Since coming into the public eye in 2012 on The X Factor, Lucy Spraggan has delivered an album every two years. We last heard from her on 2019’s Today Was a Good Day, now at the end of her 20’s she’s releasing a deeply personal album that draws from the past two physically and mentally transformative years.

Spraggan’s sixth album Choices, tackles sobriety, faith and divorce with characteristically direct lyrics, pop melodies and autobiographical honesty. Dark as these themes are, the album reflects an artist revelling in renewal and finding new physical and mental wellbeing. Previous releases have largely kept to type: whip-smart lyrics delivered with lilting East Midlands accent and acoustic guitar. However, on Choices, Spraggan finds new and untested sounds and demonstrates artistic evolution without losing the trademark observational songs that originally caught our attention.

The sultry album opener ‘Flowers’ is case-in-point of Spraggan’s new-found confidence to stray from her well-worn acoustic pop. It’s a seductive number that tells tales of promiscuity from a singer now more comfortable in her own skin, swaggering in her sexuality. This contrasts starkly with the stripped-back ballad ‘Sober’, a track released last year that recounts the singer’s confrontation of her well-documented alcohol addiction. She sings a raw and vulnerable self-affirmation that those in recovery might repeat daily or more: “I've gotta be sober I wanna be sober I'm gonna be sober, alright”.

The first half of the album features several more introspective tracks recounting her break-up and departure from her marital home (Heartbreak) and her envy of religious faith (If I had God). For an artist only just approaching 30, she covers life experiences of someone much older. The second half of the album features something of a change of pace and mood in the dance-hall infused ‘You Let Yourself Down’. Gone is soul-searching vulnerability and we hear a newly resilient Spraggan on the empowerment anthem ‘Animal’: “call me what you want, ‘cause your right, I’m an animal”. There is similar fortitude in her ode to new-found joy in physical exercise ‘Run’. It’s on this track that Spraggan most obviously explores new sounds – an Indian rhythm played on a tabla, inspired by the bangra music that she skips to.

The album closes somewhat wryly with ‘Why Don’t We Start From Here’, a rousing gang-vocal number that marks the end of a tumultuous period in Lucy’s life and the downing of some fairly heavy baggage. Her willingness to write deeply personal material combined with her new confidence to traverse musical styles brings comparison to Liz Lawrence or Lilly Allen. Spraggan’s past as an X Factor contestant means that she draws more tabloid interest than the musical recognition she deserves. This is a watershed album from a now prolific artist who would have played her third Glastonbury Festival in 2020, had it gone ahead. On Choices, her intelligent and honest pop music holds your attention and demands a second listen.

Choices will be available from February 26th - Pre-Order NOW

Dan Ryan