The Manic Street Preachers return with their most urgent album in years.

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’. Recorded at the band’s Door To The River Studio and Rockfield, Monmouth, the song features a lead vocal by Nicky Wire and added vocals by Lana McDonagh. It was produced by the band with regular collaborators Dave Eringa and Loz Williams and mixed by Caesar Edmunds (St Vincent/Wet Leg).

‘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.

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.”

Speaking to Mojo Magazine, James Dean Bradfield said “Sometimes just to have your best songs is enough, just putting a record out and not trying to describe a big overarching concept, even though there is a thread there.”

CD1
1. Pensée critique
2. Déclin et chute
3. Coups de pinceau de la réunion
4. Se cacher à la vue de tous
5. Les gens ruinent les peintures
6. Cher Stephen
7. Être baptisé
8. Mon brave ami
9. La renaissance hors du temps
10. Scènes supprimées
11. Pics de fin de journée
12. OneManMilitia

CD2
1. Pensée critique – Démo
2. Déclin et chute – Démo
3. Coups de pinceau de la réunion – Démo
4. Se cacher à la vue de tous –
Démo 5. Les gens ruinent les peintures –
Démo 6. Cher Stephen – Démo
7. Être baptisé – Démo
8. Mon brave ami – Démo
9. La renaissance hors du temps –
Démo 10. Scènes supprimées – Démo
11. Pics de fin de journée – Démo
12. OneManMilitia – Démo
13. Déclin et chute (Steven Wilson) Remix)