James Blunt - Airplane Mode [Clear & White EcoVinyl]

James Blunt went looking for the spirit of his early records on Airplane Mode, his eighth studio album, pressed here on clear and white 140-gram EcoVinyl.

More than two decades after Back to Bedlam, Blunt has said he lost his way for a while before finding it again in a studio in Banbury. Most of the album was made there with his long-standing live band, and that choice shapes everything. These are songs built to be played by people in a room together, with arrangements that leave space to breathe.

The touchstones are the warm acoustic pop of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the ground that shaped his debut, with David Gray, Coldplay and The Verve all in the conversation. "Tastes Like Summer" was the first song shared from the record, followed by "Weight Of It All." Opener "Circles" was co-written with George Tizzard and Rick Parkhouse, the production duo Red Triangle, who also worked on "Tastes Like Summer."

Blunt has called it his strongest work in 20 years, and it is clearly a record made with the stage in mind.

For longtime fans, the eco pressing is a neat way to own a set of songs that favour warmth and sincerity over gloss, and a reminder that the plain-spoken songwriter behind the hits never went anywhere.