Album Review: Emeli Sande - Real Life

With Real Life, Emeli Sande presents 11 tracks to uplift and inspire. Her third album, this four-time BRIT Award winner again provides an antidote to all that ails at the moment, with tracks like the catchy Extraordinary Being presenting upbeat, unreserved joy - with some disco-era strings for good measure. 

The whole album works on a pop/soul bent. The title tune adds a gospel chorus to provide depth, while opener Human draws on a kind of late-night electro palate - all held together by Sande’s powerful vocals and a gorgeous soundscape.

Also striking is the keys-led You Are Not Alone. Its solid base builds beautifully – the kind of song that will easily jump out of your everyday playlist and into that list for life’s little hardships. Lovely. The cherry on it all is Sparrow – a quite sparse song in lots of ways that rides on Sande’s soaring melody and an eerie combination of a rolling military drum and twinkling high percussion. Playing together, it’s less sugary than some of the other tracks (not that a little sugar isn’t lovely sometimes), but the same optimism is there.