From being in the X factor to carving out his own career, British singer-songwriter James Arthur explores fatherhood and mental health in his fourth studio album, It Will All Make Sense In The End.
Infused with a more rock sound but still keeping his honest lyrical style, James hopes that this album “changes” and moves fans. Moreover, with the pandemic forcing him to write the album entirely in his home in Surrey, he was able to wholly focus on the music and tap into his emotions on a deeper level.
“I definitely think this album is a journey from start to finish. There is definitely a rock sound to it. From day one there was a sound that I wanted to go for. Even early on it sounded like a real album, a proper body of work. This is the first time I’ve made an album all in one place and you can hear this in the music. There’s something really comfortable about working in your own home – I was able to be more vulnerable than ever,”
The result is a very autobiographical album that has “a bit of everything.” It also infuses more guitar instrumentals courtesy of Matt Rad, who’s worked with Taking Back Sunday. Through this collaboration, Arthur was able to not only craft an album that not only served as an ode to the classic rock that inspired him, but also served to bring out an even more personal taste in the sound.
“Something extra comes out of me when there’s more guitar sounds,” he commented.
Looking at the album’s repertoire, there is no other song that encapsulated that rawness as well as the single “Emily.” A gut-wrenching ballad written as a letter to his future daughter, James describes the song as “one of the hardest to write” in a sense that it “forced him to think about being a father.”
Written by James with George Tizzard, Rick Parkhouse and James ‘Yami’ Bell and produced by Red Triangle, James also consider “Emily” as an emotional ode to the next generation, a tender intimate mea culpa to the daughter he might one day have.
James says: “That arose from conversations about having kids. Would I even be a good dad? What if they read about all the shit I’ve been through? It doesn’t matter because ultimately I’m the guy who’s going to be there for you all your life.”
“Having a child was quite a real thing when I wrote this song, and it forced me to think about it. That arose from conversations about having kids. Would I even be a good dad? What if they read about all the shit I’ve been through? It’s been exciting and scary at the same time. I made a lot of mistakes in my public life so I even thought; ‘what if my daughter disapproves of that?’” he said. “Once I decided on the concept, I realized that I don’t want to miss the right thing to say, I don’t want to miss what this is,”
James Arthur’s It Will All Make Sense in the End is now available for streaming on all major streaming platforms.