When Spraggan released opening track Everything Changeslast year incorporating her X Factor hit Beer Fear it wasn’t quite clear what she was referring to when she sang: ‘I think of things that happened 10 years ago and I feel much better letting them go. What is more, writing the book has put a renewed spotlight on how different it is to put music to words and come up with melodies to describe feelings.

Indeed, it’s as if Spraggan’s been able to tap into a previously untouched fragility, a strength to discuss deeply personal topics such as mental health and healing from the past. Other tracks released in the run up to the album’s release included ‘Everything Changes’, ‘OCD’, ‘Bodies’ and ‘Empire’ – all of which are incredibly personable. It’s like a transformation picture, or listening to a song and saying, I can’t believe I ever felt like that!Laced with the honesty and authenticity that sets her work aside from that of other artists, Balance is definitely a record that she should be proud of.

Lucy was the first contestant in X Factor history to score a top 40 single and album before the live shows aired. Due to inventory and accounting purposes, we do not exchange items received for different items than originally purchased. It is very Irish – there’s the Irish pipe, an instrument that’s more than 100 years old, and a cello that’s also more than 100 years old on the recordings. I’ve been working very hard over the last 18 months on my album and I’ve been working for nearly two and a half years on my book and I’m thrilled that both things I have created are gonna be released into the world! It’s something [the working diagnosis] I’ve come away from, and I’m looking into all the other traits that I have.We interviewed Spraggan in 2021 as last album Choices was about to chart at her highest ever position (5) and she said of fellow 2012 X Factor cast member Ella Henderson who was charting with Tom Grennan duet Let’s Go Home Together which couldn’t be further in tone from Lucy’s own Sober: ‘It’s a great song. If you’ve seen Lucy perform live, you’ll know that audience participation is a huge part of her sets and it’s easy to see which tracks are going to attract those mass singalongs – two being ‘Not Another Travelling Song’ and the album’s penultimate track, ‘Manchester’. Balance muses on the stability she’s seeking with the heartfelt and almost child-like plea: ‘But I might need a hand and if you could be that I might need some help to find my Balance. It’s one of Spraggan’s own favorites because she feels it really adds to the ongoing dialogue of body positivity – or even body neutrality. But I also have songs that I really deeply connect to being on tour, and then there’s the Pendulum album, which is when I went to Manchester Pride for the first time – no,” she interrupts herself with a fond smile.

With a bridge in which Spraggan’s voice breaks while promising Caroline’s mum that “the kindness remains”, it’s sure to be a meaningful ballad that people hopefully take to heart. It’s rare for me to comment in music on something that I’m not directly involved in,” Spraggan explains carefully. I don’t have this connection with commercial or even regional radio like a lot of artists do, but I do have a very genuine connection with the people who come to my shows. The heartfelt ‘Everything Changes’ for example sees Lucy look back on the past decade, while ‘Bodies’ reflects upon her journey of working through image issues and learning how to build a healthy relationship with her body. All of those albums are a part of my collection of music, whereas all these tattoos are a collection of my existence.Elsewhere there are some jaunty songs which give a sense of what went wrong particularly Cocaine with its list hook: ‘I just wish you loved me more than Cocaine, red wine, late nights and good times, fast cars, pink pills, Mary Jane and cheap thrills. Spraggan has been very open about her OCD, so perhaps it’s no surprise there’s a song here with that title and that it’s quite so brutally honest with lyrics including: ‘I doubt I learned to think before I speak’ and ‘Brain’s not normal you might have noticed … I’m still a little temperamental. She’s a sense of humour too eulogising the city where she lives in Manchester with its ‘sticky’ dancefloors and ‘it might look grey coming out the station but you’ll see rainbows everywhere.