Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield has dubbed the band's upcoming 15th studio LP Critical Thinking as a "classic cassette album".
The Columbia mainstays are vying for back to back UK No.1s, having reached the summit with the record's predecessor The Ultra Vivid Lament (45,120 sales, OCC) in 2021, which ended their 23-year wait for a second chart-topper following 1998's This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1,072,774 sales).
"I don’t even know what I mean by it, but it feels like a classic cassette album," said Bradfield, speaking in the new issue of Music Week. "It feels quite personal, quite warm in the way it approaches every subject, except for perhaps the songs Critical Thinking and One Man Militia. I had lots of cassettes when I was young, albums that when I bought them on CD or vinyl didn’t feel as good.
"I remember having In My Tribe by 10,000 Maniacs, London Calling by The Clash, This Nation’s Saving Grace by The Fall, Oil & Gold by Shriekback, they were some of my favourite cassette albums when I was young. Whenever I listen to some of these new tracks, I do hear a lot of ’80s indie influences on it. It just all came to the surface.”
Critical Thinking, which comes out on February 7, has been teased with three tracks: People Ruin Paintings, Decline & Fall and Hiding In Plain Sight, which is the group's first single to feature bassist Nicky Wire on lead vocals.
The Welsh legends' best-selling record, 1996's Everything Must Go (1,113,160 sales), is one of five Manics albums to peak at No.2, alongside 2001's Know Your Enemy (232,379 sales), 2007's Send Away The Tigers (215,366 sales), 2014's Futurology (54,116 sales) and 2018's Resistance Is Futile (59,356 sales).
“We have the record amount of No.2 albums that sold way over what your average No.1 gets," noted Bradfield. "The Ultra Vivid Lament getting to No.1 made us feel great, despite the picture that was posted up with the No.1 trophy where I look like a sack of shit at Heathrow Terminal 5. I was smiling on the inside, I can tell you. Getting a No.1 is still amazing.”
Rob Stringer signed us and we will forever feel that he followed through in all his promises and kept faith with us
James Dean Bradfield
With the Manics heading out on a sold out UK tour in the spring, Bradfield discussed the Welsh trio's recent co-headline shows with fellow '90s icons Suede.
“As you get older, some people are perhaps not going to gigs as much – you’re aware they need a bit more convincing," he said. "If you’re offering two headline sets for two thirds of the price of that usual gig, that’s a good way of saying, ‘Look, we still really care and we understand it’s harder for you to get out these days, but we’re making the effort to make this a bigger night, come along with us.’
"We loved every second of it. It was a brilliant experience in Asia, America and Britain, and we’d like to do it again with them sometime, but we shall see. It inspired us."
In closing, Bradfield opened up on the band's 30-year-plus relationship with Sony Music and chairman Rob Stringer, who signed the band back in 1991.
"Rob Stringer signed us and we will forever feel that he followed through in all his promises and kept faith with us, even though by [1994's] The Holy Bible there were diminishing returns in terms of sales," he said. "A lot of other majors would have bailed at that point but Rob stuck up for us. He had our corner. He said, ‘No, we’re going to give this band one more shot, they’ve been through a lot and we should stay with them.’
"He’s the reason why Everything Must Go happened, and that’s when we had the sales and we had the critical respect but obviously it was bittersweet because of Richey [Edwards, missing bandmate]. In a nutshell, that era is why we’re still with Sony.”
Subscribers can read the full Aftershow interview with Bradfield in Music Week's 2024 In Review issue.