BEYOND BEAUTIFUL
James Blunt expands his sound as he hits the road with Ed Sheeran
When James Blunt heralded the arrival of his fifth album, The Afterlove, his announcement suggested self-promotion and selfeffacement don’t have to be at odds with each other.
“If you thought 2016 was bad,” he tweeted in December, “I’m releasing an album in 2017.”
Not for the first time, Blunt confirmed he had read his reviews, was aware of the vitriol he attracted through the ubiquity of his lovelorn 2005 breakthrough single You’re Beautiful, and would be greeting naysayers with a wink and a shrug.
“I’ve never been one to stand up confidently,” Blunt said by phone from New York recently as he prepared to support Ed Sheeran on a North American tour. “You know, I’m English. The English — Christ, I mean, look at Hugh Grant. Since I was a child, I have always done the English thing of taking the mickey out of one’s own achievements. And I think that’s probably a good thing.
“In the music business, you’re supposed to go up and say how amazing you are and how amazing your album is. And maybe that would be convincing, but I’m assuming that people can listen to an album and make their own decisions.”
Blunt’s humility doesn’t detract from his obvious enthusiasm for the sense of discovery on The Afterlove, in which his familiar big-hearted ballads coexist with contemporary R&B and clubland touches.
More than 100 songs were written for consideration, “and I really set out not to repeat myself. So what I’ve ended up with is a more diverse album. Of course, it still has the songs that I’m perhaps known for and perhaps best at — the kind of emotional songs that hopefully people can relate to their own experiences. But at the same time, it allowed me to be more bold and write some songs that were exciting.”
The album opener Love Me Better sees Blunt aiming candid barbs at himself and nodding cheekily to his past (“Saw you standing outside a bar/Would have said you’re beautiful, but I used that line before”), but also announcing an intention to venture beyond aching sincerity with ecstatic backing vocals and a dance-floor hook. Lose My Number mashes up a musicbox intro with “an R&B-type feel, maybe with a bit of Michael Jackson mixed in,” Blunt said.
He reserves special mention for California, whose low rumble and cool-blue staccato verses yield to a chorus built for open roads. “It reminds me of the soundtrack for the movie Drive with Ryan Gosling.”
But there’s still room for Don’t Give Me Those Eyes — “It’s a Greek tragedy; it’s desperate and so painful” — and Make Me Better, a tender declaration to wife and child that returns Blunt to the confessional honesty of his earliest successes, for which he gives all due credit to Sheeran, the track’s cowriter.
“Some of my songwriting has become more ambiguous, as I’ve wanted to reveal less of my private life. He did say, ‘Come on, let’s be really open,’ so Make Me Better is a very raw, revealing song.”
The close friends’ professional partnership began on a skiing holiday. “In the evenings we wrote songs — and as you can imagine working with him, they were pretty good songs.”
Blunt hinted at the possibility of further writing sessions with Sheeran on tour, although “it depends whether we pick up a guitar or if we pick up a beer bottle. I suppose we’ll go for the beer bottle first.
“I feel so lucky to be on this tour,” Blunt said. “I get to do 40 minutes a day of songs that I love … I’m touring with maybe the biggest artist in the world, and I’m going to play for this younger audience and I’m going to try to win them over. If I don’t, I don’t, but I’ll have a great time anyway. And after, I’ll go and have a beer with a mate.
“What an amazing gift this far down in a career, for someone to say, ‘Now you’re going to go and support the biggest artist in the world for three months.’ But it also seems like a holiday.”
The holiday includes a series of Canadian dates, bringing Blunt back to a country that was an early stronghold and has continued to embrace him. Asked why he thought his music was quick to catch a spark here, he laughed.
“That’s a dangerous question, because I’m so rude about my own music that I’m then likely to be rude about anyone who likes my own music. I don’t know why it is, but I’ll take it. You’ve been very good to me.”
I really set out not to repeat myself. So what I’ve ended up with is a more diverse album.