New Blur Song Unveiled During Damon Albarn Solo Set

Sometimes it’s hard to be a Damon Albarn fan. He certainly releases a prolific amount of music, but it also means that the future of his many musical projects is difficult to chart. Especially if said project is Albarn’s first band, Blur.

Since their reunion in 2009, the former Britpop kings have officially recorded just two songs with signs earlier this year that an album was definitely on the way, that was until Albarn unceremoniously pulled the plug on a new Blur record along with Gorillaz. Saying that the reformed Blur line-up were planning to hang up the boots after their performance at the London Olympics later this year, only to backtrack on those comments several days later.

Despite its on-again off-again nature, those hoping for a continuation of the Blur saga will rejoice at the news that Albarn revealed a new, untitled Blur track last night, along with the teasing promise of its release “in a few weeks.”

NME reports that during a performance at the Poetry Olympics at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night, Albarn slipped in a brand new song into his set which he told the crowd of fans he’d recorded “last week.” A simple acoustic-led track, Albarn eventually got the crowd to join in a ‘na na na’ sing-along over its spritely two-chord progression.

The track may or may not be taken from Blur’s aborted sessions with William Orbit, NME previously reporting that the producer was working with the band on recording a new album before Albarn put things to an abrupt end, much to the surprise of Orbit and his bandmates. ”The new stuff sounded amazing,” said Orbit. “Then it all stopped suddenly. It was all over with Damon, and the rest of the band were like, ‘Is this it?’.”

Despite the album hiccups, the quartet are all set for their huge Hyde Park concert to coincide with the close of London’s summer Olympics this coming August. With a short warm-up tour scheduled around Britain beforehand, as well as a headline slot at Sweden’s Way Out West festival also in August.

You can watch the fan footage, including the new untitled track at the 2:30 mark, below: