★★★★☆
Dressed all in white, matching the four-piece band behind him, Lewis Capaldi shuffled on stage armed with an acoustic guitar and had only to raise an eyebrow to start the crowd chanting his name, football terrace-style.
So adored is the Scot, for his everyman manner as much as his music, that screams distracted from the song he came on to. Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent turns out to be not just the name of his four-times-platinum-selling 2019 debut album, but a song he has yet to release.
Fans will have to wait to hear it in full. At this opening date of a tour to promote his upcoming second album, Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent, surely set to be 2023’s biggest UK seller, he showcased a trio of new tracks alongside the album’s two chart-topping singles so far on a snazzy stage set that he didn’t really require.
He occasionally strode up a small walkway into the front few rows of fans and a rectangular box of screens provided some striking backgrounds — mountains one minute, gushing water the next. There were also pink confetti explosions, the first barely a minute into the opener, Forget Me.
Yet there was more excitement when Capaldi picked up a bra that had been thrown on stage and returned it in favour of a fluffy toy duck — “That’s more me, wholesome,” he joked — or made disparaging comments to the crowd. Capaldi’s shtick is half-stand-up that strays close to the bone, the opposite of his safe, soppy, singalong ballads. That he juggled the two so effectively made him catnip for the mostly twentysomething audience.
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His effortless delivery belied a voice that was spellbinding throughout and has grown deeper since his debut. Bruises, played at the piano, Before You Go and Grace were majestic. Even the current chart-topper, Pointless, his weakest single so far, soared sung live.
The new songs Heavenly Kind of State of Mind and Wish You the Best added rock and folk respectively to the set. Lost on You was slowed down for added drama. Fade was speeded up to a near party track.
● Lewis Capaldi net worth — Sunday Times Rich List 2022
“Two more songs and I’m f***ing out of here,” said the 26-year-old before an encore that revealed more than he may have meant to. The new song How I’m Feeling Now was a genius tear-jerker inspired by the Tourette’s syndrome that the singer was diagnosed with last year. He barely flinched when he sang it, shrouded in dry ice.
More confetti exploded during the closer, Someone You Loved, handed to fans singing too loudly to care.
Touring to February 2, lewiscapaldi.com
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