Hauntology, says bandleader Tim Burgess, influenced the first Charlatans album in eight years. The term describes a being that is never completely present but always permeated by the past. The old thing is not conjured up, it brings itself into play, suddenly appears on the doorstep and rings the bell. This is a superstructure that makes sense, especially since Dev Hynes, one of the three producers (Stephen Street and Fred Macpherson from Spector are the other two), also likes to work with different time levels.
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Together, everyone involved in the Welsh Rockfield Studios developed a hidden object picture, the staples of which are Burgess’ characteristic vocals, low-flying jangle guitars and rich organs. Sometimes, for example in the title song “We Are Love”, the groove invites you to dance. “Now Everything” has a climax that is reminiscent of “Forever,” the big hit from 1999. “For The Girls” is Sixties-infected psychedelia, as full of summer as the Thanksgiving table.
Dev Hynes shapes the fragmentary “Salt Water” and saxophonist Peter Gordon can be heard on “Glad You Grabbed Me”. The willingness to open up the classic band structure, bring in guests and give the producers considerable creative freedom shows a foresight that Burgess and his colleagues have always been credited with anyway. It ensures that even after 35 years, the Charlatans can, indeed must, be understood not as Britpop nostalgics, but as a contemporary act. “This is the place. These are the days. We are love,” it once says. Everything about these three big little sentences is true.
This review first appeared in Musikexpress 11/2025.