Back in May, British singer songwriter Passenger announced he was releasing a new album. It will be his tenth studio album, it is to be called Runaway and, in order to get his fans as excited as it is possible to be, the popular singer will be releasing a new song from the album every three weeks.
The first release was ‘Hell Or High Water’ on May 25th. The second song from Runaway was released today. Called ‘Why Can’t I Change‘, and this new Passenger song is definitely more than just a little bit country.
Because it has that distinct rich country guitar sound right from its opening bars, as well as vocals that could almost be classified as country pop. Quite a bit different from the indie folk sound we are used to from the 34-year-old Brit.
Then again, Passenger did say Runaway was going to be a concept album, and that concept is Americana.
Because of that, the 34-year-old Brit recently spent three weeks on the road in the U.S. with long-time videographer Jarrad Seng, as well as Stu Larsen, Chris Vallejo and Mike Rosenberg, and gorgeous America-related videos like the one just released for ‘Why Can’t I Change‘ are the result.
As for ‘Why Can’t I Change‘, while I love just about everything Passenger puts out — and, Ye Gods, that man is prolific — I think this one is just about my most favorite yet.
The guitar is beautiful, his vocals are sweeter than sweet and yet have this lovely quirkiness to them, and the melody and beat are so ridiculously catchy.
Watch and listen to Passenger’s ‘Why Can’t I Change‘ in his official music video below. Personally, I hope he never changes. (Yeah, I went there. Corny, right?)
Oh and yep, you can pre-order Runaway from one of these links now.
Related: Passenger’s cover of Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car‘ is uncomplicated, sweet and oh so beautiful