Manic Street Preachers have shared details of their 15th studio album, Critical Thinking.
The new record includes the August-released single ‘Decline & Fall’, as well as new track ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’, which sees the group’s bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire step up to take lead vocals for the first time. You can watch a video for the song below.
In a statement about the wider album, Wire said: “This is a record of opposites colliding – of dialectics trying to find a path of resolution. While the music has an effervescence and an elegiac uplift, most of the words deal with the cold analysis of the self, the exception being the three lyrics by James [Dean Bradfield] which look for and hopefully find answers in people, their memories, language and beliefs.
“The music is energised and at times euphoric. Recording could sometimes be sporadic and isolated, at other times we played live in a band setting, again the opposites making sense with each other. There are crises at the heart of these songs. They are microcosms of skepticism and suspicion, the drive to the internal seems inevitable – start with yourself, maybe the rest will follow.”
The band will follow the release of Critical Thinking with a UK tour through April and May, taking in dates in Glasgow, London, Wolverhampton, Bristol, Manchester and Swansea. Find the full list of shows here.
Columbia will release Critical Thinking on January 31, 2025.
