By Rhian Jones

The new single from ’90s R&B/pop band All Saints, “One Strike,” has been getting a lot of love online, trending as #OneStrike on Twitter after premiering on Chris Evans' BBC Radio 2 show today ahead of its Friday (2/26) release date. The track is the first from the group’s upcoming comeback album, Red Flag, that will be released on 4/8 by Universal’s London Records and All Saints’ own AS Recordings. The group is repped by Fascination Management’s Peter Loraine.

The London label goes down in U.K. music-industry folklore as a true representation of the most debauched days of the ’90s business and is the inspiration for its very own bloody roman a clef, Kill Your Friends. But those days are no more, and London has been sitting under UMG unstaffed in recent years.

Universal U.K. boss David Joseph offered Lorraine a deal whereby the London Records name could be used alongside distribution from Universal, both in the U.K. and internationally.

Loraine’s relationship with All Saints harks back to his time at the dawn of the century as Marketing Director of Polydor, where he worked on the solo project of band members and sisters Natalie and Nicole Appleton, prior to which he was Editor of Top of the Pops magazine during All Saints’ launch.

Other names involved in the project include a host of experienced freelancers: marketing exec Emma Powell (previously marketing manager at Polydor where she worked on Take That’s reincarnation), radio plugger Joe Bennett (a former promotions director at Sony) and TV promotions exec Rachel Drake (formerly of Polydor and Sony). It’s the band's fourth LP following the 5x platinum All Saints (1997), 2x platinum Saints & Sinners (2000) and the Parlophone released Studio 1 (2006).

Band member and chief songwriter Shaznay Lewis was joined in the studio by “One Strike” producer Hutch, previous collaborator K-Gee, The Invisible Men and Fred Ball.

Loraine calls Red Flag the best record All Saints have ever made. “It’s really true to the roots of what All Saints are about musically, but it’s very contemporary, it doesn’t sound like a ‘90s record,” he told us. “And when you write your own material, the older you get, the more experiences who have to draw from. So lyrically it’s very strong, and musically it maintains all their original values brought up to date. We have very high hopes for the campaign."

Take a listen for yourself here: