Written by Madison Boyce
One year ago yesterday, on November 22nd, 2019, Lewis Capaldi released the extended version of his debut album “Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent”. After crushing the charts with tracks such as “Someone You Loved” and “Grace” he decided to come back and give us more!
Previously released on May 17th, 2019 via Capitol Records, this album came out to 12 songs. The extended version added three more onto that for a total of 15 tracks.
Capaldi came up with the idea for the title of the record from a track that was meant to be on the album called “Figure It Out”. The opening line to the track is, “Broken by desire to be heavenly sent / Divinely uninspired to a hellish extent”.
I love this so much; it’s my favorite thing when artists make references to their past work in their music. I feel like releasing “Figure It Out” as a stand-alone single would be a perfect way to move onto a new era of Lewis Capaldi’s music.
The album opens up with “Grace”, and I truly believe he made the right move opening with this one. At first, you hear soft pianos, but a few seconds in Capaldi’s strong voice comes in singing “I'm not ready to be just another of your mistakes.”
Next up is a track called “Bruises”, where the hard-hitting lyrics and jaw-dropping vocals will immediately get your attention. The lines, “I’ve been told to get you off my mind / But I hope I never lose the bruises that you left behind” made me think of physical bruises in relationships and the toxicity around that, but in a video where Capaldi went in-depth and explained the song, he said, “When talking about bruises I wasn’t necessarily saying bad things. Like memories…where it’s like, people say 'emotional baggage' and stuff. There aren't scars. Bruises seem like an altogether more repairable thing.”
“Hold Me While You Wait” is up next, which finds the narrator reaching out to a past partner and trying to get them to stay. The lines “I wish that I was good enough / If only I could wake you up / My love, my love, my love, my love / Won't you stay awhile?” further convey the feeling of hurt that we’ve heard so far in this album.
“Someone You Loved” quite literally put Lewis Capaldi’s name on the map, and with good reason. This is the song that first introduced me, along with many others, to Lewis Capaldi, and I was immediately hooked.
He has spoken about how this song is more of an open-ended track, inspired by many things including losing a relationship and the passing of a family member; this leaves the interpretation completely up to the listener. The line “I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved” makes it feel as if once things were starting to get good, they ended.
With the next track titled “Maybe,” it feels as if Capaldi is looking back on the things he has done wrong in relationships. “How come I'm the only one who ever seems to get in my way? / Lately, I've been fucking up a good thing any chance I can get” into “But everything I touch turns to stone / Maybe I'm better off on my own” further proves the self-deprecating thoughts he felt towards himself.
Next up is another one of my favorite songs, titled “Forever”. A common theme on this album is the loss of a relationship and the lines, “Under the exit lights as beautiful as ever / I really wish that I dressed up a little better” convey that perfectly.
Unfortunately, most good things come to an end, no matter how much of an effort is made to stop it from happening. When he sings, “Darling, nobody said that it would last forever / That doesn't mean we didn't try to get there” you can hear the absolute pain in his voice.
“One” is by far my favorite track off of this record. “I guess somebody else's loss is another's gain / I'm saying thank you to the one who let her get away” once again gives off the overwhelming feeling of hurt, but it's not Capaldi who's hurting this time.
The lines “She gave you love but it wasn't enough / You had your mind set out on other things” further prove it wasn’t the speaker being hurt. This song serves as an open letter to a person who hurt the person he loves, which eventually brought them together.
How I’ve explained Capaldi’s vocals in other tracks doesn't even compare to “Don’t Get Me Wrong”. You can hear the agony flowing through his voice when he sings, “But haven't you had enough of loneliness? / And haven't we had enough of second best?”
“Hollywood” is definitely one of the more fast-paced songs in Capaldi's discography. Introducing this song at his live shows, he always says, “It sounds happy, but it's actually depressing”, and that's exactly what it is.
In this song, he is reminiscing on a past relationship as he does in quite a bit of this record. This shines through in the lines, “You know I spent some time in Hollywood tryna find / Something to get the thought of you and I off my mind” and “Out of focus / Didn't take a second to notice / Now we're separated by oceans, vast / Couldn't make this last”, with the latter alluding to long-distance causing the relationship to end.
With the next track, “Lost on You”, Capaldi is once again bringing up his past relationship, but this is something most people can relate to. He goes into feeling that the person would be better off without him because he feels as if they’re being held back because of him. It's as if he couldn't provide enough to the relationship.
“Fade” tells the story of the first time you realize you’re in love with someone. It’s the feeling of putting so much into a person and a relationship that you don't know life without it.
The lyric “To tell the truth, I can't believe we got this far” also serves as the title for an EP that he dropped in May of this year. It's a six-track EP where each song is a live version of a song on “Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent”.
Next up is one of the oldest songs Lewis Capaldi has, called “Headspace”. This song truly shows off his talent vocally, making it easy to imagine his voice filling up an arena with the whole crowd singing back at him.
In my opinion, “Before You Go” is one of the strongest tracks on this album, as well as in Capaldi's entire discography. He has spoken about this song being about his aunt who took her own life when he was younger; the lines “Was there something I could've said to make it all stop hurting? / It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless” are especially heartbreaking with that context in mind.
“Leaving My Love Behind” is about knowing that you can't continue in a relationship, but not knowing how to finally end it; it's as if he's leaving the decision up to the person he's in the relationship with, because he can't find the strength to do it. You can hear the sorrow flowing while he sings, “I swear that I won't try to change your mind / If you're leaving my love behind / Baby, say the word and let me go.”
Capaldi chose to close out the album with “Let It Roll”, a track focused on going back to a past relationship but knowing that things need to change if it'll ever work again. Some standout lyrics include, “If you think you might feel the same / I'll be right here where we left off / Same old story, same old place” as well as, “So, I'm holding out for something more.”
In conclusion, I truly believe Lewis Capaldi is one of the strongest artists of this decade, and “Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (Extended Version)” shows it. Despite a lot of the record stemming from heartbreak, there's something for everyone to find comfort in, taking you through a rollercoaster of emotions in only 53 minutes.
"Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent" is available to stream wherever you listen to music, and you can support the artist by following him on Twitter @LewisCapaldi as well as picking up some merch. If you've fallen in love with this record over the past year like we have, let us know by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw!