Courteeners announce new album Concrete Love

Courteeners have announced their new album will be called Concrete Love and is out 18 August 2014.

The first track to be heard from it is Summer, which got its first play on Radio X this morning.

"It almost felt like a kind of Beach Boy Motown," Liam Fray explained to Radio X's Tim Cocker. "[Drummer Michael] Campbell loves Grease so I almost wrote it for him, as a kind of homage to Danny Zuko and it happened.

"I wrote the riff and it's the quickest song I've ever written. I wrote it in five minutes. The riff just bounces along, it's very different from anything we've ever done before. But it stood up against everything else. Love it, love it."

Fans will get to download Summer straight away if they pre-order the album on iTunes. The first single has yet to be announced.

Concrete Love was written and recorded in part in Montmartre by Liam Fray last autumn. The band also worked again with regular collaborator/producer Joe Cross (Hurts/Chloe Howl).

"There are stories, they come from somewhere, but there's a little bit more in this one. They're a little bit less literal," Liam said of the album.

"There are some parts of the record that are a bit more abstract, which is something that I thought I'd give a go. I've always been a fan of that kind of kitchen sink style of writing. I suppose because it's real, it's what people know.There are little pockets of abstract dotted around. So there's a bit more, 'Let people make their mind up', I guess, than the last record."

Concrete Love is available for pre-order now and Liam told Tim fans can expect live dates soon.

"We're going to tour the UK and we're going to play lots of new songs because they're just big parties aren't they? It's the best feeling in the world and when it's taken away... I love being in the studio, I love writing but we're a live band. It gets me very excited."