Gold Against The Soul

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For the deluxe reissue coming in June, Wire promised that fans would enjoy a deep-dive into the treasure trove of B-sides and never-heard-before demos.In Spin, Simon Reynolds opined that the band "motor-mouth a fine manifesto, but haven't got a musical bone between them". Nicky Wire spoke of the reissue, acknowledging that it hasn’t always been a band favourite: “ We moved our studio a few years ago and I unearthed a lot of demos and pictures from the ‘Gold Against The Soul’ era and thought it would be a shame not to let them see the light of day. In summary, while boxes have certainly been ticked, and it appears to do what it should, the band seem to have treated Gold Against the Soul rather poorly with this reissue.

An enjoyable listen and an improvement over the CD that I've been playing for the best part of 30 years. It felt like we were gorging on a lot of American rock in particular, whereas [seminal 1994 album] ‘The Holy Bible’ was all our British influences and new wave. As well as gearing up for a summer of stadium shows supporting The Killers and Green Day throughout the UK and Europe, the Manics are currently at work on the follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed ‘Resistance Is Futile‘. Joe Tangari of Pitchfork, however, lambasted Gold Against the Soul as a "labored, sophomore-slumping hard rock turd that had them looking washed up early", concluding that "there was really no preparation for the intensity, perversion and genuine darkness of The Holy Bible" which would follow in 1994. It has often been said that 'Sleepflower' was the Manics attempt at a grunge song, and if so, it was a very valiant effort, since it sounds very much like a Nirvana song.

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 have finally got around to reissuing Gold Against The Soul, almost grudgingly it seems, with Nicky Wire all but acknowledging it’s the black sheep in the family of their early albums: “We haven’t always been the most complementary about this album in the past, but with hindsight it was a strange and curious record. At five and a half minutes it is the longest song on the album, but pans out impressively, with spiky guitars, prominent drums, and the lyric "Rock and Roll has a conscience", presumably as a reference to their own body of work.

However, it's only a minor complaint, and if you turn your volume up loud enough, you won't really notice it anyway.

In his retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described Gold Against the Soul as a "flawed but intriguing second album". He added that the album was "heavy, melodic and packed full of huge choruses: radio-friendly doesn’t have to be used in the pejorative sense and it's certainly more considered and mature than their debut.

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.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.