Moves from intimate to huge in 4 minutes, and trades none of its power for its indulgences.
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8
The third release from James Bay’s debut album Chaos And The Calm is quite easily the best track on the album. Bay has spoken before that it took him two years to write because of the rawness of the material, and you can feel it in every word he sings. As he regales us with the story of a long-distance relationship seemingly doomed to fail, and all the trials that come with it, his voice changes from clear and sombre to raw and energised. Slowly (in rather clichéd fashion it’s fair to say) the rest of the band builds upon what began as just Bay’s voice and his guitar. Their arrivals are well-earned however, because of the emotion of the lyrics. There are no apologies necessary for anything about this song, because it lands a powerful, painful blow in the best possible way.
‘Scars’ is out now via Virgin EMI.
