Francis Lung - Miracle

Francis Lung - Miracle

Tracklist:

1. Intro 
2. Bad Hair Day 
3. Blondes Have More Fun 
4. Miracle  
5. Empty Playgrounds, Broken Swings (Demo) 
6. Don't Call Me Baby 
7. Say So 
8. Southern Skies 
9. Want 2 Want U 
10. Comedown (Again) 
11. Uncommon  
12. Lonesome No More  
13. The Let Down

Miracle is the new album from Manchester singer songwriter
Francis Lung, set for release on Memphis Industries on 4 June
2021.

“For me, [Miracle] is about the struggle between my self-
destructive side and my problem-solving, constructive side,” says

Francis. “I suppose through a lot of these songs I’m dealing with
these emotional problems, acknowledging the negative aspects of
my behaviour instead of burying them, and providing an alternative
point of view for myself”. Despite its serious subject
matter, Miracle is far from austere in sound, marrying the
cinematic, dreamlike quality of Francis’s earlier music with the
pared-back charm of great singer-songwriters like Judee Sill, Jeff
Tweedy and Elliott Smith.
The album opens with ‘Bad Hair Day’, a relentlessly catchy—and
deceptively upbeat—ode to hangovers and missed connections.
“I’ve been calling on you all night /But I never get through, I just get
in the way” Francis laments; “I am a cloud in the sun’s
light/Whatever I do, whatever I say.” Elsewhere, the title track finds
him pondering the fickle nature of the music industry: “I think of
[Miracle] as acknowledging and even encouraging the feelings
we’re not supposed to succumb to - giving up, giving in - just
because it can be comforting to hear it from someone else. ‘Why
am I climbing these social ladders and jumping through the hoops
of this creative industry? Does this make me happy?’”
These themes of longing, and lacking, missing and being missed,
reoccur throughout Miracle. “When I die/Will I be missed/Or am I
missing the point?” asks ‘Say So’; while ‘Lonesome No More’,
inspired by the Kurt Vonnegut book of the same name, begs the
question: if loneliness was eradicated, would we miss it? By
confronting these feelings, Francis is able to move forward, as
triumphant album closer ‘The Let Down’ proves. Its lyrics serve as
a call to action, as Francis wills himself (and the listener) to ‘Get
up/Get something going/Do something, do it/Do it now’
Miracle was produced by Francis in collaboration with Brendan
Williams (Dutch Uncles, Matthew Halsall, Kiran Leonard) and
Robin Koob (who co-arranged and performed strings). The
opportunity to take creative control was one Francis relished. “I’m
quite bad at delegating” he admits, noting that he played every
instrument except strings on Miracle. The result is a cohesive,
deeply personal record, which is as vital as it is vulnerable. “I don’t
want to be defined by my anxiety, my depression or any history of
substance abuse,” Francis says, “but I do want to reach out to
other people who have had similar experiences, especially if it’s in
a way that helps them feel a little better. To me, this music is
celebrating healing as much as it focuses on the darker sides of
the human psyche.”