Will Young has two albums in the vault that he’s yet to release.
The Leave Right Now singer is set to take a break from releasing music in 2023 as he stars in the one-man play ‘Song From Far Away’, which premiered in Manchester over the weekend.
Last year, he released his ‘20 Years: The Greatest Hits’ retrospective and in a new interview with The Guardian, he reveals there’s more unreleased material in the can.
“I’ve already got two albums that I’m sitting on,” he says. “One is totally ’80s, and the other is psychedelic folk. I can’t make a choice. It’s debilitating.”
Reflecting on the wealth of music that’s yet to be heard by fans, Will admits he “doesn’t love” operating in the industry, admitting that “after all this time I still don’t know if it works for me.”
“I don’t like the vulnerability of writing songs, releasing them and the result being judged,” explains the Jealousy singer. “I never have. Even if they prove successful.”
While he has a string of live shows booked for the summer, Will, 44, confesses he doesn’t see music being a part of his life for much longer, comparing his pop career to acting and insisting: “What the audience thinks of me doesn’t matter [as an actor]. I’m not selling myself but someone else.
“Music is different. There’s pressure to be a brand. I’m even locked out of my social media because I just get drunk and slag people off. As an actor, I don’t need that presence.”
He adds: “However lucky I’ve been with that side of my career. I don’t think I’ll ever have masses of confidence in myself as a pop star. I’d like to stop the music by 50, to be honest.”
In a review of the album, RETROPOP called ’20 Years: The Greatest Hits’ “a worthy addition to Will’s impressive catalogue” and “a reminder that two decades into his career, he remains one of the UK’s premier pop acts”.
’20 Years: The Greatest Hits’ is available now.
