Bloc Party have announced their seventh album Anatomy Of A Brief Romance, due 11th September via cOnTAGIOUS LTD and Virgin Music Group, alongside new single ‘Coming On Strong’.
The record was produced by Trevor Horn, whose credits include Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and is structured as a chronological portrait of a year-long love affair, progressing from first glances through to heartbreak and final farewell. It is the most personal album Kele Okereke has made. Written after he separated from the father of his children following a relationship of over a decade, and then unexpectedly fell in love again, every lyric on the record draws directly from lived experience. “Every lyric you’re hearing on this record was something that actually happened to me,” he has said. “I had to tell the story, from start to finish.”
The fourteen tracks deal in bodies, desire, gym sessions, fleeting glances and passionate dates with an openness Okereke has described as a departure from his earlier reticence. “I’m less prudish about sex and connection and intimacy than I once was,” he has said. “I have no qualms talking about it, because that connection is important.” The band debuted three album tracks at the BBC 6 Music Festival in March: ‘Coming On Strong’, ‘Love Bombs’ and ‘Pigwig’.
‘Coming On Strong’ is lithe and muscular, leaning into the energy of Bloc Party’s live show rather than signalling a dramatic sonic shift. The album arrives as the band head into their busiest touring period in two decades, joining Muse on a North American tour before a co-headline UK and European run with Interpol in the autumn.
Anatomy Of A Brief Romance is out 11th September.
