The follow-up to 2017's Resistance Is Futile, will be released on 3rd September via Columbia/Sony, and was recorded during the winter in Wales at Rockfield studios in Monmouth and the band's own Door To The River studio in Newport with longtime collaborator Dave Eringa. Pre-order your copy here.
‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ is both reflection and reaction; a record that gazes in isolation across a cluttered room, fogged by often painful memories, to focus on an open window framing a gleaming vista of land melting into sea and endless sky.
The eleven tracks perfectly marry introspection, quiet rage and sublime, irresistible tunes. Those elements are there throughout, from the opening ambient hum of ‘Snowing In Sapporo’ to the galloping ‘The Secret He Had Missed’s push-and-pull duet imagining dialogue between Welsh brother and sister artists Augustus and Gwen John; via ‘Diapause’s sublime contemplation and ‘Happy Bored Alone’s stoic wishful thinking.
Musically, ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ is inspired by a formative years record box (ABBA, post-Eno Roxy, the Bunnymen, Fables-era REM, Lodger) though the end result could only be the unique union of James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore, collectively one of the UK’s most consistently brilliant rock’n’roll bands for over three decades.
The band have also shared the album's lead single "Orwellian", speaking about it the band said: "The track is about the battle to claim meaning, the erasing of context within debate, the overriding sense of factional conflict driven by digital platforms leading to a perpetual state of culture war."
"As with many songs on the record, it was written on the piano by James Dean Bradfield. Musically, it echoes ABBA, the majesty of Alan Rankine’s playing in the Associates and Talk Talk’s It’s My Life with a Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo."
Check out the album's tracklist and listen to "Orwellian" below.
The Ultra Vivid Lament Tracklist:
01. Still Snowing In Sapporo
02. Orwellian
03. The Secret He Had Missed
04. Quest For Ancient Colour
05. Don't Let The Night Divide Us
06. Diapause
07. Complicated Illusions
08. Into The Waves Of Love
09. Blank Diary Entry
10. Happy Bored Alone
11. Afterending
(facebook.com/manicstreetpreachers)
Tags: Manic Street Preachers
