Lighting Matches (Deluxe)

“I wanted to create a classic-sounding album that hopefully lasts for years,” Tom Grennan told Apple Music. “An album that doesn’t sound like anything else right now.” To achieve this for his full-length debut, the London singer/songwriter opted against using a single producer to oversee the entire record, instead picking particular producers for particular songs (including Fraser T. Smith, Sam Dixon, and Eg White). “They all worked differently and all got something different out of me,” he said. Once his fledgling soccer career was shelved, Grennan endured a brutal gang attack at 18 and a time-honored shift on London’s pub-gig trail before he met any sort of acclaim. Lighting Matches benefits from this circuitous path. He has clearly soaked up the varied expertise of his producers to craft a gloriously unpretentious pop-soul album as in thrall to gargantuan bangers (listen to standout “Aboard” immediately) as it is campfire love songs. “It’s got orchestras, brass, choirs,” he said. “It’s just a big-sounding record.”