Manic Street Preachers’ new album ‘Critical Thinking’ release date delayed

Manic Street Preachers‘ new album ‘Critical Thinking’ appears to have delayed its release.

The upcoming record, originally meant to be released on January 31, is now being shown to be released on February 14 in promotional posters. Previously posters had the date February 7.

Fans in the comments section of Facebook have been noticing the delay, and are offering their thoughts. “Be Christmas at this rate,” one user said. Meanwhile, another commented: “Manics fans can be so negative. We’re all excited for the new album, but it’s obviously pushed back for a reason, it happens. Just be supportive rather than moaning.”

However, despite the delayed release of ‘Critical Thinking’, Manic Street Preachers will release their new song ‘Brushstrokes of Reunion’ on Friday (January 31) – when the whole record was due to come out.

Earlier this month Manic Street Preachers released euphoric track ‘People Ruin Paintings’, taken from ‘Critical Thinking’. The rousing widescreen anthem which sees frontman James Dean Bradfield explore the “destruction of truth” as he sings: “People ruin paintings, faces for the view / People destroy the truth.”

‘Critical Thinking’ has been described as “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, frontman] which look for and hopefully find answers in people, their memories, language and beliefs,” said Wire.

“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.”

Reflecting on their legacy, Wire also previously told NME: “When you’ve been together this long and know each other this much, it becomes much more about communication through instinct and discovering that natural way of making songs. We have talked ourselves through oblivion, the three of us. I can’t describe it any other way.”

The band are set to kick off a series of UK dates in April. You can purchase any remaining tickets here.