Will Young - All The Songs

Buy All The Songs here (Amazon GB)

When I idly ponder about whose career young upstart pop wannabes should try to emulate, few British singer-songwriters come to mind faster than Will Young. Will is perhaps the very best example of parlaying the winning of a TV talent show into a sustained and oft-critically acclaimed career, a career that has spanned music releases, theatrical performances and movies. It is a career that has lasted for close to twenty years now and one that has generated six top two albums. He launches his upcoming seventh album, Lexicon, with a first single which is aptly called All The Songs. While part of me can't help but feel this would be an amazing greatest hits single AND album title, it works well to set the scene for the return of Sir William of the Young to the world of pop. And he does it as he always has - with grace, class, melody and a clever insight the world around us. He has crafted a narrative which, during the opening bars, takes you in one direction before spinning you off in another. With nary an introduction, Will starts singing about the giddy highs of love before the sucker punch of betrayal happens as quickly and brutally as it does in real life. Glorious piano chords and melodies drive this story yet it is the pulsing beat which represents the quickening of Will's heart as his new situation takes hold. It builds and crescendos into that phenomenal chorus where, like Will, you are swept up into the swirling groove which is the whirling dervish of emotional despair manifest as a rhythmic percussion compels you to dance away your feelings. It is the little things that hurt most (here, the fact that Will's paramour was dancing with another to their particular song) and Will conveys this with a sense of disbelief and even world-weary resignation saturated into his beguiling vocal. You almost feel guilty for enjoying the song so much, but when the melody is as pervasive as it is here, the score as vivid and the hook as cathartic, it becomes a release from your own memories of such times and a reminder that a better tomorrow lies ahead. Once again, I'm smitten. I can't wait to see what else lies in store on Lexicon...