Evering Road (Special Edition)

When Tom Grennan originally released his second album Evering Road in March 2021, it gave an account of a recent breakup. In the songs, Grennan confronted the reasons behind the split with contrite honesty. It was the sound of a man owning his mistakes and trying to emerge as a better person. “I wanted to make people think,” he tells Apple Music. “I wanted it to put a stamp on people’s lives, and give people an understanding of what my life was. For my story to be out in the world has given me a bit of closure as well.”

Six months later, this special edition arrived with three new tracks, alongside the Bedford-born singer-songwriter’s collaboration with Calvin Harris and a live recording of the album’s biggest single, “Little Bit of Love.” While the broken relationship continues to fade further into Grennan’s past, these additional songs continue his journey of introspection and self-discovery. Grennan’s rich blend of soul, indie-rock, and pop provides the backing for new reflections on grief, anger, and expectation as he continues to channel emotional turbulence into betterment. “I wanted to show people that I was going through a lot of shit,” he says, “but when you admit to your guilt, or when you don’t feel like you love yourself, the thing you need to do is really work on yourself and try to be happy.” Here, he runs us through the whole story, track by track.

“Don’t Break the Heart”
“I wrote this after the album had come out. It’s about me finding out about my friend’s mum who passed away. It made me think of my cousin who passed away when I was 18. It’s about having that one last moment with somebody and how special that is. Just saying to that person, who you love dearly, ‘Can we just have one more minute of being together, because it’s going to break my heart when you do leave.’”

“Little Bit of Love”
“Through a breakup you always have, ‘Am I making the wrong decision? Do I need this person [for me] to recover? Do I just need to bottle it up again and try and change while being in this relationship?’ It’s all about that, and realizing that I’ve actually lost [the relationship]. At the end, it has that feeling of the sadness, in the strings. It’s like, ‘Oh no, I have lost it—but I probably have made the right decision.’ It’s when you breathe and just go let it all out.”

“If Only”
“The whole song is: If only things were simple. I’ve put it [towards] the beginning of the record because there’s strength in it and that was a turning point for me, writing that song—I’m moving into the better person. It’s opening my arms to say, ‘Yep, I’ve been a prick, I’ve done it. It was me, sorry.’”

“It Hurts”
“There were a lot of rumors going around about me, loads of different things. And when someone would tell me, I’d be like, ‘Shut your mouth, bruv, that’s not true.’ Trying to bat it off. None of it was true, but it would hurt me. I’d be crying about it. Because I wasn’t that guy. This is just saying, ‘Stop talking about me, because I don’t need this while going through this other thing.’ I did it with [producer] Dan Grech. It’s got quite a dirty bass on it, and also a mad drum pattern. I wanted it to be gospel but with production a bit Post Malone-y. I wanted it to feel like it’s hurting.”

“Lets Go Home Together” (Ella Henderson feat. Tom Grennan)
“[Ella and I] are friends already, so we didn’t have the usual getting to know each other, potentially awkward vibes in the studio. It was just easy and fun. I love her voice and I think we both complement each other. It’s such a tongue-in-cheek song, and I think we’ve all been in that situation many times.”

“This Is the Place”
“When I broke away from the relationship, I moved to my mum and dad’s house, and that was the place where I could have space and time and reflection. I wanted people to think about where that place is for them. When I was at my mum and dad’s house, that was the beginning of the change. So when that song came, I was like, ‘OK, now is the time to start the process.’”

“Never Be a Right Time”
“It’s kind of like, ‘Is there an easy way out?’ I made the decision about actually leaving the relationship, and the easy way out would have been for her to end it. So when I was writing it, I was like, ‘Couldn’t she just have done it so that I could have passed the blame onto her?’ I wanted that gospel vibe. I wanted people to hear that emotion in the choir. Not to feel sorry for me, but to feel that thing that a lot of people do—pass the blame and try and find the easy way out so they don’t have to own up to what they’ve done.”

“Sweeter Then”
“I’ve always been a sweet person, but in the lyrics there’s things about me with cocktails and different women. When I was with her, I was sweeter and I thought I was better. Unfortunately I let myself go down that different, rocky road again. It’s basically me saying, ‘Why am I being an idiot and forgetting about the person she makes me? What have I done to deserve her?’”

“Make My Mind Up”
“This was where I was in a tug of war with myself. One minute I’d be like, ‘Nah, I want out.’ The other minute I’d be like, ‘This is what I want, I need to stay with her.’ If only I could have somebody to make my mind up for me, that would have been the best thing. It was a proper battle—not knowing what was around the corner. In that relationship, it was a comfort thing. The lyrics are some of my most honest. I wanted the strings to have that persona of crying.”

