Loaded Album of the week
By Fred Spanner
James Walsh: It’s All Happening ⭐⭐⭐⭐
James Walsh has ditched the stadium-sized sighs and gone full lights-down, kettle-on mode for It’s All Happening, an album that sounds like it was written somewhere between a late-night kitchen table and the back of his own head.
Stripped back, acoustic-leaning and unapologetically earnest, it’s Walsh in confessional form: big on melody, bigger on feeling, and refreshingly uninterested in chasing trends. If Starsailor is about widescreen emotion, this is the close-up, with every crack in the voice left in.
That’s not to say it’s a misery fest. There’s warmth here, a quiet confidence, and enough hooks to stop it drifting into beard-stroking territory.
It’s exactly what you’d expect from Walsh: Solid tunes, honest words, and the kind of album that sneaks up on you, then sticks around longer than you expect.