WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

TRACKLIST: Falling Deep; Light It Up; Feels Just Like A Win; Midnight; Me Without You; The Worst; No Man’s Land; Talk About It; Everything But You; I Won’t Let You Down

He’s not had a top 40 hit single since Jealousy made the top 5 in 2011 yet, perhaps ironically, Young has never been more lyrically and musically interesting than he is on this, his 9th album and 1st of new material for 5 years.

• Read on for reasons including how it feels like a win to have him ploughing his own furrow and worrying less about fitting in

The 10-track collection sees the singer-songwriter team up with new collaborators, pHD, the Scandinavian pop production/writing duo who have worked with Kylie and Little Mix, reunites him with Andy Cato of Groove Armada and TV’s Clarkson’s Farm plus long-term writing partners Jim and Mima Elliot who worked on album Echoes which includes Jealousy.

The catchiest track here is the collection’s 2nd single which finds Young pondering: ‘It’s pointless wandering around at Midnight‘ and ‘Texting every ex, tryna get my fix, why does no one tell me they are married? Looking in the window at my reflection, how did I suddenly get so old?’

It’s the video which elevates what could be a quite worrying sentiment (sample lyric: ‘I can’t even keep these houseplants alive, all these diets just drive me mad, therapy seems to just leave me feeling more lonely and so awfully sad’) which sees him goofing about and poking fun at himself in make-up reminding of his Olivier award-nominated role in Cabaret.

We last saw him live at EartH, Hackney in 2021 and said: ‘We’ve just read his book How To Be A Gay Man and that, coupled with the real-life interaction here, gives a real sense of his character, heart, sense of mischief and self-deprecating sense of humour that we’ve sometimes struggled to find in his music.’

A 50-gig UK tour takes place this fall including 2 gigs at London’s intimate Cadogan Hall. Theatrically we last saw him at Hampstead Theatre in 2023 in Song From Far Away and, before that, in Strictly Ballroom in London’s West End.

The best album track is ironically called The Worst and is a downbeat ballad with Young meditating on his unpromising love life, ‘finding problems in solutions’ and wondering: ‘What if you’re the best? A trainwreck like all the rest … I know I should stop overthinking.’

All Young’s albums have previously gone top 3 in the UK, including his last, covers album Crying On The Bathroom Floor out in August 2021, and he really should consider this collection a success creatively wherever it charts next week.

There’s a Police-like 80s vibe to lead-off single Falling Deep, stand-out Feels Just Like A Win reminds of The Eurythmics’ Here Comes The Rain Again and yet the ill-advised cover of a too middle-of-the-road I Won’t Let You Down feels just like the self-sabotage Young worries about elsewhere on this too-short album.

And yet, to amplify a sentiment elsewhere, it feels like a win to have him for the most part ploughing his own furrow and worrying less about fitting in and more about being authentic and enjoying his career.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Will Young Tickets 
• Have you seen a Will Young show before and what did you think of this show? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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