James Blunt is back with his seventh album “Who We Used to be” his first full album since 2019(Once Upon a Mind) but his first since the release of his greatest hits album “The Stars beneath my Feet”. That album had some unreleased or bonus songs but put three new singles so this new album gives fans ten new songs and he even released a quasi-memoir “Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story”.
Overall this album hits on what makes Blunt a successful singer-songwriter-musician is by songs that are easy on the ear and that are catchy. His usual tone is all depressing songs back in his youth but has become more upbeat later on but still has challenges before him like aging, loss and the passing of time as it glimpses into his growth and maturity as an artist.
There are some more heavy pop songs like “Some Kind of Beautiful”, “Beside You”, “I won’t die with you” and “Cold shoulder” that all are catchy hitting on his good lyrical career. Three of them sound like EDM or that you are in a club or have some fast talking. The first one sounds like a previous song “Superstar” and the second one sounds like the style of the album “The Afterlove” which can be good and bad. What is surprising is the first track on the album “Saving a Life” isn’t a single because it is a really good start to the album with great lyrics.
The rest of the tracks are emotional like “The Girl that never was” which is about his marriage that “You win some battles and you lose some. And the ones that we have lost we struggle with a bit”. The issue is it feels longer than it really it as it drags on a bit. While “All the Love That I ever needed” which is one of the singles sounds like a typical song from his catalog as it is about the struggles of aging. One of his best songs “If Time is all I have” from a previous album it’s kind of reminiscent of the song “Last Dance” which is all about living in the moment and not letting opportunities go.
The final two tracks are really emotional as one is about his relationship with Carrie Fisher in “Dark Thought” with him visiting her house after she had died in 2016 as the two met in England in 2003 and he lived in Fisher’s house in Los Angeles after he moved there to record his first album Back to Bedlam. Fisher had previously spoken about how she “became James’s therapist”. So it is a very good song about losing a loved one no matter if it was a relative or a friend who is like family in the shades of “So Long Jimmy” and “Monsters” his previous tracks about loss. The final song “Glow” is a good way to end the album with another really good message about letting your light glow, so don’t keep it in and about aging, as well as it similar to the track “Shine On” from the “All the Lost Souls” album.
It is nice to see the progression from soldier turned musician of mostly depressing songs from the first few albums to getting increasingly happier in later albums as he ages into a different stage of his life. He is married with kids writing about the struggles of middle agedness as he turned fifty this year. This album is another strong addition to his discography where there isn’t much that you need to skip as it might be one of his best albums to date, as it could be his fourth best album. Depending on your mood you can turn on any of his albums for your mood from sad, happy or angry, or even parties. He has a point with the title of “Who we used to be” he has found who he used to be by coming out with a really good album sounding like some of his old works.