Manic Street Preachers have released details of their fifteenth studio album and UK tour to
accompany it. ‘Critical Thinking’ is released on Columbia on 31st January 2025, and a new
single featuring for the first time, lead vocals from bassist/lyricist Nicky Wire ‘Hiding In Plain
Sight’ is available now (25th October). The band will perform this alongside massive radio hit
‘Decline & Fall’, the first track released from the forthcoming album, tomorrow evening on
Later with Jools Holland.
Initially inspired by a line from the poet Anne Sexton ("I am a collection of dismantled
almosts"), ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ contrasts a fearful midlife nostalgia - one in which the writer
longs to “keep the curtains drawn all day” - with a gloriously uplifting melody that draws on
classic ’70s rock’n’roll of The Only Ones, Cockney Rebel and the loose flow of Dinosaur Jr’s
‘Freak Scene’.
‘Critical Thinking’ celebrates conflicting ideas colliding, with unflinchingly soul-searching lyrics
meeting some of the most head-on, addictive melodies the band have ever recorded.
Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire on Critical Thinking: “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.
Manic Street Preachers have announced a series of UK tour dates to follow the release of the
album. All of the dates take place on Friday and Saturday nights, fans who pre-order the new
album from the official store will have access to the pre-sale on Wednesday 30th October.Tickets on general sale via gigsandtours.com.
April 2025.
Fri 11th Glasgow Barrowland
Sat 12th Glasgow Barrowland
Fri 18th London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Sat 19th London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Fri 25th Wolverhampton The Civic at the Halls
Sat 26th Bristol Beacon
May 2025
Fri 2nd Manchester O2 Apollo
Sat 3rd Manchester O2 Apollo
Fri 9th Swansea Arena
Sat 10th Swansea Arena