James Arthur

James Arthur is poised to share a completely new side of himself, having undergone a journey of personal growth and self-acceptance that has led to some of his best music to date. The British star’s remarkable sixth album, Pisces, comes hot on the heels of 2024’s chart-topping Bitter Sweet Love, which was supported by a sold-out arena tour in the UK and Ireland. It’s a work with human connection at its heart, influenced by the Brit Award-nominated artist’s experiences as a father, a partner and a friend, melding influences spanning pop, rock, Americana and indie.

The album’s title, Pisces, speaks to his intuitive, empathetic and multifaceted nature, but also to the dichotomous sound that permeates these songs. Fans will hear tracks that represent the push-and-pull of his longing to be understood, pitted against his instinct to hide away from the world. Some are hushed and introspective, while others blaze with life: “I’ve always been a dreamer, quite sensitive,” he says. “That crossover between dreams and reality was something that really spoke to me for this record.”

Take lead single “ADHD”, a stirring ballad inspired by Arthur’s own diagnosis with the condition just last year. “It explained a lot,” he says, “and since then I’ve started to grow a lot closer to the people in my life. I’m getting to know myself better, too.” The track unfolds with rich percussive twangs on the guitar, before Arthur reminds listeners about the raw power of his voice on the emotional chorus: “Black heart that I wear on my sleeve/ Old flames still messaging me/ Between that and the ADHD/ You should run a mile.”

“I had to lay out all of my flaws in order to be able to move on,” Arthur says. “For a long time, I didn’t know how to celebrate the wins – I was looking for validation in the wrong places, wondering why I hadn’t been given my flowers after coming from nothing, and putting everything I had into this. But that kind of attitude is never going to serve you, it won’t help you grow.” Those familiar with Arthur’s journey will know how he shot to fame after winning the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012, going on to release hits such as “Say You Won’t Let Go” – to date one of the biggest-streamed singles of all time – and fanfavourite ballads like “Train Wreck” and “Naked”.

They’re likely less familiar with what took place before then. Arthur touches on his difficult upbringing on “Celebrate”, a heart-rending and ambitious anthem that tussles between the past and the future. “I’ve come a long way from nowhere,” he tells himself. “I’ve given up on friends of mine/ Cos when I needed friends they weren’t there/ A phone call could’ve saved my life… I don’t wanna hate myself no more.” There are whispers of an electric guitar that play out like flashes of lightning on the edge of a storm. A faraway voice calls out as Arthur asks, “Can anybody hear me? Can anybody help?”

Meanwhile, on album opener “Summer”, which unfurls slowly with soft strums of guitar and Arthur sings in a low murmur: “I’ve always been an arsonist/ It’s always been my party trick/ For warming up the darkness in my veins.” Then his voice lifts to a vocodered falsetto, redolent of the sepia-toned warmth of Bon Iver. Suddenly, the track explodes into life with thrashing riffs and thunderous drum beats, as full of vitality as the July sun.

“I knew I’d have a more positive outlook on life if I was able to let go of the past,” Arthur says. “It felt like the perfect introduction to the album, giving listeners an insight into how I see things sometimes. It feels very positive, like new beginnings.”

Arthur didn’t always feel this way. Around the beginning of 2024, he found himself suffering from a series of health issues and feeling burnt out by a relentless touring schedule. “It was a down period for me, basically,” he says. “I was feeling burnt out and sorry for myself… but that was the catalyst for getting me into the studio, trying to express myself.”

He invited his regular collaborator, producer and songwriter Steven Solomon (Perrie, Dean Lewis, Dermot Kennedy) to his home studio, where there was no gameplan, just a desire to create music that moved them. “I guess I wanted it to be different from my earlier projects,” Arthur suggests. “I think a lot of people have come to expect these big emotional ballads, the raspy vocals… this album shows a different side to me. It’s the most personal one I’ve done, for sure.”

The theme of growth courses swift and strong through the veins of the record. Arthur has found himself inspired by fatherhood, after the birth of his daughter, Emily, in 2022. “When I get in the studio now, there’s this added motivation to create something I’m really proud of, and that hopefully one day she can be proud of as well,” he says.

So he flexes his creative muscles on “Cruel”, an imagined love letter to someone who’s been placed on a pedestal in the past. Over soft acoustic strumming, he sings in a sweetly lilting croon before a brass section smartly interpolates Abba’s “Dancing Queen”. There’s a woozy sax line on rap interlude “Gucci”, which recalls Mercury Prize-winner Loyle Carner’s introspective hip-hop. On “Friends”, too, Arthur demonstrates his emotional acuity as he pays tribute to late actor Matthew Perry.

“Like a lot of Friends fans, I was basically raised by those characters, so his death was just very sad, and made me think about how this keeps happening,” Arthur says. “I’ve been in a place where that could have been me, so the news of his passing impacted me a lot.” Amid the buzz of TV static, he riffs on the famous theme song, singing: “So when the rain starts to pour, I’ll be thinking about you/ So no one told you life would ever be this way…Why was no one there for you?” The song is made even more pertinent in the wake of Arthur’s fellow X Factor alumnus, Liam Payne, who tragically died aged 31 in October 2024.

“I remember when I came off X Factor and I was going through a dark patch, and Liam heard about it through a mutual friend,” Arthur recalls. “He asked our mate if he could speak with me, and he felt like he’d been through something similar. It always stuck with me that he did that.”

That questioning of what might have been continues on “Embers”, a soulful, pared-back track that reminisces about “all the simple dreams that we always talked about”. Meanwhile, “All My Love” has all the sweeping cinematic romance of a Bruce Springsteen number, racing along a propulsive beat as a jangling guitar hook plays out. The title of “Karaoke” is almost a red herring, as it powers through a grunge-indebted guitar line, while Arthur reaches out to a partner dealing with the trauma of a past relationship. He sings the chorus like a mantra: “I want you dancing on the table, want you making a scene/ I want you acting like a nightmare while you look like a dream.”

In the past, some critics have rushed to dismiss Arthur as a one-trick pony, perhaps blinkered by the ballads that have racked up hundreds of millions of streams and countless radio plays that, in 2024, saw him become one of a rare group of artists to win the Brits Billion award. He throws down the gauntlet on “Yeah, No”, a thrilling, breathless rock number, before diving into the depths of “Water”, another curveball that sees him switch from a sultry rock croon into an emotionally wrought cry. On “Hallelujah”, he tussles with questions of faith that have grown louder since the birth of his daughter. “Really, I just want to give my fans an insight into how I’ve been feeling over the years,” he says. “I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people. This is me at my most vulnerable.”