Ultra Vivid Lament

The result is an artfully realised exercise in melancholic, grown-up pop with textures that owe much to the Swedes’ later work. It’s also a welcome return to form, after 2018’s water-treading Resistance Is Futile.

In guitarist-singer James Dean Bradfield and drummer and multi-instrumentalist Sean Moore, they boast two incredibly gifted musicians whose dense arrangements glitter with intricate interplay.

The record has its flaws – the odd misguided lyric, the occasional slip into by-numbers pop melodies – but there’s plenty of space for those mistakes to be made. ... In the end, they are minor bumps in a record of intense beauty, among the best of the Manics’ records this century.

While subtle, this album captures the evolution of a band in their element once more.

While there’s nothing to match the tear-stained confessions of This Is My Truth’s “The Everlasting” or the gorgeous splendor of Lifeblood’s underrated “Cardiff Afterlife”, The Ultra Vivid Lament still contains moments of deep emotional resonance.

It's essentially a particularly dark MSP bravely attempting to go a bit ABBA, failing miserably but in the process creating a skewed but alluring new pop persona. ... A hit. [Oct 2021, p.97]

It's clear we're in for an introspective ride, though the more major-key, upbeat nature of many of the record's arrangements belie these melancholy undertones. [Oct 2021, p.29]

Their 14th album rakes over the wreckage and emerges as a generous, deeply humane mission statement: it’s an album of profound melancholy, of course, but also one lit up with heroic, big-pop colour. Ultra-vivid indeed.

The Ultra Vivid Lament is impregnated with an array of influences ranging from ‘80s pop to ‘90s arena rock to the band’s own (mostly) splendid legacy. There’s also a certain penchant for experimentalism, which takes the listener back to forgotten currents of post-rock aesthetics, even though the band is always commercially careful not to push the boundaries too much.

There’s a sense of the trio reaching for a comfort blanket, turning back towards the intellectual pop that inspired them as youngsters in the ‘80s.

COVID fog has infected even our sharpest minds. Thank heaven so much of Ultra Vivid Lament sounds like a mirror ball at the end of the tunnel. [Sep 2021, p.78]

Despite its occasional uplifting moments, the overall feeling you get from Ultra Vivid Lament is indeed a lament for something better, something briefly promised by Resistance Is Futile despite its title sounding more Borg-like than Star Trek character Seven Of Nine.