Irish singer-songwriter Gavin James has played shows with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Niall Horan, and amassed over a billion streams globally. In 2013 and 2016, he won the Choice Music Prize Irish Song of the Year award, and both his debut album, 2016’s Bitter Pill and it’s follow-up Only Ticket Home, reached the top five of the Irish albums chart. Now James is back with a hotly-anticipated new six-track EP, Boxes.

Title track and lead single Boxes kicks things off and is a pleasant affair with a simple and repeating riff as James sings about the importance of never giving up on your dreams. Fake Love builds from a slow start into a big chorus, while Halo is a gentler piano ballad that sees James tell a very real feeling story of seeing the crown slip from someone’s head.

It is on I Miss You - Paddy’s Song that James really opens up though. It feels like a particularly powerful song for our times: it Is written in memory of James’s uncle Paddy, who passed away due to COVID-19 and is both a deeply compelling song and a very hard listen.

The track shows James’s honesty as a lyricist, as he sings: “So tell me, tell me where did you go / If heavens got a telephone / Just call me and say / I miss you, I miss you / On and on and and round and round we go / Is anybody home / I called a thousand times / Cause I, I miss you, cause I miss you”. It’s a powerful number and one which is sure to rack up a lot of listens.

A live version of Always (from Only Ticket Home) recorded at a sold-out show at the 3Arena in Dublin complete with a mass crowd singalong, and an acoustic version of Boxes round out the EP, which is another confident, assured, and appealing release from one of Ireland’s biggest stars.

Watch the official lyric video for Boxes below.

Boxes tracklist:

1. Boxes

2. Fake Love

3. Halo

4. I Miss You - Paddy’s Song

5. Always (Live at 3Arena)

6. Boxes (Acoustic)

You can also read our previous interview with Gavin here

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.