LOS ANGELES, CA- When I watched Lewis Capaldi’s streaming performance of his return to Glastonbury after years away, I nearly shed a tear. Seeing him step back onto the stage, after enduring so many medical struggles and hard pauses in his career, was a reminder of what resilience looks like. Listening to his new single “Something in the Heavens,” I felt that same lump in my throat rising again.
Capaldi has always been able to deliver ballads that tap into heartbreak and longing, but this one feels different. The song isn’t groundbreaking in structure. The lyrics are simple… even familiar. He sings of a love that persists after loss, a promise to hold on until the next life, the imagery of heaven as reunion. These themes have been sung countless times by other artists. Yet when Capaldi sings them, they don’t feel recycled. They feel raw. They feel lived in.
“’Til the day I die, I will dream of you / In a million lives, you’re the one I’d choose.”
Those words don’t just pass as another romantic verse. They resonate because of who’s singing them. Capaldi’s voice is heavy with the weight of everything he’s endured, both publicly and privately. That vulnerability, paired with his delicately gravelly voice, tugs the song into deeper territory. When he belts, “I’ll love you ’til my last breath, you’re gone but something in the heavens tells me that we’ll be together again,” it’s hard not to think about the fragility of life, and how he’s had to confront it in real time, under the spotlight.
There’s also something guarded about “Something in the Heavens.” It doesn’t give away too much of the backstory, and maybe that’s the point. We’re left to interpret whether he’s singing about personal loss, a broken relationship, or something even broader. But the lack of specificity makes it universal. Everyone listening can plug their own grief into the song and find comfort in its promise of reunion.
The Abbey Road performance video that accompanies the release only amplifies the intimacy. Capaldi’s delivery there is stripped of frills, focused on the voice, the words, and the emotional weight. You can almost hear the air leave the room as he sings—like everyone around him is caught in the same pause, waiting for the next note.
It’s also worth noting that the song dropped in the middle of a sold-out 17-date arena run across the UK and Ireland, where audiences have already been singing the lyrics back to him. That connection is why Capaldi’s return matters. After the shaky, vulnerable moment at Glastonbury 2023 where fans carried him through “Someone You Loved,” hearing him now, standing tall and in command of his voice, is proof that sometimes showing up—scars and all—is the bravest act of all.
“Something in the Heavens” may not reinvent Capaldi’s wheel, but it doesn’t need to. It’s a reminder of why people fell for his music in the first place: emotional directness, soaring melodies, and a voice that bleeds authenticity. And this time, after everything he’s been through, those qualities land just a little harder, and stay with you a little longer.
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