Ahead of their gig in London tonight, the band release the latest sample of their forthcoming new album The Magic Whip – a song about loneliness and overpopulation

Listen to new Blur track There Are Too Many of Us

Blur’s songs often have a very specific setting, whether it’s the sweaty club anthem Girls and Boys, the pedestrian observations of an inner-city green on Parklife or the eccentric, tweed-clad swagger of Country House. It’s a theme certainly present on their forthcoming album – The Magic Whip – which draws heavily from the band’s time in Hong Kong.

The Britpop group’s most recent track is There Are Too Many of Us, a forlorn lament on overpopulation set to militaristic drums and a slowly unfurling psychedelia. The video features the band cooped up in a rehearsal space as images of tightly packed tower blocks surround them, and Alex James chuffs on a cigarette as if passive smoking was but a myth.

There Are Too Many of Us arrives ahead of tonight’s fan show in a secret west London location, where Blur will play their album live for the first time. Take a look at the video and let us know what you think.

The Magic Whip is released on Parlophone on 27 April 2015 and is the band’s first album in 16 years as a four-piece.