Manic Street Preachers Announce ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’, And UK tour

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Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers have returned, announcing their fourteenth studio album ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’, along with a new UK tour. The news comes alongside the release of the album’s first single ‘Orwellian’. Check it out below.

The album follows 2018’s ‘Resistance Is Futile’, and is set to arrive on September 3rd. The band recorded their latest efforts at the legendary Rockfield studios as well as their own Door to the River HQ with long-time collaborator Dave Eringa (The Who), before being mixed by David Wrench (Blossoms, Frank Ocean, Arlo Parks). The new album will also feature Julia Cumming of Sunflower Bean on ‘The Secret He Had Missed’, and Mark Lanegan on ‘Blank Diary Entry’.

Talking about the new track, 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. It felt like the perfect sonic and lyrical introduction to ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’.”

Check out ‘Orwellian’ here:

Overall, ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ is described as “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.”

Taking sonic inspiration from ABBA, post-Eno Roxy Music, Echo & The Bunnymen, ‘Fables’-era REM, and David Bowie’s ‘Lodger’, the new 11-tracks are a “departure” from ‘Resistance Is Futile’ – having been conceived on piano rather than guitar and marrying “ introspection, quiet rage and sublime, irresistible tunes”.

The tracklist for ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ is:

1. ‘Still Snowing In Sapporo’
2. ‘Orwellian’
3. ‘The Secret He Had Missed’
4. ‘Quest For Ancient Colour’
5. ‘Don’t Let The Night Divide Us’
6. ‘Diapause’
7. ‘Complicated Illusions’
8. ‘Into The Waves Of Love’
9. ‘Blank Diary Entry’
10. ‘Happy Bored Alone’
11. ‘Afterending’

There are exclusive signed copies, picture disc vinyl and cassette on the official store, an exclusive version of the vinyl with alternate artwork available at HMV and an exclusive yellow version of the vinyl on Amazon.

Following Manic Street Preachers longest enforced break from playing live, the group will also take the album on a 14 date cross-country tour. Support on all the shows comes from The Anchoress (except Wembley). Pre-order ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ from the official store to get early access to tickets for the tour, with a pre-sale starting on Weds 19th May at 10am. Tickets go on general sale on Friday 21st May at 10am, and will be available here (Affiliate Link). Check dates below.

September
26 – Newcastle – City Hall
28 – Edinburgh – Usher Hall
29 – Dundee – Caird Hall
October
1 – Stoke On-Trent – Victoria Hall
2 – Manchester – Apollo
4 – York – Barbican
5 – Glasgow – Barrowlands
7 – Leeds – Academy
8 – Portsmouth – Guildhall
10 – Bournemouth – Academy
11 – Cambridge – Corn Exchange
13 – Bath – Forum
14 – Brighton – Dome
December
3 – London – Wembley Arena