The head of Parlophone has encouraged Blur to begin work on a full album after the group recorded their first new track in seven years, as previously reported on Live4ever.
Speaking to BBC 6Music, the band’s record label chief Miles Leonard said that the new single shows that the band are now once again in a position to record a new LP, following the departure of Graham Coxon in 2002. “They sound as competent and as strong as they’ve ever sounded before, he said. “I just hope that from hearing a song like this that the band feel there’s more in them. We certainly do as a label and I’m sure when fans hear this they’ll think the same.”
Blur reformed for a series of gigs last summer, and received widespread critical acclaim for their performances. They were part of a memorable 2009 Glastonbury Festival, and won the Best Headline Performance at last November’s UK Festival Awards. Since then, the band members have cooled speculation they were ready to make the return more long-term, with Graham Coxon telling the NME last year: “We’re in touch and we say ‘Wotcha’ and all that but nothing has been mentioned about any more shows or anything else. Everyone’s slipped back into what they do when the Blur creature isn’t heaving around. Law and cheese and music, I suppose.”
Blur will release the 7″ single through independent record stores on April 17th.