George Ezra releases new album GOLD RUSH KID
After two blockbuster albums – Wanted On Voyage (2014) and Staying At Tamara’s (2018), both of which reached number 1 in the UK and sold millions around the world, and the latter of which earned him his first number 1 single in ‘Shotgun’ and won him the 2019 Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist – it was time to return to heart and hearth, with an album written and produced entirely in London with longstanding collaborator Joel Pott.
“The Gold Rush Kid? That’s me,” says Ezra of the title of his most intimate and autobiographical record to date. “it’s a character I’m looking to embody, to remind myself how I felt throughout the process of writing and recording these songs. Coming back of all the touring for the second album, I was really struck by what it was like to be away from the people you know and love for so long. You’ve also been away from day-to-day routine, from normality. So that reconnection is something worth pursuing: go and check in with that person. But then, when you think about it, touring is also a thrill – you get to see all these amazing places.
And I realised they were two polar opposites that can’t exist at the same time – but they’re both worth pursuing! And, actually, that means you’re doing alright. Because it means that both sides of your coin are quite appealing. You might not have the balance right, at times, but they’re both worthwhile things..”
The resulting record is some of Ezra’s most personal and reflective work to date. Take the recently released ‘I Went Hunting’ for example – described by The Sunday Times as “the best thing he has done,” or ‘Love Somebody Else’ – “because I’m giving up on myself” – praised by the Guardian for its emotional lyricism and “stately and cinematic” atmospherics in their Album of the Week review. This is simple, yearning longing, from a place of void – and of clarity. He’s the Gold Rush Kid, and he’s en route. He’s not there yet, mind, but he’s making marvellous, transporting, elevational music along the way.
