Gold Against the Soul
| Gold Against the Soul | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Manic Street Preachers | ||||
| Released | 14 June 1993 | |||
| Recorded | January–March 1993 at Outside Studios, Checkendon, England | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 42:58 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Dave Eringa | |||
| Manic Street Preachers chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Gold Against the Soul | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Martin C. Strong | 9/10 |
| Melody Maker | favourable |
| NME | 6/10 |
| Q | |
| Spin | unfavourable |
| Sputnikmusic | |
Gold Against the Soul is the second studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on 14 June 1993 by record label Columbia.
The lyrics on Gold Against the Soul are 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.
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 themselves 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, David de Sylvia at Sputnikmusic characterized it as a glam rock album, similar to that of Bon Jovi.
The band also 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."
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