Doncaster rocker Yungblud announces release date for fourth album

Idols, the latest collection by the 27-year-old, whose real name is Dominic Harrison, will be released on June 20.

The artist, whose last two albums went to number one in the UK and broke into the Billboard Hot 100, and whose back catalogue has accumulated an astonishing six billion streams globally, took to social media to reveal details.

The 12-track offering, recorded in Leeds, is Yungblud’s most ambitious yet.

The decision to produce the album just a few miles from where he grew up was made to minimise distractions during the process.

Yungblud said “I wanted to make a project that didn’t focus on singles or anything else except feeling and world-building… A project with no limitations.”

‘Idols’ makes up the first part of a double album, with the release date of part two yet to be announced.

The artist was joined in the process by producer Matt Schwartz, Bob Bradley on additional production, and guitarist Adam Warrington.

‘Idols’ will be available across a number of formats, including four varieties of special edition vinyl.

On ‘Idols’, Yungblud explores the theme of hero-worship; how we look to others for validation, often putting others’ lives on a pedestal at the expense of the richness of our own experiences.

Yungblud said: “We turn to others for an identity before turning to ourselves. Self-belief, self-reclamation, self-evolution and change. As we grow up, we lose our belief in magic and mystery. We begin to rationalise everything; our cage walls build up.”

He added, “We compare ourselves to 15 different people before we’ve even had our breakfast.”

Yungblud describes the album as, “A love letter to self-reclamation… to rock music… [and] to life; in all it’s f*cking madness.”

News of the album follows the release of a bold new single, 'Lovesick Lullaby', which came out on Friday 25 April alongside a stylish music video shot by Charlie Sarsfield.

To celebrate, Yungblud spent the evening behind the bar at the iconic Hawley Arms in London, serving drinks to a packed crowd.

'Lovesick Lullaby' marks Yungblud’s second single since his return in March with the nine-minute, six-second epic 'Hello Heaven, Hello,' which debuted as Jack Saunders’ Hottest Record on BBC Radio 1.

At his surprise Scala gig last month, the artist treated fans to unreleased tracks from the album.

Introducing ‘Zombie’, he revealed, “This song was written initially about my grandmother going through serious injury and trauma. It’s about the feeling of deterioration and ugliness - shutting the world and the people we love out, out of the fear of becoming a burden or an embarrassment.”

News of the new album follows Yungblud’s appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show in March, where he joined guests on the sofa to discuss the forthcoming album as well as the return of his own-curated festival Bludfest, set for its second year.

Speaking about his motivation behind the festival and its affordable price point, Yungblud explained, “It needed to represent a new idea and a new generation. Gigs at the minute are extortionately expensive”.

‘Idols’, the album by Yungblud is out on 20th June via Locomotion/Island Records.