So which Manic Street Preachers do we get this time? Is it the widescreen Manics, with their terrace anthems and Technicolor bleakness? Or is it the post-punk Manics, all terse, screaming riffs, balaclavas and slogans like a very cold Clash? The answer with Critical Thinking is neither. With this new record they’re not pretending to be Magazine or Guns N’ Roses. They’re not even pretending to be themselves.
This is a much more raw Manic Street Preachers, fuelled by despair as usual but also simplicity. The songs are rock throughout, with big, crunchy riffs by James Dean Bradfield and small-doubt-filled lyrics by Nicky Wire. There are also vocals by Nicky Wire, most notably on the Robocop-funk title track and the brilliant closing track One Man Militia, where, over drums reminiscent of the Sex Pistols’ No Fun, Wire lists his personal reasons to be uncheerful: ‘I don’t know what I am for but I know what I’m against’ and ‘I can’t breathe when I hate this much’.
