Lewis Capaldi has released the heartbreaking ballad ‘The Day That I Die’, the final track to form his brand-new EP, ‘Survive’. Fans have waited in anticipation since Capaldi debuted the ballad on his UK & Ireland tour in September, leaving sold-out audiences in tears at one of his most vulnerable tracks to date.
Sharing on Instagram, Capaldi wrote, “This is a tune I wrote about the lowest I’ve felt in my life and truth be told it feels a bit weird putting it out there”, later describing it as “the proudest [he’s] ever been about a song”.
A gut-wrenching yet poetic scrapbook of messages to his loved ones, Capaldi sings, “On the day that I die / Tell my mother I was smiling / 'Cause I know that she'll be crying rivers wide”. Opening with simple instrumentation, the first verse only piano and Lewis’ lilting vocals, the textures build with simple but persistent guitar and drums, a feeling of hope that is never quite resolved.
Despite never shying away from writing music about mental health, there is a poignancy to such lyrical rawness after his joyous return to music, making ‘The Day That I Die’ one of his most personal and moving releases yet.
Maisy Neale
Image: Charlie Sarsfield