Music Played By Humans (Deluxe)

Back in 1992, as Take That were in the first flourishes of superstardom, one of the band’s bodyguards took Gary Barlow to watch another of his clients playing at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The performer that evening was Frank Sinatra, and the showmanship on display stayed with Barlow. “He really bossed the night,” Barlow tells Apple Music. “It was like he was the conductor, the bandleader, the guy who set the tempos.” It was at the forefront of Barlow’s mind as Take That’s triumphant Greatest Hits Live tour wound down in 2019 and his thoughts turned towards a first solo album since 2013’s Since I Saw You Last. “When the idea of the album came, I thought, ‘I want to boss this record, I want to be the guy who puffs his chest out, almost in a Robbie [Williams, of course…] way, and lead the band.’” The resultant record, Music Played by Humans, is one of the most collaborative and defiantly upbeat albums of Barlow’s illustrious career. Featuring guest spots from Michael Bublé, James Corden, Beverley Knight, Chilly Gonzales, Barry Manilow and more, it makes audacious leaps from Latin-influenced pop to songs that hark back to Barlow’s love of big band. “I really wanted to show my audience a level of complexity that they’ve never seen in my songwriting,” he explains, guiding Apple Music through Music Played by Humans track by track. Who’s Driving This Thing “When I looked at this album, I was like, ‘Let's have a track that introduces all the sections of the orchestra. When have I ever been able to do that before?’ It's very much an approach of a gig, and I pretty much made it my rule that if I couldn't gig these songs, I wouldn't record them. It’s just great fun, and lyrics that I'd never written before. I loved recording this one as well, it was a real thrill. It’s an interesting genre that, for music that's so powerful, as a vocalist you're the only one in the room who's very relaxed. You can sing your bit in an armchair as everyone else is literally on the edge of thei