The Ultra Vivid Lament is the fourteenth studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 10 September 2021 by Columbia Records.

Preceded by two supporting singles, "Orwellian" and "The Secret He Had Missed", the album features contributions from Julia Cumming and Mark Lanegan.

Furthermore, about writing in lockdown, James said: "The escape was literally checking to see that the world around you wasn't crumbling when you wrote a song.

And from my mum, kindness and femininity, an appreciation of aesthetic and the bliss of just sitting down and watching TV together".

He concluded: "I'm not going to pretend that we're reinventing the wheel in terms of modernity, but it's definitely framed within that era of time.

[7] Bradfield shared: "I knew I wanted to treat it like The Clash playing Abba.

[15] The band announced an extended tour throughout the UK to support the new album, including events with profits going towards the NHS.

In an interview with The Quietus, Nicky Wire said that the song was the rejection of digital coercion, much like their previous 2010 song from Postcards from a Young Man, "Don't Be Evil", the single focuses on how the tech platforms overload information and lack the capacity for nuance that have fostered so many of people's insecurities, including Wire's.

The magazine goes further saying that "It raises a complex issue, and there are plenty of holes you could pick in Wire's arguments, yet it still feels articulate and focussed, the words in perfect step with Bradfield's pumping pop piano chords and bracing crescendo chorus".

It's what we would call pop in our world – that glacial kind of controlled energy that comes out in something melancholic, but uplifting.

[2] NME gave the album four stars out of five, saying, "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...

[24] Meanwhile, Louder Than War gave the album a score of 4.5 out of 5, writing, "Similar to This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, which opened with the profoundly sad 'The Everlasting', The Ultra Vivid Lament begins by gazing into the rear view mirror".

Here, in 2021, thanks to the brilliance of The Ultra Vivid Lament, Manic Street Preachers remain as relevant as ever.

[27] The Guardian also reacted positively to the album, reflecting that, "There are missteps amid the magic: with all the sparkling songcraft elsewhere, the crepuscular croak of Mark Lanegan sounds somewhat incongruous on 'Blank Diary Entry'.

And the dig at 'those boys from Eton' on 'Don't Let the Night Divide Us' seems a little phoned-in for a band that once prided themselves on the sharpness of their lyrics".

[20] While among less positive reviews when compared to the majority, DIY stated that, "Musically, too, 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; the bright melodies of 'Quest for Ancient Colour' and 'The Secret He Had Missed' recall the likes of Roxy Music and Simple Minds.

Such an approach helps sugar the pill on the avowedly topical 'Orwellian' and 'Don't Let the Night Divide Us', bringing home just how accurate the record's title is; The Ultra Vivid Lament is a requiem, but one that looks for sonic positivity in the thematic darkness".

[28] Concluding the review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that band's performance was "No longer urgent yet still passionate" and that they "conjure a sense of operatic melancholy on The Ultra Vivid Lament that feels reassuring, even consoling.