Manic Street Preachers has claimed the number one album this week with The Ultra Vivid Lament. The Welsh rockers beat out Steps for the top spot.
Official Charts took to their Instagram to announce the news and congratulate the band on their second win.
This week the official album charts saw a head-to-head race for the number album spot between Manic Street Preachers and 90’s pop group Steps. This is not the first competition between the two groups, in 1998 Manic Street Preacher’s album This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours beat out Steps’ debut album Step One to the number one spot. The winner’s fifth studio album won by 95,000 sales, 23 years later the margin is much lower at 2,000 chart sales in between the 2021 releases. With a total of 27,000 chart sales, The Ultra Vivid Lament sends Steps’ seventh studio album What The Future Holds Pt. 2 to the number two position.
The four-time Brit award winners have spoken to OfficialCharts.com on their second number one album. “It’s amazing to be back at Number 1 after 23 years – it was a titanic chart battle and we are absolutely over the moon. Thanks to all our fans, supporters and Sony for keeping the faith.”
Physical sales of Manic Street Preachers’ new release made up 91% of its chart sales. With 6,300 copies sold on wax, the album has also charted at number one within the Official Vinyl Albums Chart. The group’s number one album was released on 10th September 2021 via major label Columbia Records on various formats including deluxe editions on digital and CD. The group enlisted long-time collaborator David James Eringa as the producer, Eringa has worked with the group since their 1993 second studio album Gold Against the Soul. The band recorded the album at their own recording studio Door To The River as well as legendary welsh studio Rockfield studios.
The release has so far sired two singles, “Orwellian” was released on 14th May 2021 and “The Secret He Had Missed” was released on 16th July 2021. The band released the following statement concerning the album’s initial single. “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 [Fleetwood Mac] guitar solo. It felt like the perfect sonic and lyrical introduction to ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’.”
Elsewhere within the charts, last week’s number one album Certified Lover Boy by Drake has dropped to number three. Landing at number four this week is a new release, Dark Matters by The Stranglers, the release sees the legendary British band land their first top 10 positions in 31 years. Also debuting in the charts this week is Back In Love City by The Vaccines which positioned at number five, the new release marks the London Indie band’s fifth consecutive top 5 release.
Fans will be able to hear the new album live when the group hit the road for their tour this year, full dates are below.
Manic Street Preachers UK Tour
18/09/2021 – Electric Park Festival – Jersey
19/09 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff
20/09 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff
26/09 – O2 City Hall – Newcastle
28/09 – Usher Hall – Edinburgh
29/09 – Caird Hall – Dundee
01/10 – Victoria Hall – Stoke- On- Trent
02/10 – O2 Apollo – Manchester
04/10 – Barbican – York
05/10 – Barrowland – Glasgow
07/10 – O2 Academy – Leeds
08/10 – Guidhall – Portsmouth
10/10 – O2 Academy – Bournemouth
11/10 – Corn Exchange – Cambridge
13/10 – Forum – Bath
14/10 – Dome – Brighton
01/12 – Venue Cymru – Llandudno
03/12 – The SSE Arena, Wembley – London
26/05/2022 – Ashton Gate Stadium – Bristol
28/05 – Ricoh Stadium – Coventry
01/06 – Riverside Stadium – Middlesbrough
