LEWIS CAPALDI - BROKEN BY DESIRE TO BE HEAVENLY SENT
Four years on from his number one debut album (Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent) Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi returns with his equally lengthy-titled sophomore album, Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent. Across its 43 minutes and 11 seconds, the album builds on Capaldi’s familiar (but so far extremely successful) formula of soaring, sorrowful vocals and instrumentals ranging from soft piano to pop-soaked background sounds.
His follow up effort starts with an uncharacteristically perky song, and the album’s lead single ‘Forget Me’. Lyrically, the song is littered with Capaldi’s typical buzz words about how the days “ache” and the nights being “long”. The production of the song, however, is pure pop and rather upbeat - a confusing cocktail of sound but one that has worked a dream since the Glasgow native made the leap from pub singer to pop starlet what feels like a lifetime ago.
‘Pointless’ begins with a rather saccharine opening line “I bring her coffee in the morning / She brings me inner peace” but builds to become a not unfamiliar where Capaldi is concerned, but nevertheless powerful, emotional ballad.
Next, Capaldi takes the listener through the pure euphoria of being in love (‘Heavenly Kind Of State Of Mind’), back to ballad territory in ‘Haven’t You Ever Been In Love Before?’ and into country-sounding instrumentals (‘Burning’). There’s no emotional let-up in this album as, when the final note of one track is uttered, the listener is brought straight back to another song that’ll have loyal fans weeping along (and critics, too, but probably for different reasons).
In amongst the sweet love songs, Capaldi shines on ‘The Pretender’. The singer’s social media is prime example of the fact that he isn’t afraid to take the piss out of himself and, in this song, he puts himself in the spotlight; albeit to confess that he is filled with plenty of insecurities (something his Netflix documentary further established).
Final track, and the title of his aforementioned documentary, ‘How I’m Feeling Now’ is much like the track before it. After the love-lorn ballads, or the frothy loved-up guitar tracks, there’s a real sense of vulnerability in this song. He might be a hilarious, outwardly confident global mega-star but this album - whilst it may not be a giant leap from its predecessor- proves there’s more to the man behind the music.
Jen Rose
★★★☆☆