‘Critical Thinking’ is one of those multiple albums that come to the market, they reach the podium of the British lists and just a week later do not even exist throughout the top 100. That is, fans take it with great desire for the first days, but then they fall into oblivion as a result of that small terrorist called “streaming.”
From a while to this part, Manic Street Preachers tell us about heroes and fallen, of nostalgia, of past times that were better, and that is something that is repeated in this 15th work. In ‘Critical Thinking’ the main single is in fact called ‘Decline & Fall’, only that it sounds glorious as Hymn Brit Pop, 30 years later, with the group in one of its typical contrast games.
In this album it is not that we find a composition about the damage made by streaming to certain types of artists, but about the pressures we receive from social networks. ‘Deleted Scenes’ is a reflection on this, and his proposal as clear as he follows: “I prefer the mirror to a screen / helps me understand how I feel.” Something in tune with the questions that the final ‘Onemanmilitia’ throws in the air: «I am ashamed of my own self -censorship / Why do I feel old and vulnerable? We all know who is responsible ».
Manic Street Preachers demand “critical thinking” in the title of this album, which is also that of the first cut, and the truth that this theme tone by Nicky Wire is the most ambitious of this album. At that time it seems that we will introduce us to a turbulous album like our times, different and “critical” of Manic Street Preachers. Unfortunately, it is not so, and the album gradually delivers to the Brit-Pouro cliché, with its moments of lights and shadows.
-The big difference offered by ‘Critical Thinking’ is that Nicky has sung for the first time a single from the group, despite being his main composer after the disappearance of Richey Edwards, ago too many decades ago. ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’, with beautiful McDonagh wool, is the theme, one of those loaded with the nostalgia referred to before: “I want to fall in love with the man that myself used to be, in a decade when I felt free.”
The album, on the other hand, ends up being a small disaster drawer, with songs in which James Dean Bradfield talks about his mother’s cancer (‘Brushstrokes of meeting’) and some that the group dedicates to an old manager who died, Jim Fletcher (‘My Brave Friend’). It is laudable especially because of their good intentions, but too often the album leaves the feeling of including everything that the manics “had out there”, regardless of their quality or internal coherence.
Between “what they had out there”, a cut called ‘out of time revival’ that honors its name between first keyboards and then alone of electric guitar; And another dedicated to Morrissey called ‘Dear Stephen’, whose chorus says “Stephen, returns with us.” Full of references to titles and phrases of the Smiths, being the most obvious “I’ve Been The Boy With The Thorn in His Side”, has a beautiful story behind. In 1984, Nicky Wire could not go to a Smiths concert because she got sick, Nicky’s mother moved some threads to try to return to her city, and in response, Wire ended up receiving a Morrissey postcard that said “Mejorrate.”
History is a cute; The song, not so much. Something extrapolable to this 15th album, which does not contain so much “critical thinking” after all. At least about themselves.
