The Charlatans UK — Tim Burgess (vocals), Martin Blunt (bass), Mark Collins (guitar), Tony Rogers (keys) and The Verve co-founder Pete Salisbury (drums) — are arguably one of the best-loved and commercially British bands of the past 40 years or so. Over the course of their lengthy run, the band has released 13 albums, 3 of which earned #1 on the UK Albums Charts with 22 Top 40 UK singles, including “The Only One I Know,” “North Country Boy” and “One to Another.” 

The acclaimed British outfit’s long awaited, highly anticipated 14th album, the Dev Hynes, Fred Macpherson and Stephen Street co-produced We Are Love is slated for a Friday release through BMG. The first album from the acclaimed outfit in eight years, the longest gap in their history, was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the individual members’ solo projects and side projects, life’s twists, turns and complexities and the fact that each of the band’s individual members live scattered across Europe. With all of that going on, it took longer than usual to figure out schedules; for the stars to align; and for the right vibe and right time. 

Recoded at two places that are seemingly apocryphal in the band’s history — Wales-based Rockfield Studios and the band’s Middlewich, Chesire-based Big Mushroom, We Are Love reportedly sees the band launching into a bold new era, one that finds them at peace with their past while looking forward to the future. The band’s Tim Burgess cites hauntology and psychogeography as two major concepts that swirled in his head as the band worked on the album. 

The band returned to Rockfield Studs for the first time since the recording sessions for the fifth album, 1997’s Tellin’ Stories. As a band, they hadn’t been there since keyboardist Rob Collins’ death, in the middle of that album’s sessions, in a car accident at the bottom of the track leading to the farm surrounding the studio. Reportedly throughout the album, you can hear the band’s awareness of the things that made them — the highs and lows the desire to honor their own legacy, while not being deeply defined by it; and a career-long drive to be innovative and progressive. “The whole idea of hauntology and psychogeography is represented by us going back to Rockfield, where so much history has happened for The Charlatans,” the band’s Tim Burgess says. “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.” 

The album’s introspective creative process, brought home the fact that love has been the glue that has held the band together for so long, and ultimately that’s reflected on the album’s 11, forward-thinking, future-facing songs. 

We Are Love‘s first single, album title track “We Are Love” is a defiantly upbeat, road trip-meets-big venue/festival anthem, anchored by a propulsive, motorik groove and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. Tim Burgess describes it 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 they were writing material, “We Are Love” became a pathfinder for the record as the band’s 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.”

The acclaimed and beloved Brit pop act recently was on Later . . . with Jools Holland, where they performed album title track “We Are Love.”