The sale of 5.9 million units this year is the highest amount of vinyl records sold in a single year in the UK since 1990. This past week, with the aid of Christmas sales, set yet another record with 250,000 records being sold in the UK, the highest amount for any week since the start of the 21st century.

The immense popularity of vinyl sales this year can positively be attributed to a number of artists, not least American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who has a staggering three albums in the top 10 biggest-selling records this year. Swift, unsurprisingly then perhaps, also claimed the honour of being the artist behind the year’s best-selling album. Her LP 1989 (Taylor’s Version), a re-recording of Swift’s fifth album, 1989, originally released in 2014, sold 78,767 units. The other Swift albums that made the top 10 list include the other album she re-recorded this year, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and her latest original studio LP Midnights.

The Rolling Stones album Hackney Diamonds, released in October this year, came second in the top 10 list and is followed closely by Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. Other albums to feature in the list include Blur’s latest LP The Ballad of Darren, Fleetwood Mac classic Rumours, Pink Floyd’s iconic The Dark Side of the Moon, and Lewis Capaldi’s Broken by Desire to be Heavenly Sent.

Commenting on the recent surge in popularity of vinyl records, BPI chief executive Dr Jo Twist OBE said, “Led by vinyl, the resurgence of physical product underlines the resilience of the UK music market at a time when streaming consumption continues to hit record levels.

She continued, “Whilst LP sales have now been on an upward path for the past 16 years, it is encouraging to see a stabilisation in demand for CD, as well as new generations of music fans falling in love with the cassette. It is giving people more choice than ever in how they enjoy their favourite music.”

The resurgence in popularity of the vinyl record is a trend not likely to slow down anytime soon, despite streaming services dominating the airwaves. The pleasure of physically owning an LP and adding it to a colourful and diverse collection are among the reasons for buying records, as American anti-folk singer-songwriter Jeffrey Lewis eloquently illustrates in his 2019 single ‘LPs‘. Watch the music video below:

Albarn confirmed the news of his opera project on the Broken Record Podcast, sharing his plans to put Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1807 “The Magic Flute Part II” to music for the first time. He said, “I’m doing an opera at the moment, using Goethe’s fragment he wrote about The Magic Flute Part II, which is fascinating. You’ve heard of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’? Well, Goethe, who is a contemporary of Mozart, wrote ‘Part II’ of that — the sequel — but it never got put to music. It’s this legendary lost thing.”

Albarn admitted to feeling less confident when delving into the world of opera, saying, “I don’t really know what I’m doing. I never know what I’m doing in that world, I’m a complete idiot. I don’t know if it’s any good. With songs, I’m more confident about that.”

On the podcast, Albarn also confirmed that he is working more within his comfort zone by creating a new Gorillaz album.

Bon voyage, Stuart, Matlock, Rusty, and Nödel.
सुरक्षित प्रवास ✈️ pic.twitter.com/n5j6D2V160

— gorillaz (@gorillaz) June 21, 2023

Speaking on the direction that the new Gorillaz album will take, Albarn said, “It’s not going to be as dramatic as a quantum shift, it will be a paradigm shift, it will be very different. It will be an entirely different approach to everything — to the band, to everything.”

He continued, “We’re at a point where we’re going to change. Why? Because it was always just Jamie and I. Although it is a very big thing now, it is still, in essence, just two people. If we decided between us that we want to do something unrecognisable then we will. You need that for it to stay alive, really.”

Albarn has not yet confirmed release dates for either his opera or his new Gorillaz project, but has confirmed plans for Blur. Blur recently announced a special gig in which they will play their newest album, The Ballad of Darren, in full.

The show will take place at London’s Eventim Apollo on 25th July 2023 and will see the band perform the album in full for the first and only time. Physical tickets are only available to those who pre-ordered The Ballad of Darren, and are on sale from 18th July 2023. Fans can order tickets to watch a livestream of the show however, with these available to purchase here.

Listen to Albarn’s Broken Record Podcast episode here.

blur presents The Ballad of Darren live at @EventimApollo London on 25th July. The only full album live performance. Plus global livestream.

Pre-order the album via the blur official shop for access to the ticket sale on 18th July. Livestream on sale now.https://t.co/wBEARrfq3g pic.twitter.com/kaCVrRaXK7

— blur (@blurofficial) July 11, 2023

The unique show will see the English Britpop icons perform the highly-anticipated The Ballad Of Darren, in its entirety, for the first and only time. The event will also be live-streamed via specialists Driift, allowing fans worldwide the chance to witness and experience the new album live along with those who can make it to the live event in London.

