James Blunt is to release a new album in 2017.

James Blunt

James Blunt

The 'You're Beautiful' hitmaker surprised his 1.2 million followers by announcing his plans to drop a record on Tuesday morning (13.12.16), whilst also joking that it would be bad news for his haters if they thought 2016 was a "bad" year.

He wrote on Twitter: "If you thought 2016 was bad - I'm releasing an album in 2017. (sic)"

The 42-year-old singer/songwriter hasn't released new material since his 2013 album 'Moon Landing' - which was re-released in November 2014 as 'Moon Landing - Apollo Edition' with five bonus tracks.

Earlier this year, Blunt announced that he had started working on his fifth studio LP and had hope to release it later this year through Atlantic Records.

While little has been said about the record, 'I Took a Pill in Ibiza' hitmaker Mike Posner has revealed he worked on some songs with the 'Goodbye My Lover' musician, but he's not sure if they'll feature on the final track-list.

He previously said: "I wrote with James Blunt this year. We wrote a couple of songs on the piano. I'm not sure if they'll make his album but we'll see. It was pretty cool. He's really talented so I was so happy to work with him."

Blunt is known for outrageous comments and last year he formed a bromance with Ed Sheeran, when he presented him with a gong at the ARIA Awards in Australia and joked that he had given the 'Thinking Out Loud' hitmaker herpes.

He told the flame-haired hunk he contracted the viral disease from a bottle of beer he stole from him.

While collecting the accolade to honour his success in the country, Ed recalled: "I went to one of James' gigs when I was 14 at the Cambridge Junction, and I stole his bottle of Corona - and there was 20 people in the crowd, and he went on to sell 20 million records, which is alright, isn't it?"

And James - who is often making witty remarks to fans on Twitter - quickly replied: "That's where you got the herpes from, mate."

Ed, 25, played along with the joke, adding: "It still itches."