Album Review/Interview: Lucy Spraggan drops her empowering album, “Choices”

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Album Review/Interview: Lucy Spraggan drops her empowering album, “Choices”

When the world first shut down almost a year ago, spirits were kept up by thinking of all the incredible quarantine albums that would hit the airwaves in the early months of 2021, and oh did they hit. Be it new supergroups, bands reuniting after years apart, and women running the rock and roll show. The latest to join in the latter category? Longtime UK singer-songwriter Lucy Spraggan, who released her sixth full-length album, “Choices”, last Friday via Cooking Vinyl.  

Spraggan is no new-comer, playing Glastonbury twice with a third appearance planned for 2020 that clearly couldn’t pan out, and has been captivating audiences for well over a decade. Her latest release is an illuminating, empowerment journey that came together in a time I don’t think we ever thought we would be in. Creating and writing a record when the future is so unsure when you don’t know the next time you’ll be playing these songs live for most would be heartbreaking I’m sure. For Spraggan, it was a record that began to come together when Spraggan was going through some serious life changes. Coming out of a divorce with her long-time partner, making the decision to get sober, and going on a huge health and fitness journey, the record reads as a therapeutic journey of self-empowerment, honesty to one’s self and the past year for her. 

In speaking to Spraggan about the album, she didn’t set out when writing to create an album. It was something that reads a little bit like journaling which in listening to the words is evident. Said Spraggan, “I didn’t even really realize I was writing an album, to be honest. I just started writing songs about what was going on in my life and all of a sudden there was this finished product! Probably won’t ever happen to me again, haha.  A stroke of luck.” That finished product serves up some serious introspection particularly with the tracks Sober and Run. Done beautifully, it’s something so personal that resonated so strongly with me. It’s the emotion that fans have grown to know with Spraggan with her past material but reads like a re-birth, a new chance on being one’s true self. 

The record is filled with self-empowerment and self-acceptance tracks. Be it the heartfelt You’ve Let Yourself Down about the experience of allowing yourself to finally separate yourself from a partner and the after-shocks to easily the most sexual moment we’ve seen with Spraggan with the lead-off track Flowers. Flowers being something that will immediately hook fans in and Spraggan said in regards to it, “It was the first time I’d ever felt ‘sexy’ in my whole life and I wanted to document it. It was a very new thing for me in many ways! The sound very much leant itself to the American/Latin vibe. I love the way it was produced.

While the album never falters, the last few tracks including the title track Choices and Wild, is where Spraggan shines. It’s clear that Spraggan is in the place she wants to be right now. When asked about what songs are personal favorites for her, “Choices and Wild. I think they very much represent where I am in life at the moment – and where I intend to stay! “ It’s safe to say that this is one of the most personal albums I’ve heard in these last few months and it is sure to only elevate Spraggan’s long track record of success!

About Author

Colleen

Colleen has been writing about music since 2009. Interviewing bands since the glory days of Warped and has continued to do so for now over fourteen years. As well as doing freelance for other publications, the love for everything rock continues today.