Things get a bit more Coldplay on Out Of My Mind, while opener High takes this to a new extreme it could easily have appeared on Parachutes.
With follow up single Goodbye My Lover being along the same lines, my hopes weren’t high to enjoy the full Back To Bedlam album. Everyone reading this knows the song, it was a radio smash that never seemed to go away. Said big hit is of course You’re Beautiful, a sickly sweet ballad that manages to sound heartfelt and creepy at the same time. The ‘soldier with the beautiful voice’ story was all you heard throughout his promo in 2005, the typical lead in to one of the millions of plays the big hit would have received on UK radio that year. It’s easy to see why people would be bored of someone like James Blunt, he’s the blueprint for a Simon Cowell ‘success story’. I’ve never managed to hide how I feel about certain artists, Blunt being one of them. You don’t have to and shouldn’t love someone who treats you so badly, because you are so much more than that.Completing the boring trinity of this list, Dido and David Gray if you aren’t keeping track, we have James Blunt. “So, instead of continuing to be a victim of such awful treatment and the pain that comes with it, this song shows that you can in fact do yourself a huge favour and leave toxic relationships. Having someone treat you so disrespectfully and disgustingly can destroy someone’s self-worth and self-love,” the artist explains. “At its core it’s about being treated like a parasite by a partner. Paulina is a Brisbane-based singer-songwriter who’s just returned with her suave new cut ‘Parasite’ – produced by Toby Hobart, accompanied by a stunning music video, directed by Matt Pettigrew from Slate Media (Cosmo’s Midnight, Mallrat, Spacey Jane). Just like the lyrics in this song say, ‘you touched my heart, you touched my soul, changed my life.’ So, thank you, James I will never forget this album and you. My favourite was always ‘Goodbye My Lover’, whether that was because of my situation at the time, which related so much to the song, or simply because I felt the pain through your voice and I could relate to it. I can’t explain the love I felt from your music James, the pure love you put into these songs just radiated when I listened to them. It brought me peace and a sense of hope through it all. However, what helped me sleep, what allowed me to close my eyes and somehow forget my life for a while, was your album.
Just before my parents divorced, they argued a lot, and I remember every night when I went to sleep, I would close the door and just cry because I could tell something was off between them, and thus every night, I feared that they were going to split. Even though many critics aren’t a massive fan of this album, I can assure you that I think the absolute opposite. I just remember downloading the album onto my little blue iPod, and listening to every song, every single day, for months and months. I was a little late to this one, as I only started listening to it a decade after it was released, but with that being said, my child and current self are so thankful for this masterpiece, as it seriously ‘got me through it all’. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for writing your album Back to Bedlam. Paulina – James Blunt, Back To Bedlam (2004)