“By Your Side” (Calvin Harris feat. Tom Grennan)
“Just to be asked to do a song with Calvin Harris is pretty crazy, man. For him to even give me the time of day is something. I’m delighted with how the song turned out. It gives a bit of life to the record as well. I think through lockdown, that’s when he started noticing me and seeing me being positive [on Instagram]—because that’s what saved me through lockdown: being fit, being present online with my fans, and just asking people to get up and shake it off and try to smile through this mad time.”

“Something Better”
“The idea came when I was in Vegas. You know what stag dos get like—they get messy. This was in the time where I was painting a smile on, saying that I’m actually all right, but inside I was hurting and I was masking that with doing stupid things, making stupid mistakes, making stupid decisions. It wasn’t until I was in Vegas looking in the mirror that I just broke down. I didn’t like the person I was becoming. It was that moment of ‘There has to be better than this—I need to stop masking this and have that breakdown, that moment of sadness, to feel better.’”

“You Matter to Me”
“I think that’s the softest I've ever sung. I’m very vulnerable. I’m very apologetic. It’s without doubt a love song, and it’s saying, ‘I’ll always love you and you’ll always matter to me. I just want you to know that I’ll always appreciate you even though I have treated you like an idiot sometimes.’”

“Second Time”
“‘Second Time’ is about having that second chance. Unfortunately, there’s not going to be one, because it would just go back down the same road because I’d have that comfort blanket round me again. Don’t give it to me, because I’ll be that same prick again, I bet you. Dan played these drum patterns and I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t hear the song being like that. I hear it just being straight.’ He was like, ‘Nah, trust me. This is what it has to be, because it’s like the heart.’ In that moment of decision-making, your heart is all over the place. The drum bit gives you that feeling of stepping in and out of something.”

“Oh Please”
“Listening to Nas a lot inspired it, and loads of old soul music. The whole song’s about me having to make a decision. When I was in a relationship, another girl came along and that tempted me. Thankfully I didn’t [do anything], but it was having that angel and devil on my shoulder, saying, ‘You should!’ ‘You shouldn’t!’ Even thinking about it is one of the reasons why I had to move on.”

“I Don't Need a Reason”
“It's like, ‘I don’t need a reason to love you because I do love you, but you wanted me to change and I’m trying to—but the only way I’m changing is if we’re not together.’ And that’s the sad thing about it.”

“Amen”
“It’s all about being in a battle with yourself. A little bit like ‘Something Better,’ but actually having that amen moment and going, ‘Come on, man. You’ve made these mistakes, these decisions, so deal with it.’ I’ve just owned up to it. Thank god, because I’ve struggled to come to terms with [the fact that] it’s me and not her.”

“Love Has Different Ways to Say Goodbye”
“I’m going to miss everything about what the relationship was—happy times, sad times. I’ve got to be on the goodbye and not go back, because it’s better for both of us. I’m actually saying goodbye to the songs as well, because they’re going to be other people’s, have meaning for other people and live in other people’s lives. I’ll be singing the songs onstage, but I don’t feel like I’ll be sat in that dark place. I feel like the songs will be sung back to me, and I’ll see other people’s emotions. It will be like the start of something new.”

“Long Live You and I”
“It’s a song about me and an old friend—how close we once were. Unfortunately, sometimes friendships come to an end, and this one did. [Writing it] reminded me of the good times my friend and I shared, and reminded me of some of the really special moments we had.”

“People Always Meant to Be”
“I wrote this at the time of making the album, and I didn’t want it to be just sat in my emails. It was a time where I didn’t know where I was going: When you go through a breakup, you’re kind of lost. And this is the story of people telling me that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. People are meant to be who they want to be, and I will be who I want to be—and I will not let anybody tell me that I can't. With the times that we’re living in, that is a nice thing to hear, I think. Just be who you want to be—I want people to embrace that.”

“Being Angry”
“Anger is an OK emotion to feel, a natural emotion. But don’t use anger to smash out things or whatever, use it in a positive way. Speak to people as well. In the song, I speak to my mum. I was angry at the fact that I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. And I had somebody telling me what I could and couldn’t do at that time. So my mum was like, ‘You need to be brave and take the leap of saying to this person, 'I don't love you anymore, and I need to work on myself before I can love anybody.'”

“Little Bit of Love” (Live from Abbey Road)
“I put this on the record because, one, it sounds amazing, and, two, it’s a special thing, Abbey Road. Just to be recording in a room that the greats have been in is special. You can feel the presence. For me, that’s the time where you get sussed out. I wanted to prove to myself that I was good enough to be there too. You can hear in the song, with the orchestra and strings and singers, there’s been a special moment captured.”