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James Morrison has been thinking back – but also thinking ahead. Back to the time he was signed 20 years ago, and forward to the hope of a new dawn. As he sings in scorching, soul-baring, defiant comeback single Fight Another Day: “God only knows what’s waiting for us tomorrow / Those hard days will come / That we just can’t escape / But if I hold on to you, and you hold on to me / We’ll live to fight another day.”
The road to his seventh album – also called Fight Another Day – began way back in 2005, when the Warwickshire-born singer-songwriter was fitting carpets by day, playing open mics by night and driving up and down to London at any spare moment, taking meeting after meeting with the multiple record companies interested in signing him.
“I didn’t have a lot of money but it was so exciting,” he begins. “I remember just feeling really nervous all the time. And feeling like I was at the pinnacle of the start of my career, and it could either go full-whack and go right – or it’s gonna go wrong and I ain’t gonna get signed and they’re not interested.”
He was right to worry, but he needn’t have. After its release in 2006 his debut album, Undiscovered, hit Number One, it’s 1.5 million sales catalysed by the out-of-the-box success of first single You Give Me Something. It was the start of a journey that led to the 2007 Brit Award for Best British Male (one of three nominations that year), and repeat nominations in the same category in 2009 and 2012. Fast forward to 2022 and he had enough of a catalogue to warrant a Best Of… – but also enough of an imagination and creative drive to re-record all those tracks.
“I definitely felt like I was young – I thought I knew I was doing but I was only 21,” he says of those earliest songs. “So I tried to sort of put a bit more of the live stuff in there when I re-recorded them, so that they were more up to date with how I would record them now. And, actually, when I finished that project, I thought: I’ve done these songs proud all over again. It was weird, like holding my younger self under my arm, being like: Mate! You did all right!”
It was, too, a line in the sand. A moment for reset and reflection. Or, as he puts it, “I definitely felt like it was the end of the chapter and a new one starting. That was a really nice feeling.”
That new chapter took shape across 2023, with all the songs written by the end of that year. Partly that also involved Morrison sticking himself into therapy. “That brought up loads of stuff that made me deal with myself. It pushed me back to thinking about my childhood and everything I’ve been through to get to this point. It weakened me, but then it strengthened me. And then I was like: OK, I’m actually feeling better and I’m able to face my life and face what I’ve been through. And look at where I’m at and be honest about it – instead of trying to convince myself it’s all good and I can keep going.
“And when I leaned into how I was feeling, that’s when the songs started coming. I started writing about what I was going through. My own struggles with myself. Every day being a bit of a battle. Trying to eke the light out after what felt like darkness for ages.”
Cue Fight Another Day, a song with its fists up. It was an immediate contender for the first single, and also an emotional pace-setter for the other 12 tracks that would make up an album recorded in studios in Surrey and Norfolk, with Morrison involved in co-production across all the songs.
“It just sums up what the record is,” he says of the track that also opens the album. “If you’re going through some shit within a relationship or with family members or yourself, this is a mental health album. It’s about reminding yourself what’s good. About convincing yourself you’ve got enough strength to keep the fight going. There’s only two choices in life. You let it beat you over the head and you go: Fuck, I can’t do this. Or you get up and fucking smile at it! And me,” he grins, “I ain’t going without a fight.”
Also bringing the energy and the encouragement is Cry Your Tears On Me. For all the emotion of the lyrics, it’s an uptempo bop that’s on its toes rather than its knees.
“It’s about forward moving, which is why it’s got that tempo. It’s got a nice message, but it’s summery and it keeps your head bopping. I’ve never really done anything like that, with a beat like that, motoring along,” he says proudly.
Similarly, Fill My Glass is a proper dance tune, a limber funk throwdown. “I wrote that a long time ago, but I’ve always kept coming back to it. In my own playlist at home, my family members would be like ‘put that Fill my Cup on again, The Cup Song!’ I finessed it a little bit with Eg White, who I wrote it with, and it just came out like a little stonker. It cheers me right up. And that’s part of it as well,” he notes, “I wanted to have as many different flavours on there that fit together well.”
Also bringing the groove is New Day, an R&B hip-shaker written with Daniel Merriweather. “I’ve always loved his voice and over the years we’d bump into each other. I’ve done some writing with him before, but I really wanted to work with him again. And that’s what we come up with. It’s a feelgood song. If you’re going to work and the sun’s shining and you can’t be arsed, put that on.”
At the other end of the spectrum is The Man Who Can’t Be Loved, a classic, James Morrison piano ballad belter that gives full reign to his instantly recognisable soul-blues holler. A huge vocal for a huge tune.
“That’s the only one on the album that’s not full-on with the band. When I was writing it, I was intending it to have that. But then became obvious it worked better with just piano and backing vocals.”
There are also heavenly, hymnal backing vocals on Little Wings, courtesy of little wingsmen Andy Platt (Young Gun Silver Fox) and one of Morrison’s childhood idols, Connor Reeves – with another childhood idol, Stevie Wonder, channelled on the brilliant harmonica solo.
“I wanted to write a song about my daughters. They’re just little beams of sunshine every morning for me. They just kept me going and make me feel like I’ve got that lightness in my heart, still. So I wanted to capture a bit of that in the song,” he says of a composition that evokes both You Are The Sunshine of My Life and one of Morrison’s all-time favourite albums, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass.
There’s more emotional connection on Something I Can’t Forget, burning blue soul track with punchy lyrics: “Honestly what has become of me / I always brought out the worst in me / Now I’m alone, me and my thoughts / How did we get so lost?” That’s open-heart surgery right there.
“It is very reflective and dark,” he acknowledges, “but that’s what I was feeling at the time. But as much as it being a truthful thing, I really enjoyed the weight of the sound. I had to get a song that sounded like that off my chest. It reminded me of Sign Your Name by Terence Trent D’Arby, but I also wanted that big drum sound, like Imagine Dragons or AWOL Nation. I wanted to have some dirt!” he says with another grin.
The dirt, the heart, the honesty, the soul – Fight Another Day is an album that presents all of James Morrison, 20-year-young veteran of music-making. An album born of difficult times and heavy emotions but one that, ultimately, leans into the light and joy and hope.
“I’m really proud of the album in terms of the creative, sonic elements and how I dealt with truthful stuff,” reflects Morrison, a musician who knows better than most the power of song as a tool for healing. “But also,” he adds, smiling again, “it’s an album of songs that hopefully make you feel better and make you nod your head and stamp your feet and singalong. That’s what we all need, right?”
