Manic Street Preachers - Critical Thinking (2025) Mp3 / Flac / Hi-Res
Mp3 CBR 320 kbps / Flac (tracks) / 24bit-44.1kHz FLAC (tracks) | Alternative Rock, Indie Rock | 41:35 | 96 / 304 / 512 MB
Nearly 40 years in, the Manics are turning back the clock to the arty alt-pop of the 1980s—and also playing at reinvention. Bassist Nicky Wire takes lead vocals on several songs for the first time, and it doesn't at all feel like a concession to keep a band member happy. Wire's voice is more barbed and ominous-sounding than James Dean Bradfield's, and so are his lyrics. "The pinnacle of despair/ The apex of denial/ The skyscrapers of untruth/ Customized feeds/ Net neutrality/ Smart meters/ Smart order/ Smart fucking railways/ Body positivity/ Believe in yourself/ Imposter syndrome/ Fuck that!" Wire growls on the hard-charging title track, bemoaning how online culture pays lip service to wellness and self-care even as it fuels a desire to tear one another down.
On "One Man Militia"—dark, but made shiny with laser sounds and soaring synth—Wire weighs, as he has said, "the impossibility of reasoned debate in the cesspit of digital oblivion." Wire has described Critical Thinking as "a record of opposites colliding," in reference to both his and Bradfield's lyrical styles, but also how the brooding is counterbalanced by music with "effervescence and an elegiac uplift." To that end, the band reference some of their favorites from four decades ago.
Tracklist
1 Critical Thinking
2 Decline & 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 Day Peaks
12 OneManMilitia
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