Take That release 'Sweet July,' the second single from their tenth album, as the Circus Live tour ends

Take That put out a new single, "Sweet July," on July 3 through EMI. It is the second song from a tenth studio album due later this year, following "You're a Superstar," and it landed the same week the group's Circus Live tour takes its final bow with stadium shows in Manchester and Dublin. Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald announced it on their socials with a clip of the three of them singing and dancing alongside the tour's cast and crew.

What it sounds like they're going for

By the band's own description, "Sweet July" is a sultry summer track built on beat-driven verses, staccato vocals and the kind of wide, euphoric chorus Take That have been writing since the 2005 reunion. Barlow takes the lead. I have not heard the full song yet, only what leaked out of the London Stadium pre-show playlist and the announcement clip, so take the sound notes as provisional. But the shape is familiar and it is a shape they are very good at: hold the verse back, keep it clipped and rhythmic, then blow the roof off at the chorus so 60,000 people can sing it back. That trick built "Shine," "Greatest Day" and "The Flood." It is a reliable move, and reliability is not the same as boring when the hook is right.

The setting matters

The song was first teased at London Stadium, the venue the group last played at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. That is a pointed place to debut a stadium-shaped single. The Circus Live tour, named after their 2008 album, has been a nostalgia machine, and it just broke Amazon Music's broadcast records, so "Sweet July" arrives with a very warm room already built for it.

The real test is the album

Take That have been a trio since Jason Orange left in 2014 and Robbie Williams went his own way years before that. A tenth album is where you find out whether the Barlow, Owen and Donald version still has a full record in it, or whether the live show is now the main event and the new songs are the garnish. "Sweet July" is a low-stakes opening move: charming, summery, engineered to fit into the setlist without scaring anyone. Whether the album around it has more to say is the thing worth watching once it arrives.