Bad news. James Blunt is back.
Not a snide snipe from a journalist who’s not a fan of lovelorn singer-songwriters (or indeed one who’s jealous of handsome and enormously successful ones).
No, this news came direct from the horse’s mouth – when the prolific X-Tweeter announced the arrival of his single ‘The Girl That Never Was’ in the top 10.
You can’t argue with facts. A tweet: “No-one likes James Blunt” was met with the response: “I bought those 20 million albums myself, right?”
And the former soldier always seems to have other wares to promote – if you can call his self-deprecating social media posts “promotion”.
A book, ‘Loosely Based On A Made-up Story’ followed by recent album ‘Who We Used To Be’. Produced by The Six, a collective who have worked with Clean Bandit, Marshmello and James Arthur, the aforementioned single is described by the singer as “an upbeat banger.”
And that’s to say nothing of his most recent promise to change his name to “Blunty McBluntface” if the re-released ‘Back To Bedlam’ reached the top of the charts.
Blunt isn’t afraid to deviate from his trademark style – live he’ll throw in covers ranging from The Weeknd to Slade via his take on ‘Where Is My Mind’; largely, if grudgingly, acknowledged by fans of cult indie act Pixies as “better than expected”.
And there are gigs to punt too. which Blunt acknowledges may attract a mainly female audience – “An arena full of women. Lads, what are you waiting for?” he jokes, although his demographic seems to have shifted towards a younger crowd, possibly subjected to his music on long car journeys with their parents.
“Now it’s ingrained in them and they know every single word to every single song, and they’re there singing along. I think it’s been helped by my online presence… where they go,” oh, it’s Blunty, and he’s funny too!”. So I’m getting a crowd of young people, stag dos, hen dos. It’s kind of a bizarre place to be.”
But, as Blunt also points out, the rest of ‘Who We Used To Be’ is markedly different in tone: a collection of songs that address some very grown-up concerns: long-term relationships, ageing, fatherhood…. “I’m at an age where parents are getting frail, getting old, potentially dying.”
The thing is, says Blunt, the whole album was a bit like that. “Some albums are a struggle to write, because I’ve got less to write about. And some of them just come naturally. I wrote this album very quickly, with great ease. I feel this album is one that I’ve nailed, lyrically – it’s just come at the right time, for my time of life.”
This article originally appeared in the Portsmouth News.
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