James Arthur

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There are many reasons to be excited by James Arthur’s debut album. Partly perhaps because it’s a massive, big, huge pop record - there’s no denying that. But much more interestingly, this is an album that refuses to be a collection of cynically constructed songs designed to manipulate mainstream minded ticklists. Rather, this self-titled debut is a carefully curated, concept driven collection that is unafraid to step beyond the constraints of playlists, likes and views.

‘James Arthur’ feels like it’s just stepped off the set of Bourne and straight into an Aston Martin, walloping you round the ear with its epically cinematic aspirations. Sonically, this is a stunningly impressive record, full of sweeping strings, emotive choirs and Arthur’s extraordinarily vocals. Naughty Boy’s description of it being a “real album” may sound disingenuous, flippant even, but in fact it’s entirely accurate. Each of the 12 tracks are beautifully written, composed and vocalled, but perhaps more importantly, are underscored by a sense of total authenticity. This is an album crafted by a man with life experience, who has had his heart broken and who has broken a heart or two, who’s been gripped by anxiety and swum in the depths of depression. But it’s the story of a man who, ultimately, has survived and is ready to tell his tale.

The first single, ‘You’re No One ‘Til Somebody Loves You’ has already been named Radio 1’s Song of the Day and won fans including Professor Green and Zane Lowe. Added immediately to key radio stations around the country and with over 400,000 plays on fan-made YouYube videos alone, the horn-driven, gospel-tapping track is produced by TMS (Little Mix ‘DNA’, Professor Green ‘Read All About It’) and co-written by James. A celebratory declaration that delivers a confident musical statement, the single is a reflection of what James has been through over the last year. “I think people know that I was a pretty insecure, nervous guy and I guess it’s explaining how I’ve changed and why. I finally like the new me,” he admits. “It’s cheesy, but you’re nobody until somebody loves you and maybe that somebody is yourself. I feel like I’ve finally woken up.”

A little over a year ago, James was a struggling, unemployed musician living in a bedsit and sharing a bathroom with five others. After winning the X Factor in December 2012, his debut single, ‘Impossible’, sold 1.3million copies in the UK and went to No.1 in seven countries. In February 2013, he embarked on a sold out, headline UK tour and it was then that he began to struggle with the realities of his new life. “There was a lot going on in my head. I hear a lot about people from reality TV shows finding it hard to recover because it’s such a head fuck basically,” he points out. “Luckily for me, whenever I can’t figure out what’s going on in my head, music always helps me to express myself and work things out and allows me to separate, categorise certain things, and move forward.” Admitting that he lost his mind “a couple of times”, James retreated to the studio and began figuring out his feelings by songwriting. “I remembered why I do music and it’s because it makes me happy. Throughout everything I’ve been though in life, I’ve always had the fortune to be able to write through it.”

Over the last eight months, James has traveled to LA to work with Da Internz (Big Sean, Rihanna), Miami to record with Salaam Remi (Amy Winehouse, The Fugees), before finally flying to New York where he met Mike Dean (Kanye West, Jay Z). Back in London, James got to work with the likes of Ina Wroldsen (‘Impossible’), Mojam (Professor Green, Emeli Sandé) and the aforementioned TMS and Naughty Boy. Of assembling his collaborators, James says: “I didn’t work with anyone who I considered formulaic or anyone who gave me a brief on how to write a song. And I had no interest in hearing any kind of dance beat,” he grins. “There was no agenda and I think that’s how I managed to keep everything credible. I knew as long as I didn’t make anything cheesy, or anything I didn’t completely believe in, I’d be good. I wholeheartedly believe in this album. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, put my name to it otherwise.”

The result is powerful, provocative album that delivers an evocative statement; there are themes, a concept, a thought-process. The Naughty Boy produced ‘Suppose’ is a beautifully regretful ballad that builds arrestingly to a dramatic crescendo. Reflecting on mistakes made in love, ‘Suppose’ is underscored with subtle nods to Hip Hop, one of James’ key influences. “Urban pop, I believe Naughty Boy calls it,” he says of the overall sound. “The guy is just an innovator. He has a fantastic ear and seems consistently able to come up with a masterpiece. And he’s hilarious too, so you feel immediately comfortable working with him. We had a great time working together at ‘Hotel Cabana’.”

Naughty Boy works his magic again on ‘Certain Things’, which features Grace of Island signed newcomer duo Chasing Grace. It’s the song that provides the perfect showcase for James’ jaw dropping vocal. His voice is so powerful, that regardless what end of the scale he is, it packs power, punch and pure, raw, wrought emotion. A tender, breathtaking pause on the album, the song is one of James’s favourites. “It just feels so much like something I would have written before all this. If I could give someone an example of what my style is, I would point them to that song.” All but screaming the chorus, it’s a truly poignant moment, as Grace and James explore inseparable, destructive love.

Teaming up with Ina Wroldsen on the Tiago and TMS driven ‘Recovery’, proved to been a great partnership. “We have a great writing relationship, we really explored the English language,” James points out. “We’ve got words like discerning in there! It’s about coming back, bouncing back, people hating on you and you fighting through it.” Traveling to Miami to work with the amazing Salaam Remi was another memorable recording experience. ‘New Tattoo’ offers a lighter touch, both musically and lyrically. Backed by Remi’s deft Hip Hop Soul flourishes, the track manages to feel vintage while sounding quite unlike anything you’ve heard before. The album finishes on ‘Flying’, a spirited closer that is the only track on which James raps. “Rap is very much a part of who I am as an artist but if I do a Hip Hop record, I want it to be 100% Hip Hop,” he says mentioning Northern newcomers Lunar C and Shotty Horroh as two of his favourite MCs, before adding his friends have a parody rap crew called 1D1P. “You probably wouldn’t consider me to be a funny person because I am quite serious and intense when it comes to music. But I’m an absolute clown outside of work!”

One of the album’s most powerful moments, ‘Roses’, is once again produced by Naughty Boy, and features Emeli Sandé. ‘Chemical and alcohol make for a volatile love, but stay with me’, are among James’ lyrical offerings to the orchestral overtures of the plaintive love song describing a couple trapped in turmoil. “I did go through my stages of debauchery as an escape from being completely lost, as I was at the time,” reflects James on the words he wrote. “I used to do some bad things; I took the wrong path on more than one occasion. But this is what I’m talking about; you can find hope and love and positivity in trying to be a good person. It’s never too late. Anyone can turn their life around.”

Growing up in Middlesbrough as the only boy in a single parent family of four sisters, James admits he was a difficult kid. At times during his teenage years he was sent to live with foster parents; at others, he slept rough. “I was angry,” he says now. “Everybody else’s family was all happy and ours was kind of… lost. We had no cohesion.” Music kept him going throughout, and he joined a number of bands, drawing on his childhood influences of Eminem, Stereophonics and Led Zeppelin. Shortly before entering the X Factor, James rented a bedsit where he struggled to make ends meet while trying to keep his musical dreams alive. “A lot of people have it worse, I know that, but life wasn’t great,” he points out. “I was in a terrible rut and I didn’t know how to get out of it.”

A frank, authentic, honest, uplifting debut from one of the country’s most distinctive, evocative male singers, it’s not the album you expected to be; but then, it’s not the album James necessarily expected to make either. It’s the culmination of some incredible experiences, relayed with invaluable input from some of the UK and US’s most credible producers.

“It’s been a completely therapeutic experience for me,” he says. “Making music always is, and I hope other people can find some hope in there too. I’ve come from nothing and been successful and I’ve done all of that whilst maintaining who I am and not being anything that I’m not. That’s what this album is about; being yourself and being ok with whoever that self might be.”


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