The Ultra Vivid Lament almost plays like a riposte to Resistance Is Futile, the 2018 album that found the Manic Street Preachers attempting to return to the roar of their younger years. There's no such feint toward harder rock here. James Dean Bradfield wrote the majority of the album after learning to play piano, so the record's 11 songs have sculpted, crafted melodies that call for the kind of introspection Nicky Wire gravitates to in his set of lyrics. Writing during the global COVID-19 pandemic -- the kind of world-historic event that seems like catnip to a songwriter as socially conscious as Wire -- the bassist/lyricist turned inward, searching for humanity and common bonds in an age of digital disassociation. Wire's introspection is given a cinematic lift by Bradfield's melodies and the Manics' painterly anthemic soft rock. This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours is the touchstone for The Ultra Vivid Lament, as the album achieves a similar sense of heightened emotional reality, but the record feels deeper and more resonant delivered by middle-aged Manics. No longer urgent yet still passionate, the band conjure a sense of operatic melancholy on The Ultra Vivid Lament that feels reassuring, even consoling.