Long awaited new Charlatans UK studio album arrives in October

The Charlatans UK's 14th studio album, We Are Love, is due out Oct. 31, via BMG. frontman Tim Burgess describes the title track as "like an open-top car ride in the credits of your favorite movie, driving along the coast to somewhere amazing."

One of the first tracks to emerge as the Manchester band was writing, it became a pathfinder for the record, as guitarist Mark Collins explains: "Early on, we thought it felt right. And it turned out that way: first single, title track, second song on the album. And things started forming around 'We Are Love.' There was a certain energy to it that drove us forward.”

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The Charlatans UK's career spans 13 albums, 22 Top 40 UK singles, and three Number One UK albums. 

An eight-year gap between albums is the longest ever for one of the UK’s most enduring bands. A combination of covid, solo projects, life’s complexities and the fact that its five members - Tim Burgess (vocals) Martin Blunt (bass), Mark Collins (guitar), Tony Rogers (keyboards) and Pete Salisbury (drums) - live scattered across Europe, meant that it took longer than usual for the stars to align at the right place, right time, right vibe. 

They took the time to carefully select a recording A-team of production duo Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange) and Fred Macpherson, plus legendary producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Cranberries). 

Recorded at two places that are totemic in The Charlatans UK's history - Rockfield in Wales and their own Big Mushroom space in Middlewich, Cheshire - Burgess cites hauntology and psychogeography as two concepts that swirled in his head as the band dug into the album making. 

For one thing, their return to storied farm studio Rockfield for the first time in almost 30 years, since they made their fifth album Tellin’ Stories, was an important step. As a band, they hadn’t been there since keyboard player Rob Collins was killed, in the middle of that album’s sessions, in a car crash at the bottom of the track leading to the farm. 

“The whole idea of hauntology and psychogeography is represented by us going back to Rockfield, where so much history has happened for The Charlatans," says Burgess. "That was important as a way of honoring every member who's played in the band. So we’re honouring ourselves, our past, feeling that energy and reincarnating it, doing something fresh, brand new.”

Track list:

Kingdom of Ours

We Are Love
Many A Day A Heartache
For The Girls
You Can’t Push The River
Deeper and Deeper
Appetite
Salt Water
Out On Our Own
Glad You Grabbed Me
Now Everything