Manic Street Preachers – Hiding in Plain Sight Review

Rumbles of the new year begin in October, not December. We are closer to the end than you would think, and because of that an endless series of announcements are upon us. Prepare your wallet. Tours galore for those in the UK. Everyone from Primal Scream to Electric Light Orchestra is heading out on the road and knocking heads with great, new sound. Manic Street Preachers are joining the fray, announcing new album Critical Thinking for January 31. Not long to go, then. Hiding in Plain Sight marks the second single of this album cycle and a monumental improvement over their first, middle-of-the-road attempt with Decline and Fall. It could have been worse. The paint-by-numbers work from the Welsh rock band on Critical Thinking’s first single needed some heavy lifting. They have found their inspiration once again for Hiding in Plain Sight.  

Manic Street Preachers find themselves in their minimalist and mysterious phase. Some of their best lyrical output in quite some time can be found on Hiding in Plain Sight. It is an array of hopes, of conflicting emotions in the face of forced maturity. They are hitting the stages of their mid-life crisis sound but haul themselves through this uncertainty and provide a lyrical openness not heard from the band in some time. Slick instrumental work makes for enough of a difference in the backdrop to the sound of a man pulling at his own presentation, figuring out what is in store for his future. Reflections of the past are not tied to success or some unique feeling, just a desire to be younger and to give it another go around. Such is the message of Hiding in Plain Sight, as gentle and genuine as the band has sounded in quite a while.  

And from this, they pull a necessary improvement on their sound of the last few years. Hiding in Plain Sight is dripping with the heartfelt honesty many in the music business are struggling to compartmentalise as more than just a chance to pluck at your heartstrings. Manic Street Preachers improve on the lacklustre Decline and Fall, which feels genuine and unique to the band. Light riffs and rocking guitar make for a comfortable bed of instrumentals while frontman Nicky Wire builds a series of confident lines, of self-ownership and possessive qualities. Here is a song of wounded men trying to continue, keeping their youth’s promises. But they are far removed from those days now, and the earnestness which keeps Hiding in Plain Sight going is a rare yet necessary message to deliver. 

Strong stuff from Manic Street Preachers here, which we may take for granted given their longevity. Everyday crises of the heart are brought to the front and centre, something to obsess over as we all will at some point in our lives. The thread found through Hiding in Plain Sight has Anne Sexton to thank but Manic Street Preachers spiral off with some charming developments. Light and breezy instrumentals paired with the doom and gloom of a frontman working through the tough times. It is not exactly reinventing the wheel, but the band is not setting out to do that with Critical Thinking. Sometimes it is enough to consider where you are, and how you got there. That is the exact point of Hiding in Plain Sight, and while the journey is frightening, it happens irrespective of your handle on it. Exciting plans could be ahead for the simple but joyous narrative thread at hand.