“This is a record of opposites colliding”: Manic Street Preachers announce details of new album
· louderBy Niall Doherty
( Classic Rock )
published 25 October 2024
The Welsh rockers will release Critical Thinking, their 15th record, in January and a tour will follow in the spring
Manic Street Preachers have announced that the trio’s 15th studio album will be released on 31st January, 2025. Titled Critical Thinking, it was recorded at the band’s Door To The River Studio in Newport and Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, the sessions produced by the group themselves alongside long-running collaborators Dave Eringa and Loz Williams. The news has been accompanied with the release of a new single, Hiding In Plain Sight, a song that marks a Manics first – a lead single with the vocal sung by bassist Nicky Wire.
Talking about Critical Thinking, 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 (lead vocalist and guitarist 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 three-piece have also announced a UK tour throughout April and May 2025, all of the dates taking place on a Friday and Saturday. The dates are:
APR 11: Glasgow Barrowland
APR 12: Glasgow Barrowland
APR 18: London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
APR 19: London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
APR 25: Wolverhampton The Civic at the Halls
APR 26: Bristol Beacon
MAY 02: Manchester O2 Apollo
MAY 03: Manchester O2 Apollo
MAY 09: Swansea Arena
SAT 10: Swansea Arena
Tickets go on sale next Friday 1 November. Head here for more details.
Watch the video for Hiding In Plain Sight below:
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Manic Street Preachers - Hiding in Plain Sight (Official Video) - YouTube
Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he's interviewed some of the world's biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.
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