Gorgeous George strikes gold

George Ezra Gold Rush Kid

How could you not love George Ezra? He is sunshine with a bad haircut, happiness in a denim jacket. He even makes death seem upbeat.

“Green green grass, blue blue sky, you better throw a party on the day that I die,” George sings on the cheery Green Green Grass, inspired by a street funeral he saw in St Lucia. Don’t mourn, celebrate!

Can his third album do as well as the first two? It deserves to. Ezra packs in more sparkle than Bonfire Night on these 12 tracks.

He opens with Anyone For You (Tiger Lily), a rousing slice of Caribbean-flavoured pop with infectious piano, gleeful brass and a sweeping euphoric feel.

“I could be anything you want of me,” he pledges. “And in the darkness of the night, baby, let me be your light.”

The shuffling title track is about Hertford-born Ezra reconnecting with normal life after the heady success of touring and adulation.

He’s the “gold rush kid, robbing the bank, making a run for it and learning to dance”. The gold rush is the journey itself. Happiness abounds on this album but it’s not one-note.

Sweetest Human Being is a charming piano ballad about knowing that “Somewhere out there is my girl…”

Manila is lush and soulful, In The Morning is more folky, while I Went Hunting is touchingly confessional. And could there be a more defining lockdown-era romance than in Fell In Love At The End Of The World?

Sun Went Down, the final track, is about the end. “I could die now,” he repeats, but not morbidly. It’s more a sense of having given life his best shot.

George has struck gold again. His message? Hope springs eternal, tomorrow must be brighter, make the most of life and party while we can.