STACK #223 May 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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HEAVENLY VOICE, HUMBLE VISION

THE PLIGHT OF LEWIS CAPALDI Suffering through the external and internal strains of a life in searing spotlight, Lewis Capaldi still manages to retain his uncrushable wit and unflappable knack for sculpting some of the most endearing (and enduring) pop gems out. Words Zoë Radas ”D on’t waste your time,” is Lewis Capaldi’s message to potential buyers of his new album. The witty and self-deprecating Scotsman made the remark in response to a British talk show host who’d asked him to look down the barrel of the studio camera and promote his sophomore record, Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent, to viewers. ”It’s a complete and utter joke that I’ve been allowed to make a second one,” he continued, amid the host’s guffaws. ”If anything – and I didn’t think it was possible – I’ve got worse . So,” he concluded, sitting back in his chair with a resigned shrug, ”don’t bother yourself with it. Go buy Ed Sheeran’s latest offering instead.” Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent follows its rhyming and verbosity twin in the singer-songwriter’s debut Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (2019), and for all Capaldi’s self-owns, this follow-up does have massive shoes to fill. In March 2019, Divinely Uninspired ...’s fifth single, Someone You Loved, hit the tippy-top of the UK singles chart and refused to budge for an entire seven weeks. Six months later, it elbowed its way to plum position on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 2020, the track won the Brit Award for Song of the Year (Capaldi also grabbing the gong for Best New Artist), and Someone You Loved was even nominated at the 62nd Grammys for Song of the Year (but lost out to Billie Eilish, in the year she swept the floor with wins in all Big Four categories). Despite its excessively modest title, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent hit number one on the UK albums chart and sat pretty on its

Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent by Lewis Capaldi is out May 19 via Sony.

first album, and you’ve a year or six months to write your second,” the singer-songwriter remarks in his recent Netflix doco How I’m Feeling Now , which chronicles this sophomore album’s creation, along with Capaldi’s Tourette’s Syndrome diagnosis, his crippling panic attacks and anxiety, and the intensive pressure of a relentless touring schedule. ”There’s that tension all the time; the clock’s ticking,” he says. The film takes its title from one of the record’s singles, a candid and self reflective admission of his consuming self-doubt, which follows two previous number one singles lifted from the album’s tracklist: Forget Me (the soaring earworm whose must-see video recreates Wham!’s Club Tropicana shot for-shot) and heart-aching aural love letter Pointless. With a headlining tour teed up for Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne in July, and a much-coveted slot at this year’s Splendour in the Grass festival, Capaldi admits that despite it all, he’s very happy doing what he does. ”It’s better than having a real job,” he says. ”And I’m not very good at anything else, except for love-making...”

perch for a massive six weeks; no surprise, then, that it went on to become the best-selling album of 2019 and 2020 in the UK, and the track Someone You Loved broke records to be crowned the longest-running top 10 UK single of all time by a British artist.

Capaldi in the clip for single Forget Me.

So... what of the follow-up, this month’s Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent ? Surely Capaldi, an undisputed prince in the pop realm, makes his jokes on national TV but is quietly confident that his second offering will be just as lauded by critics and fans as his celebrated debut? ”You’ve got your whole life to write your

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50 MAY 2023

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