‘How Have been We To Know’ explores intimate encounters with love in all its kinds, together with the dangers required to pursue it. Its wealthy, relatable spectrum of feelings spans heartbreak, grief and pleasure, with ruminations upon mourning a relationship that broke down by to the blissful, heady rush of a love that’s simply starting to bloom. Love could make you giddy. It breaks your coronary heart. It makes you a little bit loopy. It sends you into dizzying highs and crashing lows. All of these emotions and extra emerge powerfully all through ‘How Have been We To Know’.
Emeli says, “When you’ve been harm, it’s very laborious to select up the items once more and permit your self to be susceptible. So I feel these songs discover the bravery of affection, and loving others but in addition your self. These songs had been items of a puzzle I needed to put collectively, and now looks like the fitting time to share them. These are tales from a hopeless romantic. I’m very romantic, and it will get me in bother typically!”
Navigating love’s curious contradictions is a very dominant theme within the album’s lead single ‘There For You’. Emeli’stimeless voice balances strident dedication and smooth vulnerability in a stirring soul-pop music stuffed with refined Eighties textures: from the thrum of the bass to the thump of the beats, in addition to the traditional sound of the Yamaha DX7 and a euphoric saxophone solo. Co-written with music supervisor and author Daniel Caruana and produced by Daniel McKenzie, Emeli says the observe “got here collectively so naturally”.
She provides, “‘There For You’ is about how I’ll at all times have love for the folks I’ve been with. Even when I’m pissed off with them for a few years, I’ll at all times look after them, I’ll at all times wish to know they’re OK. As a result of when you’ve dedicated to that love with somebody, it doesn’t simply go away.”
‘How Have been We To Know’ is fantastically constant, however that doesn’t imply that Emeli stays in the identical lane. Removed from it. The dramatic theatrical spectacle of the title observe is one among her best vocal performances, her decision rising from a fragile falsetto to the hovering, unfiltered emotion of its climax. ‘My Boy Likes To Celebration’ couldn’t be extra completely different, with Emeli’s husky croon atop an alt-pop banger with trap-tinged beats, whereas the gospel flavoured ‘Nothing We Can’t Deal with’ is an uplifting hymn of assist and ‘True Colors’ applies comparable qualities in a defiant expression of self-love.
The album’s intimacy was additional unlocked as Emeli referred to as on trusted collaborators, together with Mac & Phil and Jonny Coffer(key contributors to her second album ‘Lengthy Reside The Angels’) and Ollie Inexperienced (who labored on final yr’s critically adored ‘Let’s Say For Occasion’ together with the hit ‘Brighter Days’).
Emeli Sandé is confirmed to headline the Royal Competition Corridor on November eleventh as a part of this yr’s EFG Jazz Competition London. Her earlier touring highlights have included headlining London’s O2 area, recording an early Royal Albert Corridor present for a subsequent dwell album, touring as visitor to Coldplay and – after all – her unforgettable performances on the opening and shutting ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Video games in London. Her many awards embody 4 BRITs, three MOBOs and two Ivor Novellos.
‘How Have been We To Know’ tracklist::
‘All This Love’
‘My Boy Likes To Celebration’
‘Lighthouse’
‘How Have been We To Know’
‘Too A lot’
‘Nothing We Can’t Deal with’
‘Like I Beloved You’
‘There For You’
‘True Colors’
‘Finish of Time’
‘Love’
‘Cos of You’ (CD bonus observe)