Listen to “The Narcissist” below:

Additionally, the livestream will rebroadcasted three times, allowing fans of differing timezones the opportunity to witness Blur in their live glory, and the show will also be available on demand for a further two days.

The timings for the broadcasts are as follows:

Live: Tuesday, July 25th 9.00pm BST
Rebroadcast #1: Tuesday, July 25th 8.00pm EDT
Rebroadcast #2: Tuesday, July 25th 8.00pm PDT
Rebroadcast #3: Wednesday, July 26th 8.00pm AEST
On Demand: Wednesday, July 26th at 1.00pm BST – Friday, July  28th at 1.00pm BST

Blur will go into the live album performance on the back of a truly wondrous weekend that saw them perform two consecutive dates in front of a combined 150,000 fans at Wembley. The weekend at Wembley, combined with a preceding run of English and European dates along with the announcing of a brand new album with a live performance of it in its entirety to boot, has well and truly seen Blur come storming back into the limelight of the UK music scene and their productivity since their reunion back in November has, no doubt, left fans of the Britpop legends in dumbstruck awe.

Watch the music video for “Song 2” below:

Formed in 1988, Blur have released eight studio albums in total, with The Ballad Of Darren set to be their ninth. Six of these albums have reached number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, cementing Blur’s status as a pioneering band of the Britpop sound and as one of the UK’s most successful and formidable groups of the last 30 years.

Tickets for the live show are will be available from 10am on Tuesday 18th July to those who pre-order the album.

You can pre-order The Ballad Of Darren here.

Tickets for the live show will be available here.

Tickets for the livestream are available to purchase here.

Image: Raymond Flotat

The Ballad Of Darren, out 21st July 2023.

1. The Ballad
2. St Charles Square
3. Barbaric
4. Russian Strings
5. The Everglades (For Leonard)
6. The Narcissist
7. Goodbye Albert
8. Far Away Island
9. Avalon
10. The Heights

Pre-order now: https://t.co/NYFL2LWFDV pic.twitter.com/qYbul5MHgS

— blur (@blurofficial) May 18, 2023

The news comes with the releasing of a single from the upcoming album, “The Narcissist“, an uplifting, alternative rock track that is lyrically both bittersweet and retrospective.

Listen to “The Narcissist” below:

The album announcement follows the recent news that the Britpop heavyweights will play a series of small UK warm-up shows this month, starting tonight in Colchester, that will precede a run of European dates and, on July 8th and 9th, a couple of huge Wembley shows.

Fans of the 90s icons will undoubtedly be astonished by the arrival of a new album that will immediately follow a reunion tour, perhaps even more so than the announcement of the reunion itself back in November last year.

The Ballad Of Darren is set to be Blur’s ninth studio album and their first in eight years, following the release of The Magic Whip in 2015. The LP was recorded at Studio 13 in London and was produced by Frontman Damon Albarn’s long-term collaborating partner James Ellis Ford.

Albarn, on the retrospective nature of the record, told NME that the album has “reflection and comment[s] on where we find ourselves now“, and has described the release as an “aftershock record“. Guitarist Graham Cox added, “The older and madder we get, it becomes more essential that what we play is loaded with the right emotion and intention. Sometimes just a riff doesn’t do the job“.

Blur were formed in London in 1988, with Damon Albarn on lead vocals, Graham Cox on guitar, Alex James on bass and Dave Rowntree on drums, and the ever-present quartet will be the same come July. The group released their debut album, the shoegaze heavy Leisure, in 1991, and transitioned to a more guitar pop orientated style with their next three releases, Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994), and The Great Escape (1995), helping kickstart the Britpop movement and creating a rivalry with Oasis in the process.

Watch the music video for “Parklife” below:

The ever-evolving group then transitioned to lo-fi indie rock with their self-titled album of 1997 before moving into a more experimental, alternative rock phase with 13 (1999) and Think Tank (2003).

Watch the music video for “Song 2″ below:

You can pre-order The Ballad Of Darren now here.

See below for tour dates:

19/05/2023 – Colchester Arts Centre – Colchester
21/05 – Eastbourne Winter Gardens – Eastbourne
26/05 – The Halls – Wolverhampton
28/05 – O2 City Hall – Newcastle
01/06 – Primavera Sound – Barcelona
08/06 – Primavera Sound – Barcelona
10/06 – Primavera Porto – Porto
24/06 – Malahide Castle – Dublin
27/06 – Ziggo Dome – Amsterdam
30/06 – Roskilde Festival – Roskilde
06/07 – Beauregard Festival – Normandy
08/07 – Wembley – London
09/07 – Wembley – London

Purchase tickets here.