Gold Against the Soul is the second studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 21 June 1993 by record label Columbia. The album reached No.8 on the UK Albums Chart.
Noted for its lyrics reflecting melancholia, Gold Against the Soul integrated a variation of styles, including funk and grunge.
Recording
The band stated that the choice to work with Dave Eringa again was important for this album: "We finished work in November and then just went straight into a demo studio and we came out about four weeks later with the album all finished. We were all happy with all the songs, we knew what they wanted to sound like, so we didn't want to use a mainstream producer because they've got their own sound and vision of what a record should be like. So we just phoned Dave up and said 'Look, come down, let's see how this works out', and everyone loved what we were doing, so we decided to stay with him."
When asked to look back on the album, the band themselves have described Gold Against the Soul as their least favourite album and the period surrounding the album as being the most unfocused of their career. The band's vocalist and guitarist James Dean Bradfield has said "All we wanted to do was go under the corporate wing. We thought we could ignore it but you do get affected."
Content
Lyrics, writing and themes
Simon Price of The Telegraph opined that the lyrics on Gold Against the Soul "switched from the political [of Generation Terrorists] to the personal". The lyrical content is considerably less political than their previous album Generation Terrorists, and the album is more reflective of the despair and melancholy of their later work.
"La Tristesse Durera" (literally "the sadness will go on") is the title of a biography of Vincent van Gogh, although the song is not about him but about a war veteran.
Style and influences
The album presents a different sound from their debut album, not only in terms of lyrics but in sound. The band privileged long guitar riffs and the drums feel more present and loud in the final mix of the album. This sound would be abandoned in their next album. According to AllMusic, the album takes "the hard rock inclinations of Generation Terrorists to an extreme." Meanwhile, Dave de Sylvia at Sputnikmusic characterized it as a glam rock album, similar to that of Bon Jovi, with Simon Price likening the record to "a blend of Bon Jovi and Nirvana". Cam Lindsay of Exclaim! proclaimed it to be a "sullen glam rock" album. Writing Leyendas Urbanas del Rock in 2019, José Luis Martín proclaimed that Gold Against the Soul saw the Manics "abandon glam punk and dangerously approach grunge". Tom Doyle of Q called the sound of the album "epic pop-rock", while Gigwise described it as "hair metal".
The album displayed a variety of styles; "Roses in the Hospital" tapped into a "stadium funk-rock" style, while "La Tristesse Durera" incorporated a quiet-loud dynamic which Ron Jovanovic opined to "follow the grunge template".
Regarding the album's influences, bassist Nicky Wire remarked that Gold Against the Soul was "all Alice in Chains and Red Hot Chili Peppers", and that he was emulating Flea at the time.
Release
Gold Against the Soul was released on 14 June 1993. It reached number 8 on the UK Albums Chart. The album has since gone Gold (100,000 copies) and spent more than 10 weeks in the Top 75. Gold Against the Soul also charted within the Top 100 in Germany and within the Top 50 in Japan.
Four singles were released from the album. "From Despair to Where" was the lead single. "La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)" was the second single from the album and it has been described by many as its highlight. The third single, "Roses in the Hospital", peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart, the highest-charting single from the band's first three albums. The fourth and final single, "Life Becoming a Landslide", charted at number 36, which would be the lowest charting single by the band until 2011's "Some Kind of Nothingness".
In March 2020, following several anniversary re-releases of old albums in previous years, the Manics announced a deluxe reissue of Gold Against the Soul for release on 12 June 2020. Bonus content included previously unreleased demos, B-sides from the era, remixes, and a live recording, while the CD was released alongside a book of unseen photographs from the era with handwritten annotations and lyrics from the band.
Reception
Gold Against the Soul has received generally mixed reviews from critics.