Manic Street Preachers have detailed a new studio album. The Ultra Vivid Lament, the band's 14th studio effort, arrives September 3 via Columbia.
The Ultra Vivid Lament follows 2018's Resistance Is Futile and features guest vocals from Sunflower Bean's Julia Cumming and Mark Lanegan on "The Secret He Had Missed" and "Blank Diary Entry," respectively.
Speaking with MOJO last month, Manics bassist and songwriter Nicky Wire said the new effort is "quite a subtle record," likening its sound to "the Clash playing ABBA."
The first single "Orwellian" arrives alongside today's news, and the band shared in a statement, "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."
Read Exclaim!'s Essential Guide to Manic Street Preachers.
The Ultra Vivid Lament:
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
The Ultra Vivid Lament follows 2018's Resistance Is Futile and features guest vocals from Sunflower Bean's Julia Cumming and Mark Lanegan on "The Secret He Had Missed" and "Blank Diary Entry," respectively.
Speaking with MOJO last month, Manics bassist and songwriter Nicky Wire said the new effort is "quite a subtle record," likening its sound to "the Clash playing ABBA."
The first single "Orwellian" arrives alongside today's news, and the band shared in a statement, "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."
Read Exclaim!'s Essential Guide to Manic Street Preachers.
The Ultra Vivid Lament:
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
