James Blunt was desperate to write an upbeat album because he got fed up making "miserable music".
James Blunt
The 42-year-old singer - whose hit single 'Goodbye My Love' is one of the most played songs at funerals - recently announced his fifth studio LP 'The Afterlove' and has admitted he decided to ditch his usual depressing songs this time round because he is in a happier place since marrying his 33-year-old wife Sofia Wellesley in 2014, and he wants his music to reflect that.
James - who dropped lead single 'Love Me Better' earlier this month - admits that he is "nervous" about fans hearing his more uptempo tunes.
In an interview with Radio X, he confessed: I'm very lucky - I suppose we always focus on the negatives don't we? You know, you can sell a few thousand tickets but we always focus on the one negative tweet or something like that. But I am genuinely nervous about this record because, as I say, it does sound different and you never quite know if anyone will like it or not. But I suppose I was just ... I was tired of doing the same old kind of miserable songs and I wanted to do something that reflected me a bit more, which was something with a bit more energy."
The hunky star added that working with Stephan Moccio and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder on his follow-up to 2014's 'Moon Landing' also had a big impact on his less sombre sound.
He said: "You know what, this does feel really different for me and, you know, I know I've written, I suppose, four albums with me on a guitar writing these pretty miserable, dour sort of songs and I feel that's a lifetime away really. Particularly from the kind of time of 'Back to Bedlam' and 'You're Beautiful' and so this album is very different for me and I've been writing it with people like Stephan Moccio who works with The Weeknd and Ryan Tedder who you know is the lead singer from OneRepublic. And I am a bit nervous because the album sounds very different from what I've done in the past. "
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