Released: August 11
For her seventh studio album, Lucy Spraggan digs deep and gets candid about life over the past 10 years on her most personal work to date.
Arriving a decade after her major label debut, the LP was produced alongside the singer-songwriter’s first-ever memoir and tackles a range of subjects, from personal struggles with body image and mental health, to the challenges of pursuing and maintaining a career in music, along with the scrutiny that comes with life in the public eye.
But in opening the LP, Lucy goes right back to the beginning with a throwback reference to Last Night (Beer Fear) – the song that made her a household name after she performed it on ‘The X Factor’ stage in 2012. Aptly-titled Everything Changes (Beer Fear Pt. II), the accompanying song sees her //’letting go’// of the past and stepping into a more positive future.
With a linear narrative running throughout, Lucy touches on various topics close to her heart, from the personal experience of being diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and accepting her own mental health battles (OCD), to the breakdown of a drug-involved relationship (Cocaine) and overcoming imposter syndrome to embrace and enjoy her success (Underdog).
It’s a personal journey played out in song and although far from plain sailing – title song Balance sees her //‘Sleeping in an empty bed / I’m gonna leave my ex on read / Listen to what my therapist said’// – one that treads a path to where she stands today as an artist.
Among the 14 tracks are also cultural moments that lean into events of the past 10 years that have impacted and altered the social landscape, such as the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack after hounding from the media (Caroline), along with uplifting sentiments that nod to an artist who, on the back of a mega launchpad, has worked tirelessly to craft a career in her own vision (Empire).
Closing the record in the present day, the double hit of Manchester and Cost Of Living offer a glimpse at Lucy’s life now; the first is a love letter to her adopted home city, with allusions to Oasis and talk of the //‘wild North West’// in an ode to community and inclusivity, while the closing number nods to the post-Brexit British economy while ticking through the shared experience of being human in the 21st century.
In drawing on the process of putting pen to paper and writing her memoirs, Lucy not only celebrates the highs and lows of the past decade on an album that cuts to the core of her experience to date, but delivers her strongest, most finely crafted work of her career so far.
