We Are Love

Album: We Are Love (2025)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "We Are Love" is the title track of The Charlatans' 14th album. Frontman Tim Burgess wrote the song with guitarist Mark Collins, bassist Martin Blunt, and keyboardist Tony Rogers. Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange and Lightspeed Champion) and Fred Macpherson of Spector fame handled production.
  • The song began in a rehearsal room. "Tony had this riff, and we all just latched onto it straight away," Burgess told Virgin Radio UK. "This occasionally will happen. Most of the time it's like trying to find something that we all like, but this was just instantly something that we all liked. And I kind of came up with melody quite quickly."
  • The song's message is about loosening the emotional seatbelt. "To feel love you have to let your inhibitions go," Burgess said. "At first the kids represent what keeps us tethered, and then we move towards euphoria, which is what life is all about."
  • Burgess slips between romance and realism.

    My glass half empty, yours half full

    Yet despite the push and pull, the conclusion is clear: love conquers all.

    This is the place, these are the days

    "I wouldn't say it was pessimistic, in some ways. Hopefully, it's just something deeper than surface-level, up-down-turn-around kind of love," Burgess told NME.
  • The Charlatans recorded We Are Love at Rockfield Studios in Wales, their first time at the studio since 1997's Telling Stories. The song was a turning point for the album.

    "It's funny how these things work out," Burgess said. "It was an early song - we've been writing the album for a few years - and we recorded six, and then this one really stuck out. We kind of left the other five alone and continued on this path."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Name the Character in the Song

Name the Character in the SongMusic Quiz

With a few clues (Works at a diner, dreams of running away), can you name the character in the song?

Bob Daisley

Bob DaisleySongwriter Interviews

Bob was the bass player and lyricist for the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums. Here's how he wrote songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" with Ozzy and Randy Rhoads.

Women Who Rock

Women Who RockSong Writing

Evelyn McDonnell, editor of the book Women Who Rock, on why the Supremes are just as important as Bob Dylan.

Incongruent Opening Acts

Incongruent Opening ActsSong Writing

Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.

Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers

Bill Medley of The Righteous BrothersSongwriter Interviews

Medley looks back on "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" - his huge hits from the '60s that were later revived in movies.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.