It's been three years since James Blunt's mushy megahit about a gorgeous girl sent your mom's heart all a flutter.
Thanks to the worldwide exposure of the track (You're Beautiful, in case you somehow didn't know), the British singer-songwriter has since been pegged a sensitive balladeer who wears his heart on his sleeve -- a label he's definitely not comfortable wearing.
Blunt -- a former British Army officer who admits to having a thing for all-night parties and even being a little "insensitive" at times -- may in fact be a romantic, but not in the lovey-dovey sense of the term.
"I think the word 'romantic' always gets used in such a pigeonholed way," the Wiltshire native tells the Sun from a tour stop in Italy. "What I find confusing about the word is that it kind of implies, in a sense, love and romance. Romance, ideally, is really ideology and the notion of dreaming of what might be and what could have been and what isn't ... Every songwriter is a romantic in some way.
"So yes, I think I am (romantic). But if you say that all of my songs are about love, I will be upset, because of my 20 released songs, three of them are about love; 17 of them are not."
Life, death, isolation, friendships, loneliness and, Blunt says, "all those things" instead make their way into his falsettoed collection of pop, rock and sometimes folkie tracks.
His 2005 debut disc, Back to Bedlam, featured a tune (No Bravery) inspired by his days as a peacekeeper in Kosovo shortly before leaving the military to pursue music in 2002; while 1973 -- the first single off his followup CD, last year's retro-influenced All the Lost Souls -- is about Pacha, a nightclub near his home in Ibiza where he claims to have spent far too much time.
Partying until sunrise is still one of his favourite things to do at 34 -- or 19, as he fibs.
"I think life should have its shallow moments and life should have its deeper, more enriching moments and everything in between," says Blunt, a frequent victim of overseas tabloid exposure who's been romantically linked to Harry Potter casting director Dixie Chassay, musician Camilla Boler and supermodel Petra Nemcova.
But between bar-hopping and attempting to dodge the inevitable paparazzi, he managed to pen most of the songs off All the Lost Souls in the Spanish party capital.
"Ibiza's got some great parties, and great energy and also a great history. It's a really vibrant mix."
Blunt's shenanigans continue on the road, where he's currently touting the sophomore effort. The tour that began back in January brings him to the MTS Centre on Monday -- two years after he first played there -- and will continue well into next year. This hectic calendar is not unlike the one that Blunt had after Back to Bedlam hit it big, selling over 10 million copies worldwide and landing him over 200 gigs.
All the Lost Souls has fattened Blunt's setlist, meaning his show is longer this time -- in addition to the fact that he has a larger crew and a five-piece band who he says are so tightly knit, they remind him of the military ("except now my tank is a bit bigger; it's a tour bus"), and the production itself is quite massive.
In other words, this supposedly sensitive balladeer has no plans to lull fans to sleep.
"People often expect it to be just me with a guitar or me at a piano, and I think people would be surprised that, in fact, it's a lot more energetic than that."
