The idea of the difficult second album is a cliché because it’s true. It’s the moment of truth for an artist who’s had a hit with the songs they had years to write on their debut. Can they do it again under time pressure, and even better, showing maturity and musical development without losing whatever it was that made them great in the first place, and will people still care?
Depending on its relative success or failure, the second go-around can either set you up for a long career at the top or make it look like you’re already over. In the world of the sensitive male singer-songwriter, there are numerous examples. Look at Sam Fender stepping up to a prime Pyramid Stage spot at Glastonbury, Paolo Nutini going six-times platinum with his second, and George Ezra producing his biggest hit single on the second try. In contrast, Rag’n’Bone Man, Ben Howard and Tom Odell couldn’t maintain their early popularity.
In 2018, Hitchin’s James Bay followed up the earnest, retro rock of his triple platinum debut with Electric Light, a second album that was better but must have been too great a sonic departure to bring his audience with him. He’d clearly been listening to the atmospheric R&B of Frank Ocean and was enjoying experimenting with synths and layered digitised vocals. It’s ironic that this third album is titled Leap because if anything it’s a retreat, back to the more traditional sounds that made him big in the first place. On Give Me the Reason his voice rasps in the right places as the guitars build towards a stirring arena rock chorus. On the cover his famous hat is firmly back on.
Bay has billed Leap as his most personal work. He’s begun talking more in public about Lucy Smith, his girlfriend since his schooldays with whom he has a daughter. The air-punching single One Life appears to contain a marriage proposal in its second verse. Meanwhile back in May he announced this album by revealing on social media that in 2019 he had been suffering from “fear, anxiety and problems with self-confidence”.
There’s nothing bleak about the 12 songs here. Confidence has returned in full by the time the fantastic standout Love Don’t Hate Me struts into view halfway through. Endless Summer Nights races along hardly taking a breath. Too much of the rest stays in his comfort zone, mid-paced and melodic. He’s back in the middle of the road, waiting to see if the masses will rejoin him.
