Album 15

[everlasting]

Hope some more fans buy the album as that's not many at all really, especially when you think most of the hardcore fan base have bought probably 2 copies at least so far. Hope they keep no.1 but I'm gonna expect another no.2 placing (which has to be a record of some kind, surely?)

[deadmartyr]

Critical Thinking is Album of the Week on BBC Radio 2 - hopefully that will translate to a few sales.

[Marconi Delorian]

Originally Posted by Jayseph

Having now listened to the demos, my feeling is that there’s a really good collection of songs there, but I don’t think they’re served well by the production or arrangements.

Maybe Sean should produce the next album?

Agreed, all the demo songs sound distinct. The production makes all the JDB sung songs blend together in the second half of the album.

[almostfamous]

This recent total sales list was from a Jan'25 Music Week article....

Everything Must Go (1,113,160 sales)
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1,072,774 sales)
Know Your Enemy (232,379 sales)
Send Away The Tigers (215,366 sales)
Resistance Is Futile (59,356 sales)
Futurology (54,116 sales)
The Ultra Vivid Lament (45,120 sales)

“We have the record amount of No.2 albums that sold way over what your average No.1 gets," noted Bradfield.

I'd imagine CT will be around 25k by Thursday night - it'll be SabCarp's streaming that kills us.

[*Found That Soul*]

Originally Posted by almostfamous

This recent total sales list was from a Jan'25 Music Week article....

Everything Must Go (1,113,160 sales)
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1,072,774 sales)
Know Your Enemy (232,379 sales)
Send Away The Tigers (215,366 sales)
Resistance Is Futile (59,356 sales)
Futurology (54,116 sales)
The Ultra Vivid Lament (45,120 sales)

“We have the record amount of No.2 albums that sold way over what your average No.1 gets," noted Bradfield.

I'd imagine CT will be around 25k by Thursday night - it'll be SabCarp's streaming that kills us.

Yeah will be number 2 for sure I should think , as meaningless as the charts are it’s a shame.

[Son of Stopped]

Wow I never knew KYE charted sold that many.
Well I can't buy anymore. Tape still sealed (Full album on both sides? No idea) and I'm pretty much out until the next product. Lot to unpack. This was my deliberate not listening after ramming it over the weekend.

[TheUglyLie]

Originally Posted by almostfamous

This recent total sales list was from a Jan'25 Music Week article....

Everything Must Go (1,113,160 sales)
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1,072,774 sales)
Know Your Enemy (232,379 sales)
Send Away The Tigers (215,366 sales)
Resistance Is Futile (59,356 sales)
Futurology (54,116 sales)
The Ultra Vivid Lament (45,120 sales)

“We have the record amount of No.2 albums that sold way over what your average No.1 gets," noted Bradfield.

I'd imagine CT will be around 25k by Thursday night - it'll be SabCarp's streaming that kills us.

Wow, the KYE self sabotage worked way better than the band expected I suspect!
Although I think this is also affected massively by how people started to consume music at that point in time.

[Son of Stopped]

It's not just TV ratings that are down. Music sale trends (apart from Taylor anomaly) and voter turnout and vote shares are down. But TUVL still went #1 which of course I want this album to do.

[FacelessSenseOfVoid]

I think I'm up to 10 copies purchased now (mainly thanks to super duper mega bundle). Even got the wife to buy a copy of the Piano Versions download instead of sending her the tracks after I deliberately played the piano version of Hidden In Plain Sight to which her immediate response was "Is that on the album?" and mine was "No, but you need to buy it instead". Nice being married to a Manics fan haha (although she isn't as hardcore as me).

Anyway, I really like the piano versions, particularly James' take on the Nicky songs, especially CT which is really dark and moody in places. Only thing I don't really like is how Late Day Peaks now sounds like something you might find on a bank advert. But I do absolutely love Being Baptised on piano, that old piano really gives it a unique charm (and I've grown to love that song over the last few days as well).

[Jayseph]

I’ve absolutely fallen for Being Baptised in a way I haven’t for a Manics song for about 20 years. The piano version is transcendent as well.

[napnet86_]

Glad I peeked here because I missed the email about the piano tracks, the Critical Thinking piano version is worth the download alone.

[IntlDebris]

Originally Posted by almostfamous

01 Manic Street Preachers - Critical Thinking (19,577) [18,746 physicals, 543 downloads, 288 streaming]

Surprises me just how few downloads and streams there are in there. I know Manics fans are generally older and thus more likely to buy physicals, but I barely know anyone my age who buys records anymore, my friends are almost all Spotify users in their early 40s, so for the digital stats to be that low is remarkable to me. I'd love to know what the same stats for the other four of the current top five are.

Also surprised that RiF has sold more than Futurology, given that the latter has a four year head start on it.

[sitdown1985]

Is it just me, or is the MP3 title tag for “My Brave Friend” misspelled “My Fave Friend” in the Piano version of the album? ��
https://imgur.com/a/gAjUzl7

[ForeverDelayed.com]

No download for international fans.

[Nikolai]

The download worked fine for me in NZ, so you should be all good if you give it a go.