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.