Album review.

Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely uninspired to a hellish extent.

Joe

Aoife Sheehy

I’ve never in all my 21 years on this planet seen an artist so contradictory as Lewis Capaldi. Listening to the Scottish singer song writer, you would think that this man is heartbroken and lies on the couch all day, wrapped in a cosy blanket, watching reality tv with a tub of Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice-cream, only getting off the couch to record an amazingly poetic yet despairingly sad song about his ex. But this is not the case, if anyone has ever stumbled upon this man’s social media account you would think he is a comedian rather than a multi-talented singer whose heart has been broken into a million pieces.

The 24-year-old has gained a large following of fans not only from his relatable music but also from his silly, funny videos on his Instagram stories and his humorous tweets and memes on twitter. We see this in a lot of artists these days, their social personality gains them attention first and then their music is second. Some may argue that it is a good thing this happened to Capaldi as his music mightn’t have granted him fame on its own, one youtuber described this album as boring, saying he sounds like any busker around the cities of great Britian. I can see where this youtuber is coming from, Lewis knows how to write a good breakup song and sticks to this religiously. Capaldi learned how to play the drums and guitar when he was two and was singing in local pubs when he was nine, by the time he was 17 he was committed to the music industry, he would have grown up listening to British Artists such as Adele, Leona Lewis, Take that, Radiohead and Coldplay.

Some songs that inspired Capaldi in his song writing were The Maccabees’ Given to the Wild, Bob Dylan Bringing it all Back Home and Fleetwood Mac Rumors.

The only song that’s not directly about heartbreak in the album is the song Hollywood which is about Lewis flying to Hollywood to write a song about his breakup. This song is upbeat and catchy, if you didn’t listen carefully to the lyrics, it would put you in a good mood with the acoustic guitar and piano melodically intertwining with the ‘ah’s and ‘Oh’s of the harmony. It is one of the few songs on the album that won’t make you violently cry if u listen to the album after ending a relationship.

The first song Grace is an uplifting song with a strong beat and a gospel like energy surrounding Capaldi’s high notes. The faster pace of the beat makes this song unique compared to the rest of the album with the emphasised drum and the upbeat tambourine in the introduction of the song. Capaldi’s comedic humour can be seen in the music video for this song as we watch him fill in for a girl that has hurt her leg and asked Lewis to help her, she works in a strip club, throughout the music video we watch Lewis dancing with other men around a pole in front of men in suits, who at first are unimpressed with Capaldi’s dancing but by the end of the song the dance is a great success. This video has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics or any part of the song, but I like this about the singer, we can tell that he was only a 21-year-old lad who is only trying to have a bit of fun.

Bruises was an extremely successful song to come out of this album as well. With its catchy chorus going viral with people harmonizing to it. This song is much slower beat with more of a sad serious tone surrounding it. The harmonies running throughout the song would send shivers down your spine, with all of the instrumentals of this song being sombre piano chords, which lets the focus lie on Capaldi’s breath taking vocals The song is once again about a heartbroken Capaldi. If anything, this album solidifies the fact that Lewis Capaldi cannot keep a girl or stay in a relationship.

My favourite song in this album along with the majority of the public as it spent seven weeks at number one is Someone you loved. This song is heart breaking and hits all the cliches of a soppy breakup song, he needs her, she made him a better person, but she’s gone, she broke his heart when he had his guard down and now, she’s gone and left him all alone. The lyrics are extremely relatable and it’s comforting to know that Lewis has gone through what we are feeling now. This song again has a piano instrumental which makes it even more poignant, the chords are simplistic yet exquisite.

This song has been compared to many of Adele’s songs, saying that their form of song writing is very similar, but we all know Adele is an extremely talented singer and a ridiculously rich artist, I would not be insulted to be compared to her. Yes, they both write the same genre of songs, so what? There are only a certain number of genres of music one can sing. Usain Bolt’s speciality was the 100m/200m, you wouldn’t tell him to change to the high jump just because he has won enough sprint races and there’s many more track and field options, he could compete in. He stuck to what he knew and was good at, and constantly excelled at that event. The same way I think that yes Lewis constantly writes sad songs about breakups and loneliness, but he is good at it and he is excelling in the genre, and if he sticks at it maybe he will produce the saddest breakup song known to mankind.