Ministry Of Sound and Tap Music Management have offered a deep dive into a "new chapter" for London Grammar as the band release their fourth album.
Their first long-player since 2021's gold-selling Californian Soil, which has sales of 120,865, according to the Official Charts Company, The Greatest Love was unleashed to the public on Friday (September 13).
The group's singer Hannah Reid and guitarist Dan Rothman give Music Week readers a taste of what to expect from the new record in this month's cover story, which also features Ministry Of Sound’s Dipesh Parmar and Tap Music’s Tony Beard and Liv Plunket.
Long-term A&R and current Columbia president Dipesh Parmar, who signed the band to Ministry Of Sound over a decade ago, liked what he heard right from the start of the the studio sessions.
“It never ceases to amaze me how creative they are, and Hannah’s songwriting and vocal still blow me away every time,” said Parmar, speaking in our September issue. “She is world class and the whole record is an incredible listen. You And I and House both instantly felt like they would be drivers for this new record, even in the early stages. Into Gold is one of my favourites. I always want to allow them to feel they have enough space to develop ideas and evolve as artists.”
We want them to be as successful as possible and continue to be meaningful culturally as well as commercially
Dipesh Parmar
Priming the LP to reach new audiences, Ministry Of Sound started the ground work early on by putting out The Remixes (9,417 sales, OCC) as a precursor in July 2023.
“We dropped The Remixes last year to warm up into their album campaign and keep their streaming audience engaged,” explained Parmar. “This featured the best of their remixes to date, plus two new collaborations with CamelPhat and SebastiAn to grow their dance-focused audience, which plays a big part in their journey.
"As ever, you want the album to open as many doors as possible. But like with every act we work with, we want them to be as successful as possible and continue to be meaningful culturally as well as commercially. They’ve always had something special about them. I’m excited to see what this album does.”
With The Greatest Love, London Grammar are seeking their third consecutive No.1 album (2017's Truth Is A Beautiful Thing also hit the top spot). But Parmar insisted that chart position is not the uppermost priority this time around.
“A No.1 album would be a great story to continue for the band,” he reflected. “But as long as they feel they have a creative outlet for their music that resonates both culturally and emotionally with their growing fanbase, that is probably most important.”
We all decided that being bold and making the leap to arenas across Europe was a risk we wanted to take
Tony Beard
Looking back on the band's acclaimed headline performance on Glastonbury's Park Stage in June, Tap Music's Beard suggested the scale of the set had "suprised a few people in the industry".
“For a band who hadn’t played live for two years to walk onto that stage and see the crowd stretching up the hill was an incredible moment,” he said. “There was so much love in the field for them. Hannah wasn’t the only one with tears in her eyes.”
The trio performed their first live show for the campaign as part of Radio 1’s Big Weekend and are set to reach a new plateau with their biggest tour to date later this year, including their first European arena headline shows.
“The band have always had a solid live business but when we started on this campaign, we all decided that being bold and making the leap to arenas across Europe was a risk we wanted to take,” added Beard. “Not once did we doubt the ability to sell the tour out and we’re being vindicated as European fans have snapped up the tickets even quicker than we had hoped.”
Beard singled out Australia as “another strong arena-level market" for the band, who are represented by Wasserman Music, adding that the goal is to “make some big strides in other as yet untapped markets”, including South East Asia and South America.
“It feels like a new chapter for the band,” concluded Tap Music's Plunket. “Everyone says that with a new record, but it really feels like a gear change - hopefully the fans resonate with it and it reaches new audiences.”
Music Week subscribers can read the full London Grammar cover story here.
PHOTO: Tarek Mawad
