Lewis Capaldi - Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Extended Edition) (2024) {Apple Music Edition}

In typical Lewis Capaldi fashion, the title of the singer-songwriter’s second album, Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent, is both a bit of a joke and a sign of something more profound. “I’m a big fan of The 1975 and I like their long titles because it’s a bit silly,” he tells Apple Music’s Rebecca Judd. “I thought, ‘I’m going to have me some of that.’” But the (rather wordy) title is also a neat encapsulation of where Capaldi was as he came to craft his second record: crumbling under the pressure to match the mammoth success of his first, 2019’s star-catapulting Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent. “I think we all attempt to be heavenly sent. I think what I mean by that is to be good at something,” he says. “[But] the pursuit of perfection or satisfaction in one’s work can leave you feeling a bit dejected and just a bit broken. I really want to be good at this. And sometimes, I feel like I fall short of that.”

The album was never, says Capaldi, about “reinventing the wheel”—he just wanted to return to the music he enjoys making. So you can expect plenty of the colossal ballads he’s made his name on, with songs about heartbreak (“Wish You the Best”, “Burning”) as well as unerring love (“Pointless”, “Love the Hell Out of You”). All of which proves that Capaldi is indeed very good at what he does. But there are also moments that reveal new sides to the Scottish superstar, from the upbeat, ’80s-inflected and completely inescapable “Forget Me” to the spacious, synth-led, Max Martin-assisted “Leave Me Slowly”. In this album’s most powerful moments, you’ll hear the rocky route to this point breaking through, with Capaldi delivering startlingly frank assessments of impostor syndrome (“The Pretender”, arguably the album’s standout track) and his mental health (on the raw, vulnerable “How I’m Feeling Now”). This extended edition also features five moving extra tracks, most reuniting Capaldi with his piano and soaring choruses, plus exclusive orchestral versions of two of its tracks. Here, discover the stories behind the songs on Capaldi’s second album.