Everything Must Go by Manic Street Preachers

Everything Must Go, the fourth Manic Street Preachers album, came out on Epic on 20 May 1996, and it's the sound of a band that almost stopped. Lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards had disappeared in February 1995, and after six months away, with his family's blessing, James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore carried on as a trio.

With Mike Hedges producing, the claustrophobic punk fury of the old records opens out into something huge and sweeping, with Bradfield belting like a man holding a building up. A Design for Life, the title track, Kevin Carter and Australia all landed in the UK top 10 that year. It was a critical and commercial triumph at the height of Britpop: number 2 in the UK, more than two million sold, Brit Award honours in 1997, and a regular fixture on best-albums-ever lists since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.