Scottish rockers The Fratellis today unveiled their new single Need A Little Love, the latest track released from their upcoming album Half Drunk Under A Moon. The Glaswegian trio’s latest offering is an unabashed tribute to 1960s dance-pop and the Phil Spector-patented ‘Wall of Sound'; replete with melodic verses and an up-tempo, Latin-influenced chorus powered by strings and brass. Lyrically we also find the band in a Ronettes-esque state of fuzzy limerence, with frontman Jon Fratelli yearning for an apparently unrequited love: “Life is lived in black and white if I don’t have you/ Oh you could make my head spin all night long/ By your sweet side that’s the place where I belong.”

Our new single ‘Need a Little Love’, is out now! Taken from our new album, out April 9th >> https://t.co/NkJkhMbC0r pic.twitter.com/Qtam1lH8vz

— The Fratellis (@TheFratellis) February 12, 2021

In a statement shared with Stereoboard, Jon Fratelli says “‘Need A Little Love’ feels like the purest pop song we’ve ever written. It’s the kind of song you don’t need to second guess or squint at and the whole story is pretty much contained in the opening few bars. It was written unashamedly from the twisted heart of a hopeful romantic.”

The video for the track, directed by renowned photographer David Eustace, was filmed at Edinburgh’s historic Leith Theatre prior to the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020. The venue also played host to fellow Scots Teenage Fanclub last November; serving as the backdrop to their promo for Home.

Need A Little Love provides fans with their third taster of what to expect from The Fratellis’ sixth studio album, which is due out on Cooking Vinyl on April 9th. The new track follows in the footsteps of lead single Six Days In June – a similarly brass-tinged singalong number with hints of influence from Neil Diamond and Tamla Motown – and Action Replay, a lilting ballad with the sort of sweeping, dreamlike quality you might associate with Alex Turner’s Submarine soundtrack.

In an interview with The Scotsman last week, Jon Fratelli reflected on the band’s striking sonic evolution. Fratelli said “I’m sure it can’t have escaped the notice of the people who’ve liked what we do from the beginning, those poor souls, that if you compare the first record to where we are now, it’s hard to imagine it’s even the same group of people. An easy description would be to say it’s a colourful group of songs; they feel multi-coloured.”

The band – whose landmark debut album Costello Music went triple-platinum back in 2006 – are hopeful of getting back out on the road in 2021, although they have already been forced to postpone their January-February North American tour. In an interview with Playground last year, Jon Fratelli said: “I think by the time we’re able to play live again it’ll probably be three years since we last did a full tour so at first, I’ll just be curious to see if we can still do it! I find having some new songs to play gives you a spring in your step which has an effect on the whole live set. It can bring older songs to life in a way that makes the whole thing even more enjoyable so I’m looking forward to having that experience again. Also, I think that when people are allowed to go to shows again there’ll probably an outpouring of enthusiasm that I’m looking forward to getting caught up in.”

The current list of dates for The Fratellis’ 2021 UK tour (subject to restrictions being lifted) is as follows:

21/04/2021 – O2 Academy – Leeds
22/04 – Academy – Manchester
23/04 – 02 Academy – Oxford
25/04 – Tramshed – Cardiff
26/04 – UEA – Norwich
27/04 – 02 Forum Kentish Town – London
29/04 – Barrowland – Glasgow (Sold Out)
30/04 – Barrowland – Glasgow
04/05 – Rock City – Nottingham
05/05 – 02 Academy – Bristol
07/05 – 02 Academy – Newcastle
08/05 – 02 Academy – Liverpool
10/05 – Uni Asylum – Hull
11/05 – 02 Academy – Birmingham