WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

OUT: now

We were supposed to be seeing the 29-year-old singer-songwriter from Buxton, Derbyshire, this month at the 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire but COVID-19 has now pushed that back to April 2021.

• Read on for reasons including why new album Choices is shaping up nicely

Similarly, the release of her 6th album Choices was pushed back to 26 February 2021 and Sober is the 2nd single from it.

Spraggan has never chosen the conventional path to fame and was the 1st X Factor contestant to have a top 40 single and album before the live shows aired but ended up leaving early and finishing 9th because of illness.

2012 was an X Factor year filled with contemporaries who would go on to wide-ranging successes including Ella Henderson, winner James Arthur and Rylan Clark.

The only time we’ve seen Spraggan live was at a memorable Glastonbury 3 years ago and we said of her then: ‘She got the boisterous crowd to sing along to her songs, described it as the gig of her life and we especially appreciated the strength of the songwriting, from a putdown to an unhappy Blues fan to an observation of the devastation of Alzheimer’s.’ 

Since then she’s stopped drinking alcohol and Sober is very much a reflection on that decision: ‘Sunrise guilt and sunset shame, Wish I could move and change my name, I’d like some nights I know I won’t forget.’

It’s an affecting sentiment sung to a pretty, acoustic tune that Ed Sheeran would be proud of. We almost picked its predecessor, Flowers, as a song of the month and Choices is already shaping up to be 1 of the albums to be excited about for 2021.

That gig and the end of COVID-19 can’t come soon enough.

• Picture via Facebook courtesy Lucy Spraggan Tickets
• Have you seen any of these shows? Or heard any of these songs? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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