Released: 1996
Following the disappearance of band member Richey Edwards, which you can read more about on his Wikipedia page here, the Manics decided to continue as a three-piece and made this album, their fourth, and most successful, and for many, their breakthrough into the mainstream.
This album left behind the bleaker, sparser sound of previous album "The Holy Bible" in favour of bigger, rockier and more epic sounds, and obviously, this worked commercially for the band.
The best songs here, as seems to be a recurring theme of many of the Britpop albums I'm reviewing, are the singles 'A Design For Life', 'Everything Must Go', 'Kevin Carter' and 'Australia'.
The rest of the album is a mixed bag. 'The Girl Who Wanted To Be Good' and closing track 'No Surface All Feeling' are the best of the rest, but some of the songs, especially 'Enola/Alone' and 'Small Black Flowers', are really quite poor.
Overall, a fairly average album, certainly not the best the Manics have made, nor the worst.
Rating: 2.5/5
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