Eloise is ready. Ready to embrace what 2023 brings and ready to stand up and be the pop artist she’s unknowingly been working towards since day one. Change is coming and today she announces her debut album with its title track Drunk On A Flight to jump start the year with intention.
A deep dive into the complexities of love and relationships and branching out beyond the soft, jazz-tinged soul of her early work, Drunk On A Flight sees the 23-year-old singer-songwriter broadening her horizons and applying her pop nous to a much wider palette of sounds. It is a coming of age album about embracing the moment; a heartbreak record that empowers listeners to luxuriate in their feelings – however messy or complicated they may be. As the Billie Eilish and Burt Bacharach-approved star puts it today, “This is the sound of me putting my flag in the ground as an artist.”
Discussing the significance of the title track and lead single she shares today, Eloise explains, “The biggest moments of my life have revolved around flying somewhere: flying away from something or flying to the thing that changed my life. The morning that me and my first boyfriend split up, I got in a taxi to Heathrow and that was the beginning of my first ever tour.” Watch the Balan Evans directed video here.
Eloise - Drunk On A Flight (Official Video) - YouTube
Eloise’s debut EP, This Thing Called Living, came in 2019, introducing the world to the entrancing, jazz-tinged cadence of her honeyed tones. It received support from Eilish, who took to Instagram to cover ‘Subside’. Two years on came Somewhere In-Between, a deeply romantic, nine-track collection recorded with Bruno Major. Billed as “a growing pains EP”, it saw Eloise exploring emotional grey areas and blending the warmth of acoustic guitar with forward-thinking, electronic production.
But for all the professional successes that 2021 brought, behind the scenes Eloise was struggling after the break up of a long term relationship in early 2022. She left London for a tour of the US and stayed for a short break to see friends in L.A. – a trip that proved pivotal, when she missed her return flight. Stranded in the city without plans, she was persuaded to join former school pal Max Margolis in the studio, writing songs to pitch to major pop artists including Miley Cyrus. “I learned that if you let go of your ego you’re even freer. We wrote a really great song, and I suddenly realised that I understood pop structure. It made me so excited about music again, and kick-started this new wave of creativity.”
Eloise returned to the UK a week later where she challenged herself to continue writing every single day, quickly amassing a pool of more than 50 songs, from which she assembled Drunk On A Flight with South London producer Conor Albert.
The result makes for deeply cathartic listening. Inspired by a line from Lena Dunham’s seminal series Girls and built around an anthemic, synth-powered chorus, ‘Giant Feelings’ nails the fury of being left pining following a break-up. ‘Make It Better’ finds Eloise lingering over a situationship, powered by a rolling, country rhythm. The deceptively breezy jazz-pop of ‘Pretend’ tackles the sense of guilt experienced after ending a relationship, while ‘Therapist’ is a whip-smart, sorry-not-sorry “diss track” skewering emotional codependency with kiss-offs like, “You’re acting like a boy but I fell for a man.”
Throughout the album, Eloise’s supple, feather-light coo imbues material with a comforting timelessness as well as an impressive universality, despite confessional lyrics that deal daringly in specifics. “My songwriting has always been honest, but this feels raw – like I’m exploring all the shades of emotion.”
For Eloise herself, Drunk On A Flight will always represent the rewards of embracing the chaos of the universe; of leaping into the unknown proving that life is a succession of sliding door moments; of split-second decisions and serendipitous diversions, each of which shape your path and irrevocably influence the person you become and the future you inhabit.