We Are Love pulses with that same sense of acceptance that’s always driven the Charlatans, a band that’s learned to cherish the long view that love is what’s kept the band together through every era.
After more than three decades of reinventing themselves through righteous grooves, the Charlatans are back with We Are Love, a record that feels like a joyful sprint toward the horizon. It’s their first album in eight years, the longest gap of their recording career, and on it Tim Burgess and company find a way to embrace their past without being bound by it.
For a band that’s survived tragedy, success, and the shifting sands of British rock, We Are Love is a declaration of endurance. Recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and the band’s Big Mushroom space in Cheshire, the album carries a sense of place and spirit. Rockfield, where they recorded their 1997 classic Tellin’ Stories, was the site of both triumph and heartbreak. It was during those sessions that keyboardist Rob Collins was tragically killed. Returning there nearly 30 years later, the band channeled that grief into something powerful.
“The whole idea of hauntology and psychogeography is represented by us going back to Rockfield,” said Burgess. “It was a way of honoring everyone who’s played in the band — feeling that energy and reincarnating it into something brand new.”
To shape the sound, the Charlatans recruited a dream team of Dev Hynes (Blood Orange), Fred Macpherson (Spector), and Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur). Together, they came up with a propulsive record that’s part psychedelic soul and part Britpop reverie.
The title track “We Are Love” leads the way as an open-hearted, open-road anthem that Burgess calls “like an open-top car ride in the credits of your favorite movie, driving along the coast to somewhere amazing.” It’s pure Charlatans, all things urgent, optimistic, and very human. Guitarist Mark Collins adds, “It became the pathfinder for the record. There was a certain energy to it that drove us forward.” Follow-up single “Deeper And Deeper” spins with Hammond organ swirls and fuzzed-out guitars, echoing the band’s early psych-rock sound while updating it for today. “It kicks in with a sense of immediacy,” Burgess says. “Sometimes it’s about giving in to what surrounds you. You only get the answer once you can’t turn back.”