Today, UK singer/songwriter Jack Savoretti debuts a new track titled, “Too Much History,” along with an accompanying visual. The song is the second release from his forthcoming album – Europiana – due out June 25 on Capitol Records and available to pre-order now. “When you have history with someone I think that is a good reason to celebrate, says Savoretti. This is the song to play when you’re celebrating just that.”
“Too Much History” follows Savoretti’s irresistible new single, “Who’s Hurting Who” — a disco-fueled pop track featuring the legendary Nile Rodgers. Watch the video HERE. Co-produced by Rodgers and Mark Ralph (Tove Lo, MARINA), “Who’s Hurting Who” arrives as a gloriously upbeat piece of soul-pop, perfectly showcasing Savoretti’s alluring vocal presence. With its dance-ready grooves, glistening guitar riffs, and lavish string arrangements, the song fully embodies the elegant escapism of Europiana, an album Savoretti describes as “the music of my childhood summers, remade for today.”
The seventh full-length from Savoretti, Europiana serves as the follow-up to his gold-certified album Singing to Strangers: a 2019 release that marked his first #1 on the UK album chart and earned praise from such outlets as The Telegraph (who hailed its “heady love songs mixing lush orchestrations with a tight, electric band”). This time around, Savoretti recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios with leading producers like Cam Blackwood(London Grammar, Florence + the Machine), approaching the album with more confidence and imagination than ever before. “Singing to Strangers was my first album that wasn’t all about me, which I loved,” Savoretti says. “Europiana pushes that further. There are more characters and bigger concepts. I’m looking out at the world, not inwards.”
Jack Savoretti – Europiana
Jack Savoretti’s seventh album arrives with its own genre. Europiana is both its title and a term coined to capture the spirit of the songs and the sun-soaked influences they absorb. Think Riviera glamour and Italian elegance. Picture golden beaches, endless azure skies and piano bars with punters spilling onto cobbled streets. Grab a rosé – heck, the whole bottle – to spur memories of lunches that last until dusk and heading home with loved ones to dance until dawn.
“When I came up with the concept, some people thought I’d lost the plot,” laughs Jack. “What? You want to invent a new genre? In fact, it already exists – it just isn’t acknowledged. Europiana isn’t a sound. It’s references and inspirations and the emotions they evoke. It’s the music of my childhood summers, remade for today.”
The sonic seeds of Europiana were sewn with 2019’s sumptuous Singing To Strangers, Jack’s first No.1 album and his third consecutive gold seller. The songs were begun in scorching sunshine last year at Jack’s Oxfordshire home, with doors and windows wide open.
“We were very fortunate with the weather,” says Jack. “My house became a haven for my whole band. The moment the first lockdown lifted, they were all calling me, asking to come hang out in the countryside. For weeks we literally lived Europiana. They’d arrive and I’d make a big lunch, eaten outside with loads of rosé. Then we’d go inside to write. The sun and fun seeped into the songs. This isn’t an album we could have made in winter.”
Two guests joined in remotely- Nile Rodgers features on the disco-fueled first single ’Who’s Hurting Who,’ an instant classic doused in Riviera life and roller skate parks. John Oates, stranded in Nashville, played guitar and sang backing vocals on the lush “When You’re Lonely.”
Aptly for an album about family and friendship, you’ll also hear Jack’s wife and children sing. The bulk of the album was co-written with members of Jack’s longtime band, the striking strings were arranged by violinist and close friend Phil Granell and soul-pop belter “Calling Me Back To You” is a collaboration with friend and newcomer Gizmo Varillias.
Produced by Cam Blackwood (George Ezra, London Grammar and Singing to Strangers) and recorded late last year at Abbey Road, Europiana is the sound of an artist utterly at ease. Confidence oozes from every song. Risks are regularly taken, but nothing feels forced. Seven albums in, a fired-up, blissed-out Jack has firmly found his own lane. ”I arrived with a suitcase of 18 songs and we recorded them all as live takes in ten days,” says Jack. “Everyone was so excited to be back at work, to experience the joy of making music again. As cheesy as it sounds, it was an emotional experience.”
Europiana’s romantic lyrics were largely the result of a loved-up lockdown where Jack appreciated time spent with his family. “My wife and I were like kids again, the 20-year-olds who first fell in love,” he says. “We remembered why we are together and what our lives to now have really been about. Hence, lots of lyrics about love and happiness and not taking each other for granted.” ”I Remember Us,” both the album’s first track and the first song written, bottles that sentiment and opens with Jack’s wife and nine-year-old daughter singing. “I wanted a French/Italian choir sound, scruffy and innocent, more theatre than pop,” says Jack. “You can’t get that with professional singers. My daughter understood straight away because she hears that music at home.”
On the slinky “Secret Lives,” real-life husband and wife trade whispered lines, while beneath the frivolous fun of “Who’s Hurting Who” are some of Jack’s strongest lyrics. “It’s my take on the great Kris Kristofferson’s song ‘Nobody Wins’,” he says. “About behaviour I’m all too familiar with, but hopefully is behind me. It’s a serious song in shiny packaging.”
“More Than Ever” finds Jack reminiscing about childhood summers spent in Italy. “Too Much History,” written with Joel Pott, has him committing to his relationship against a backdrop of beats, strings and his wife and daughter on backing vocals.
Disco-soul scorcher “Dancing In The Living Room” is not, as it may be perceived, about life in lockdown. “We did do a lot of living room dancing during the first lockdown,” says Jack, “but the song is about going home with people you love. The highlight of nights out for me is always coming home and staying up dancing and drinking with friends or family.”
Rousing album closer “War of Words” was written as a lesson to his kids and features both his daughter and five-year old son. “There are so many fiery topics at the moment, so many people shouting their opinions and unwilling to listen,” says Jack. “I realise how idealistic the lyrics are, but a war of words isn’t the answer.”
Jack approaches Europiana with more confidence and imagination than ever before. “Singing to Strangers was my first album that wasn’t all about me, which I loved,” Jack says. “Europiana pushes that further. There are more characters and bigger concepts. I’m looking out at the world, not inwards.”
