The Charlatans have spoken to NME about their new single, ‘We Are Love’, from their upcoming first album in eight years of the same name. Check out our full interview below, along with details of their 2025 UK tour.
The band are due to release their long-awaited 14th studio effort on October 31 via BMG, following on from 2017’s ‘Different Days’, and produced by Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange and Lightspeed Champion), Fred Macpherson (Spector, Rachel Chinouriri, Jessica Winter, Taahliah) and the legendary Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Cranberries). You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
- READ MORE: Soundtrack Of My Life: Tim Burgess
Today (July 14), the returning Tim Burgess and co have previewed the forthcoming 11-song record with its anthemic and celebratory title track.
The frontman described the cut as “like an open top car ride in the credits of your favourite movie, driving along the coast to somewhere amazing” – a perfect soundtrack to the sizzling UK heatwave.
“I think it’s wildly exciting as a track,” Burgess told NME. “I could imagine it being a euphoric, transcendent moment. I think great tracks have that transcendence to them, so that’s what I was looking for.”
“My glass half empty, yours half full,” he sings, acknowledging a couple’s conflicting outlooks on life. Despite this tug of war between pessimism and optimism, there’s ultimately a clear message that love conquers all: “This is the place, these are the days.”
“I wouldn’t say it was pessimistic, in some ways. Hopefully, it’s just something deeper than surface-level, up-down-turn-around kind of love,” Burgess told NME. “It’s funny how these things work out. It was an early song – we’ve been writing the album for a few years – and we recorded six, and then this one really stuck out. We kind of left the other five alone and continued on this path.
“It was a good beacon of something that we were searching for – something that felt new, something that felt very believable to us.”
Read more about The Charlatans’ “best record” yet below, where Burgess discussed working with “titan minds” of the indie/pop worlds, “reconnecting to their place of origin” during an emotional return to Rockfield, and recalled crossing paths with some Manchester icons at the legendary studios in the ’90s.
NME: Hello, Tim. You debuted ‘We Are Love’ at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl last week – your first show of 2025. How was the reaction?
Tim Burgess: “Oh, it was a great gig – it was an amazing gig! I was very happy with that. I enjoyed playing the song as well. I think it went down well. [We played] two new songs – ‘Many A Day A Heartache’ as well, which I played guitar [on] for the first time at a Charlatans gig. So that was a whole new debut in itself [Laughs].”
Is it important to keep switching things up, over 30 years into your career?
“Yeah, of course. You’ve got to keep putting yourself in the spotlight when you’re kind of out of your comfort zone.”
You worked with Dev Hynes, aka Blood Orange, who produced the album. How did he get involved?
“We wanted to work with Dev, and I’ve known Dev for a long time. The first time I saw him was [at] The Old Blue Last [in London], and he was playing drums for Florence, before Florence became the Florence that we know. It was just the two of them on stage, and I thought, ‘This is great’. They’ve stuck in my mind.
“And then, of all places, we met him again in New Zealand, and he was then Lightspeed Champion. We both talked about how much we liked each other, and so it was like a thing. I’ve always thought about him, and then I just dropped him a line. He was just really into it, and the timing was right for him.”
Dev’s credited as a producer alongside Spector’s Fred Macpherson and legendary producer Stephen Street…
“[Hynes] brought along Fred, and it was great because Dev had the control board and that power. And Fred really held the room. We’d worked with Thighpaulsandra [who performs in Burgess’ solo band] quite a lot as the engineer at Rockfield. We had ideas, but he helped shape them into songs.
“And then we went to do a few songs with Stephen Street. One we finished, and that’s on the album. The rest is Dev, Fred and Rockfield – and all that’s amazing, amazing stuff.”
Dev’s worked with the likes of Sky Ferreira, Carly Rae Jepsen and Kylie – did he sprinkle any pop magic on The Charlatans’ sound?
“I did like the Sky Ferreira track that he did [2013’s ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’]. But I think he just has a deft hand and a lightness of touch, and he really wanted The Charlatans to reconnect to their place of origin. We talked about hauntology and psychogeography.
“And the place that we were in, Rockfield – we have a lot of history with that. To reconnect to the place of origin, to have an appreciation of everything that we’ve done in our history – it’s a huge thing.”
What else inspired those sessions?
“We talked about The Madness Of Love, we talked about ‘La folie’ by The Stranglers, John Cassavetes and his incredible observations of love through film. It was just a great sharing of titan minds.
