NME reports that Alt-Rock icons the Jesus and Mary Chain have dropped a brand new single, titled ‘Always Sad’. The single is the second to be released from their forthcoming project Damage and Joy, the band’s first project for 18 years, following previous single ‘Amputation’. You can listen to the track below.

Damage and Joy is due for release on March 23, and when discussing the album’s origins, frontman Jim Reid has said “We started to – can you believe? – listen to each other a bit more. In the last couple of years, we’ve buried the hatchet to some degree, and thankfully not into each other.

“Most people who know us would say that we haven’t mellowed that much. I think it was to do with the fact, dare I say it, that wisdom comes with age. Let’s live and let live, and let’s take each other’s opinions into account.”

Coupled with the confirmation of a new album comes the announcement that the five piece band from East Kilbride will be hitting the road in support of their new album. You can see the dates in detail below, and you can buy tickets for the tour here.

23/03– Northumbria University- Newcastle upon Tyne
25/o3– Academy- Manchester
27/03– Church- Leeds
28/03– O2 Academy- Leicester
29/03– O2 Academy- Bristol
31/03– O2 Institute- Birmingham
01/04– O2 Academy- Bournemouth
02/04– O2 Academy- Oxford
03/04– Junction 1- Cambridge
05/04– O2 Shepherds Bush Empire- London
06/04– De La Warr Pavilion- Bexhill On Sea
07/04 – Academy- Dublin