything Must Go speaks for itself; 20 years on and the band’s most successful album is still as strong as ever. On listening to Everything Must Go in retrospect, the style change, which initially seemed so risky for the band, was in fact anything but: Everything Must Go is honest and powerful in a sense that still seems to resonate 20 years down the line.

With the double CD featuring both the remastered album and a live recording of the band’s gig at Manchester’s Nynex it solidifies the much-deserved success of the album. The Nynex show marked a leap when touring the album from a basement show to a 20,000 cap venue, and its inclusion in the reissue is an appropriate ode to just how brilliant the album not only was, but is.

What’s perhaps most exciting about the live CD is having the album tracks interspersed with those from previous albums: tracks from Generation Terrorists, Gold Against the Soul and The Holy Bible appear between those from the band’s then new album, seemingly celebrating rather than detracting from their newly established sound.

Though The Manics never went out of the limelight, Everything Must Go 20 – and upcoming live shows, which are set to visit tracks from the album that haven’t been played live since ’96 – is revisiting the band, and arguably their most successful work, in a brand new light.

Everything Must Go 20 is released on 20th May via Sony Music Entertainment Ltd.

Melissa Svensen
@MelYeaahh

Melissa Svensen

Melissa Svensen

Melissa, 22. Editor. Student, music journalist, probably talking about Blur or Bowie