Blur Announce New Album Magic Whip, Hear 1st Single “Go Out”

Blur - Magic Whip

Blur Announce New Album Magic Whip, Hear 1st Single “Go Out”

Blur - Magic Whip

Blur’s last album, Think Tank, was released in 2003, but they’ve spent much of the last few years teasing a follow-up, with Damon Albarn saying as far back as 2012 that “there will definitely be another Blur album.” Today, though, that album has been announced, via a video chat on the band’s Facebook: The eighth Blur album will be released on April 28, and it’s gonna be called Magic Whip. Initial recording started in Hong Kong in 2013, although the tracks were temporarily shelved till November of last year. The album was produced by Stephen Street (who also produced Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife, The Great Escape, and Blur), and that’s the cover art above. There will be plenty more details to come, but for now, that is more than enough. Oh, and here’s a video for first single, “Go Out.”

Here’s the tracklist:
01 “Lonesome Street”
02 “New World Towers”
03 “Go Out”
04 “Ice Cream Man”
05 “Thought I Was A Spaceman”
06 “I Broadcast”
07 “My Terracotta Heart”
08 “There Are Too Many Of Us”
09 “Ghost Ship”
10 “Pyongyang”
11 “One Ong”
12 “Mirrorball”

Blur have announced one show in support of the album — on June 20 at London’s Hyde Park — but presumably many more will follow.

UPDATE: Blur told NME that they only finished the album yesterday. They also said they’ll be doing additional UK dates in advance of the Hyde Park show. I’m pretty confident saying they’ll do a US tour, too.

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