Significant longplayers from yesteryear
20 May 2026
Welsh heroes MANIC STREET PREACHERS released their
4th album EVERYTHING MUST GO on 20 May 1996, today
30 years ago.
The first album without guitarist/lyricist Richey Edwards,
who disappeared mysteriously in February the year before.
Nicky Wire (bassist, lyricist) in an interview with The Guardian in 2016: “We always
wanted to be massive. It would have been great for Richey to have been with us at those
huge gigs. That’s the real sadness. It’s great that he is on the record with some of his lyrics thoug.
Manics on the cover of NME in 1994
James Dean Brandfield (Vocalist, guitarist) in the same interview: “Look, let’s get in
a room together as a band rather than as friends, and see what the dynamic is like without Richey. Writing a song like A Design for Life was a massive relief: it was the only way we could
be ourselves again.”
The record peaked at #2 in the UK.
NME said: “You leave feeling privileged to have experienced such a life-affirming
and tuneful bout of self-counselling, and you feel it’s done them good as well.
‘Everything Must Go’ punches at its own heavy, emotional weight – of recent memory only Radiohead’s ‘The Bends’ can spar in the same ring – but as the right hand pounds you with desolation, the left follows through with a tentative and gentle tickle of optimism.”
TUTV: My all-Manics-time favorite album. A grand mixed emotions opus. The first LP without the sadly missed Richey Edwards. Everything Must Go felt and still feels like a heart and soul tribute to him.”
KEY SINGLE
ALBUM