Into The Impossible Heart Of The Sun: A Review Of Critical Thinking, The New Album From Manic Street Preachers
As Tones on Tails sang, "OK, this is the pops!" And there's no denying that Critical Thinking, finally out this week, is the most pop record Manics Street Preachers have ever birthed. That said, it's full of the kind of risk-taking that the Welsh three-piece are so fond of. Heart-on-the-sleeve stuff is here next to big, sweeping choruses from a lot who were safety-pin punks at their start, and anthemic statesmen not so long after that.
What Critical Thinking does so well is blend the sort of yearning and optimism of "Australia"-era Manics with the older, wiser, and -- dare I say it? -- happy current POV of this trio of Welshmen. From the O.M.D.-y keyboards of "People Ruin Paintings" and on to the bright melodic waves of "Brushstrokes of Reunion", there's a vibe here that is engaging, and oddly inspiring. James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, and Sean Moore are wholeheartedly happy here to burnish these gems, from the Squeeze-y "Decline and Fall" to the Allen Toussaint-inspired "(Was I) Being Baptized" with sonic elements which make these selections all sound like contenders for singles. A listener can hear the joy in these players at finding somewhat new territory to explore and map out. That said, for those who've been around since the Manics helped Kylie Minogue with Impossible Princess (1997), what's here on Critical Thinking shouldn't be such a surprise; this was always a group that had respect for the craftsmen and women of the charts, and who saw no shame in attempting "one last shot at mass communication" more than once.
Where Critical Thinking gets most interesting is in the passages which reveal a little cynicism, or disgust. And, for a nice change of pace, those are the ones sung by Nicky Wire, sounding more inspired as a vocalist than ever before, much as he did on his fine 2023 solo album. There's real sarcasm in the spitted cliches of the title track which opens this one on a smartly-sour note. More lyrical by far is the reckoning with age, and the summation of youth's promises met (or not) in "Hiding in Plain Sight", the band's only advance single sung by Nicky Wire to date. This one seems the heart of the record. It's the track where this band, so famously adept at chronicling and cultivating their own past, takes that nostalgia and faces the years which are piling up. When Nicky Wire sings, "I wanna be in love with the man I used to be, in the decade where I felt free" it doesn't break your heart though, because it's hopeful to hear this trio find a way to both remember their youthful ambitions, and modulate their approach to continue to chase after them again. I mean, is "Hiding in Plain Sight" so very different in tone and mood from the "let's make a new start"-vibe of "Everything Must Go"? The only difference is that now the lyricist is grimly aware of how much time has passed, hence the desire to still reach for that "fire from the flame of youth" that Jim Kerr sang about with Simple Minds in "Speed Your Love to Me" (the very kind of pop that seems to have inspired so much of this Manics record).
The Manics are still holding onto that flame, still burning on their own terms. If Critical Thinking is a new start for this band, it might be their last. But I doubt that. There's a spark here that suggests they are still happy upsetting expectations. This is music which is uniquely and broadly pop, but it's resolutely personal. There are debts heard here to all the records that James, Nicky, and Sean (and the late Richey Edwards) played as teens -- with even a plea to Morrissey to clean up his act in "Dear Stephen" -- but also real forward movement for this trio's sound. As always, however, any step forward for the Manic Street Preachers involves a look back, and a recalibration of their own mythos in each new composition. Critical Thinking in action then.
Critical Thinking by Manic Street Preachers is out on Friday.
More details on Manic Street Preachers via the official website.
[Photo: Alex Lake]