Balance

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Now, when I listen to it, I hear how much I needed her help and I am so grateful for finding some balance. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. Like to make my life look super cool and exciting online, but usually found at home, with my dogs, sipping wine and listening to Nicki French! Lucy Spraggan treats fans to some early Christmas gifts this week, not only in the form of her latest single ‘Balance’, but also by announcing details of her forthcoming album (of the same name) and memoir, Process – both of which will be released next year! We interviewed Spraggan in 2021 as last album Choices was about to chart at her highest ever position (5) and she said of fellow 2012 X Factor cast member Ella Henderson who was charting with Tom Grennan duet Let’s Go Home Together which couldn’t be further in tone from Lucy’s own Sober: ‘It’s a great song.

That song absolutely triggers me, because life was so hectic then, and that song itself is connected really deeply to the X Factor for me. What is more, writing the book has put a renewed spotlight on how different it is to put music to words and come up with melodies to describe feelings. Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better. II), the accompanying song sees her //’letting go’// of the past and stepping into a more positive future.In drawing on the process of putting pen to paper and writing her memoirs, Lucy not only celebrates the highs and lows of the past decade on an album that cuts to the core of her experience to date, but delivers her strongest, most finely crafted work of her career so far. I just think that Van Gogh would not have made the quality of work that he did, if he had had to worry about which gallery his paintings would be in in 200 years,” she gestures.

Spraggan certainly doesn’t spare herself or her flaws, and chooses instead to showcase how she’s grown to either work on them or embrace them. It’s a personal journey played out in song and although far from plain sailing – title song Balance sees her //‘Sleeping in an empty bed / I’m gonna leave my ex on read / Listen to what my therapist said’// – one that treads a path to where she stands today as an artist. Even though she’s been consistently releasing new music every two years, something about her new album feels different. Lucy has reunited with music industry supremo Simon Cowell who has signed her to his Syco Publishing and is an instrumental part in the forthcoming album. That’s the joy of it, someone lists to a song, and they hear something completely fucking different to what you wrote, anyway,” she tells me after explaining the thought process behind the track “Cocaine”.Since her appearance on X Factor, Lucy has sold over 140k albums and reached over 140 million streams on Spotify alone with over 540k monthly listeners. There was a period of time where I didn’t enjoy music or the music industry, so I consider it a real privilege to still be here and to be able to step back and realise why I wasn’t enjoying it. Closing the record in the present day, the double hit of Manchester and Cost Of Living offer a glimpse at Lucy’s life now; the first is a love letter to her adopted home city, with allusions to Oasis and talk of the //‘wild North West’// in an ode to community and inclusivity, while the closing number nods to the post-Brexit British economy while ticking through the shared experience of being human in the 21st century. Balance muses on the stability she’s seeking with the heartfelt and almost child-like plea: ‘But I might need a hand and if you could be that I might need some help to find my Balance.

Balance well and truly showcases Lucy’s strength and growth and not just in her working life – with lyrics about chasing her own dreams and living her life, the poignant ‘Seasick’ is the perfect example of how far she’s come in her personal life. With a bridge in which Spraggan’s voice breaks while promising Caroline’s mum that “the kindness remains”, it’s sure to be a meaningful ballad that people hopefully take to heart.It’s one of Spraggan’s own favorites because she feels it really adds to the ongoing dialogue of body positivity – or even body neutrality. She’s a sense of humour too eulogising the city where she lives in Manchester with its ‘sticky’ dancefloors and ‘it might look grey coming out the station but you’ll see rainbows everywhere.

Elsewhere there are some jaunty songs which give a sense of what went wrong particularly Cocaine with its list hook: ‘I just wish you loved me more than Cocaine, red wine, late nights and good times, fast cars, pink pills, Mary Jane and cheap thrills. Now, more than a decade later, those are still two words that immediately spring to mind when chatting with Spraggan about her new album. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. All of those albums are a part of my collection of music, whereas all these tattoos are a collection of my existence. It’s like a transformation picture, or listening to a song and saying, I can’t believe I ever felt like that!Despite the fact that Lucy Spraggan’s current reality is a world away from the one that inspired “Beer Fear”, she says it actually makes her feel connected to her past self. Described as being a personal reflection of her life to this point, the record will be released Friday, April 28th 2023, with Process set to follow later that summer.