Rewind: Manic Street Preachers - The Everlasting

This glacial epic by the Manic Street Preachers was released as a single exactly 20 years ago today, on 23 November 1998, reaching number 11 in the UK charts. It was the second single to be taken from their fifth studio album This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours', a much-anticipated record at the time, which went on to become their biggest seller. 'The Everlasting' is one of those incredible opening tracks, a spacious, cinematic epic radiating with the saddest, resigned beauty. 

The album went straight to number 1 in the UK on the week of its release, and went on to sell 5 million copies. It's title is a quote by Welsh Labour politician Aneurin Bevan, and its cover photograph was taken on Black Rock Sands near Porthmadog, Wales.

20 years on, and This Is My Truth stands tall as one of the band's finest works. Read a full review of it HERE. The album is being reissued next month in December as a 3CD deluxe edition, featuring exclusive demos and remastered B sides. The band will be playing the album in full next year in 2019, when they tour various intimate venues throughout the UK.