As buoyant as bouncy castles and as shiny as their creator’s ruddy cheeks, George Ezra singles have become unofficial summer anthems since the big-voiced 29-year-old first emerged with 2013’s Budapest. And though there’s nothing on this third album to quite beat 2018’s chart-topping Shotgun in terms of big-hearted joy, the opening salvo of Anyone for You and Green Green Grass come close. While the former skips around a jubilant piano riff and an arms-aloft chorus, the latter ups the tempo with a lithe, club-ready bassline.
It’s all pretty much business as usual for the first 20 minutes – even the title track’s dissection of mental health struggles is transformed into a widescreen future festival favourite. As the album shifts into its second half, however, that beatific smile starts to wilt. The soft-focus I Went Hunting beautifully unpicks Ezra’s habit of self-sabotaging. On the grandstanding piano ballad Sweetest Human Being Alive, he imagines a perfect relationship that feels tantalisingly out of reach (“I can’t wait to meet you, babe,” he sighs softly).
More introspective and contemplative than his previous two multi-platinum albums, Gold Rush Kid finds Ezra becoming a man for all seasons.
