Albums : Critical Thinking

Released last 14 February 2025, "Critical Thinking" is the 15th., studio album by fantastic Welsh band Manic Street Preachers. The album was supported by four singles prior to its release, including "Decline and Fall". It was met with universal acclaim by music critics. The album features three tracks with bassist Nicky Wire on lead vocals, including the opening title track and "Hiding in Plain Sight", the band's first single which he sings.

 

The album's tracks are explicitly political, as Wire likes political discussion. He stated that the "left is really good at telling people off, which just makes everyone think: fuck off" and says he knew that Trump would win the US election: "It was so obvious to me. Politics is much more about mood and gesture than policy at the moment, and we live in an age of spectacle and eventisation".  The album cover picture was taken by Welsh documentary photographer David Hurn in the Painted Desert, Arizona while he was travelling to photograph Navajo Native Americans after receiving "a bi-centennial fellowship award by the American government". Hurn described the site of the photograph as "strange", and "as if someone drunk had been making a drawing on the road." Wire is a self-described "long-time admirer of Hurn". 

Title track Critical Thinking gets the album off to a flyer, as Nicky Wire takes a turn on vocals walking us through some of the gripes of modern life, the cynicism of the lyrics within this track were enough to make us laugh. Next up, Decline & Fall  opens with a piano intro before exploding into life. James Dean Bradfield gets back to vocal duties and his class is written all over this one, it could quickly become another of the Manics‘ anthemic tracks  and is sure to go down well on their upcoming tour.

Brushstrokes Of Reunion, another highly charged track as the vocals and bass work well together. This one is very pleasing on the ears, taking the listener back to the formation days of the band when they released songs such as Motorcycle Emptiness. The next two tracks are both standouts on the record, as Hiding In Plain Sight continues the traditional Manics sound, with Wire once again taking on the vocals with stunning backup from Lana McDonagh, while People Ruin Paintings has an infectious guitar riff that helps to make it the best song on Critical Thinking.

As we move towards the end of the album, Out Of Time Revival and Deleted Scenes are well worth a listen. Wire ends the album on vocals once again, sounding very much like a young Bernard Sumner from New Order fame. OneManMilitia is the perfect way to end the twelve-track album.

Nicky Wire stated that Critical Thinking is "a different kind of record" to previous Manics albums. Regarding the themes of the album includes themes of moral judgement, while Bradfield said the band had "no real mission statement", allowing for "a sense of freedom". 

 

The band further explained that "Dear Stephen" is inspired by the time in 1984 when the Smiths played Cardiff University. Wire's mum wrote to the group explaining that her teenage son was desperate to see the band but was too ill to attend. The Smiths wrote back, with Morrissey scribbling “get well soon Nick” on a postcard. "An almost spiritual antique" is how Wire describes the note, which he recently rediscovered. 

 

Critical Thinking received "universal acclaim" calling the album "a scream into the void – a reminder that nobody rants better than the Manics." Lyrically, it's almost easy to say this is the Manics' best work yet, and that's all made possible by the unrelenting energy of a voice that can't—and won't—settle for anything less than the raw truth.

 

Critical Thinking Track List: 

 

1. Critical Thinking

2. Decline And Fall

3. Brushstrokes Of Reunion

4. Hiding In Plain Sight

5. People Ruin Paintings

6. Dear Stephen

7. Being Baptised

8. My Brave Friend

9. Out Of Time Revival

10. Deleted Scenes

11. Late Days Peaks

12. One Man Militia