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Two decades ago, an earnest British singer-songwriter with a distinctive, keening voice had a hit that would, for better or worse, define the arc of his career as a musician. This month, James Blunt is gamely revisiting his debut album, Back to Bedlam, with a new deluxe edition and an outlandish promise of what he’ll do if it’s a chart success at home.

Available on October 11, the remastered and expanded Bedlam will come with a bonus disc of demos of the entire album, plus four additional demos and a B-side. (Just less than half of them have been previously released on CD singles or the Monkey on My Shoulder EP, a promo disc sold with copies of the album at Target stores in America.) The album will also be pressed on recycled red vinyl.

Back to Bedlam, of course, features the inescapable sad song “You’re Beautiful,” a U.K. and U.S. No. 1 hit about Blunt’s unspoken encounter with an ex-girlfriend on the London Underground. Blunt, the son of a colonel in the Army Air Corps who’d served himself – notoriously seeing action during the Kosovo conflict in 1999 and standing guard during the Queen Mother’s funeral in 2002 – became an overnight sensation, something he’s done his share of addressing in years since. Indeed, while Bedlam single “Goodbye My Lover” was also a U.K. Top 10, and he continued to have hits into the next decade, “You’re Beautiful” remains his signature international achievement, and he’s made it very clear on social media that he’s made his peace with it. (However, he – or someone at Atlantic Records in the U.K. – infamously blocked the release of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s parody version, “You’re Pitiful,” recorded for 2006’s Straight Outta Lynwood and released as a free download, but never on subsequent compilations.)

Blunt will support the reissue with a European tour in 2025, and is also launching a most unusual gambit to promote the reissue: in a just-released video, he’s promised that, should the reissue re-enter the British charts at No. 1, fans will have the opportunity to vote on a new surname for him. (Ironically, he’s already changed his name once, from “Blount.”) The CD and vinyl are available October 11; it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not this stunt will succeed.

You can order Back to Bedlam at the links below

Back to Bedlam (20th Anniversary Edition) (Atlantic, 2024)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD/LP 1: Remastered album (released as Custard/Atlantic 83752, 2004)

1. High
2. You’re Beautiful
3. Wisemen
4. Goodbye My Lover
5. Tears and Rain
6. Out of My Mind
7. So Long, Jimmy
8. Billy
9. Cry
10. No Bravery

CD 2: Bonus material

1. High (Demo)
2. You’re Beautiful (Demo)
3. Wisemen (Demo)
4. Goodbye My Lover (Demo)
5. Tears and Rain (Demo)
6. Out of My Mind (Demo)
7. So Long, Jimmy (Demo)
8. Billy (Demo)
9. Cry (Demo)
10. No Bravery (Demo)
11. Sugar Coated
12. Butterfly (Demo)
13. Dancing Days (Demo)
14. Close Your Eyes (Demo)
15. Standing All Alone (Demo)

Tracks 1, 4, 9 and 11-12 released as Monkey on My Shoulder EP – Custard/Atlantic PRCD-302193, 2006
Track 2 released on “Goodbye My Lover” Australian CD single – Atlantic 7567-94058-2, 2005
Track 14 released on “Goodbye My Lover” U.K. CD single – Custard/Atlantic AT0230CD, 2005