“[The album] sounds like us, but obviously it’s been mirrored through other people’s views of us, which is really interesting. It all helped to bring us to appreciate the power of the sound of The Charlatans, which is what everyone was aiming for.”
Your last album featured contributions from Paul Weller, New Order and Johnny Marr, among many guest musicians. Were you focused more on just the four members after a long time away?
“Yeah, it felt like we couldn’t have any more collaborators. But Kevin Godley actually popped up and sang some backing vocals on one of the tracks. Kevin Godley from 10CC, who we’re all big fans of, and Godley & Creme. And Peter Gordon – Dev recorded him in Manhattan, on the saxophone. So we only had very limited collaborators on this record.”
You’ve had three solo albums since The Charlatans’ previous record. Was this necessary to rejuvenate the band? Why is now the right time to return?
“Yeah, I think it’s important. We all felt we had to have the desire to make something, to have something to say, to be able to have something worthwhile that we all felt good about. We all love all 11 tracks, which is an amazing feat – for us all to love everything.
“So we’re all very happy with the record – I’m in awe of it. I think it’s the best record that we’ve done. I’m filled with elation and pride around it. I guess there’s times where it felt like a long time coming together. It’s at least two-and-a-half years making this one, off and on. But yeah, it’s great. It’s amazing.”
You touched on Rockfield, which represents an early and tragic part of The Charlatans’ history. How did being back there together compare to recording there as a soloist?
“I went there solo [for 2022’s ‘Typical Music’], kind of like just checking out that it was all OK. I love it there. Obviously the band have got a lot of history there. [Late Charlatans keyboardist] Rob Collins died there – he died at the bottom of the pathways. There’s a lot of memories there. And in some ways, it was a reason why we didn’t go back for a long time. In fact, it was quite a big reason.
“It was great to all be there again – it just felt good. We were looking at new things, we had a sense of the weight of our history. It felt like we were really doing something special. And the last people who were in there were The Cure.”
You were recording there at the same time as Oasis – what do you remember of those days?
“It was just all Manchester bands when we were there. The Stone Roses were making ‘Second Coming’ when we were at Monnow Valley. Anytime we needed to do anything a bit more high-tech, we would swap with them. They would go to Monnow Valley, and we’d go to Rockfield for a week. I was there at the Temazi party that Black Grape talks about on their record.
“Oasis were there. I don’t remember seeing them, but I remember recommending Monnow Valley to Noel. They certainly had their first single [‘Supersonic’]… the [cover] photograph was at Monnow Valley. Noel and [guitarist] Mark Collins have a lot of history.”
The new album honours every past member of The Charlatans – was their presence felt in the studio?
“Oh yeah, of course. There was one day where nothing was going right. It got to about five o’clock in the afternoon, and I noticed online that it was the anniversary of Rob’s death. And I just thought, ‘He’s reminding us he’s still around’.”
And you’re returning during a big Britpop and ’90s revival. Great timing, huh?
“Oh yeah, completely! The record is finished now, but it seems like the world’s opened up and everyone’s got something to add to it.”
Have you been swept up in Oasis mania? Are you on the guestlist for Heaton Park?
“I haven’t! I mean, I’m really pleased that Liam and Noel are speaking and doing it. I’m very proud of Bonehead, and I’m really pleased for Andy [Bell]. It’s just an amazing thing.”
Are you hoping for new music from them?
“No, I don’t hope for new material. I just hope that it gives them ultimate satisfaction, doing what they’re doing right now. It’s kind of mindblowing.”
There are a few Charlatans gigs on the horizon – what can fans expect as we enter this new era?
“We might make a few adjustments [to the new songs] as we go along. I think we can add a few more things that we didn’t know we needed. And ‘Many A Day A Heartache’… maybe I’ll tune up this time [Laughs].”
The Charlatans release ‘We Are Love’ on October 31 – see the full tracklist below.
‘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’
The band have also announced details of a December 2025 UK tour. Full dates are below, with tickets on general sale at 10am BST on Friday July and available here.
6 December – Leeds, O2 Academy
7 December – Stoke, Victoria Hall
8 December – Bath, Forum
10 December – London, Roundhouse
11 December – Manchester, Academy
12 December – Glasgow, Barrowland
The post The Charlatans tell us about “euphoric, transcendent” new single ‘We Are Love’ and first album in eight years appeared first on NME.
