''Staying at Tamara's'' is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter

George Ezra George Ezra Barnett (born 7 June 1993) is an English musician. After releasing two EPs, '' Did You Hear the Rain?'' (2013) and '' Cassy O (2014), Ezra rose to prominence with the release of his hit single "Budapest", which reached number one ...

. It was released on 23 March 2018. The album reached number one in the UK as well as the top ten of several other countries including Australia and New Zealand. The album includes the singles "

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

" and "

Shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

", which peaked at number two and number one on the UK Singles Chart, respectively. It was the UK's best-selling artist album of the year in 2018 and was nominated for British Album of the Year at the

2019 Brit Awards Brit Awards 2019 was the 39th edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music show, the Brit Awards. It was held on 20 February 2019 at The O2 Arena in London, with Jack Whitehall as the host for the second year running. Archit ...

. In support of the album, Ezra embarked on a 2018 world tour entitled, ''Staying at Tamara's Tour'', mostly visiting cities across North America and Europe.

Background

Ezra finished touring his debut album ''

Wanted on Voyage ''Wanted on Voyage'' is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter George Ezra. It was released on 30 June 2014. It released in the United States on 27 January 2015. It was produced by Cam Blackwood at Voltaire Road Studios, Clapham, Lon ...

'' (2014) in December 2016. Following this, he realised he "needed to write another record". He went to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

for a month, but instead of booking a hotel or apartment, he found a stranger on the Internet whose name was Tamara. " hewas renting her spare room," he told ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

''. "I thought, if she's a bit crazy, if she's a bit unhinged, I can just leave. Her friends were all musicians, artists and designers and her apartment really felt like their HQ. It helped slow me down. There was a point about halfway through the trip where I was like, this trip has proved to be really important ... and the album's name came to me like that. I love it."

Singles

Five singles have been released from the album. " Don't Matter Now" was released as the lead single on 16 June 2017. It was a moderate success in Belgium, Iceland and the Netherlands and gave Ezra his seventh top 75 entry on the UK Singles Chart. The second single released from the album was "

", which peaked at number two, being kept off the top spot by

Rudimental Rudimental are a British drum and bass band, signed to Asylum Records, Atlantic Records and Black Butter Records. The band consists of Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon "Locksmith" Rolle. They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2013, and ...

's "

These Days These Days may refer to: Music Albums * ''These Days'' (Bon Jovi album), and the title song (see below) ** These Days Tour, a 1995–1996 tour by Bon Jovi in support of the above album * ''These Days'' (Crystal Gayle album), 1980 * ''These ...

". It also reached the top ten in Ireland, Belgium, Austria and Scotland. "

" was released as the third single from the album on 18 May 2018; it reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on 29 June 2018 and gave Ezra his first UK number-one single. " Hold My Girl" was released as the fourth single from the album in late-September. " Pretty Shining People" was released as the fifth single in early-March.

Promotional singles

" Pretty Shining People" was released as the first promotional single from the album on 2 March 2018; it reached number 54 on the UK Singles Chart.The track was later selected as the album's fifth single in March 2019. " Hold My Girl" was released as the second and final promotional single on 9 March 2018, and reached number 81 on the UK Singles Chart. The track was later selected as the album's fourth single, and impacted radio in September 2018.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 61 based on seven reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *

– vocals, guitar (all tracks); keyboards (tracks 1, 3–11), bass guitar (1, 3–7, 11); percussion, synthesizer (2);

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

(3), drums (7) *

Cam Blackwood Cameron "Cam" Blackwood is a British record producer, songwriter and musician. He has previously been employed in various London recording studios including Roundhouse Studios in Farringdon, Miloco Studios, and Townhouse Studios in Chiswick ...

–

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

, synthesizer (all tracks); guitar (1–4, 6–11), percussion (1, 3, 5–11), piano (1, 5), bass guitar (1, 8, 9), keyboards (1), vocals (2, 3, 8), organ (2), background vocals (4, 6, 11), performance arrangement (8, 10), strings (8) * Matthew Racher – drums, percussion, programming (all tracks); background vocals (6) *

Dan Grech-Marguerat Daniel James Grech-Marguerat (born 11 July 1981 in Bedford), is an English-Maltese recording engineer, record producer and mixer. Grech has worked with Lana Del Rey, Keane, and Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known profe ...

– programming (tracks 1–7, 9–11) * Liam Thorne – percussion (tracks 1, 3–6), programming (2, 4–6, 9–11), synthesizer (2), vocals (2) * Florrie Arnold – vocals (tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 11), drums (5), vocals (11) * The Atlantic Horns –

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

(tracks 2, 4) * Billie Marten – vocals (track 2) *

Joel Pott Joel Laslett Pott (born 20 January 1979 in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie band Athlete between 2000 and their split in 2013. In recent years he has served as a son ...

– background vocals (tracks 3, 4, 6, 7) * Rob Blackham – background vocals (track 3) * Jamie Sefton –

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(tracls 3, 10);

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

, trombone, trumpet (3) * James Wyatt – organ (track 4), piano (8) * Ollie Hodge – background vocals (track 4) *

Fred Fred or FRED may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Fred ...

– bass guitar, drums, keyboards (track 4) * Emma Corby – brass (track 4) * Jaleesa Gemerts – drums (track 4) * Daniel Thomas – background vocals (track 6) * Derek Green – background vocals (track 6) *

Juliet Roberts Juliet Roberts (born 6 May 1962) is a British jazz, rock, soul and house music singer of Grenadian descent. Career Roberts was born in London, England. She originally recorded as Julie Roberts in 1982, and performed on the 1983 top 10 hit si ...

– background vocals (track 6) * Mary Pearce – background vocals (track 6) * Rebecca Goulding – background vocals (track 6) * Sylvia Mason – background vocals (track 6) *

Dan Caplen Daniel Caplen (born 27 March 1992), also known as his stage name D/C, is a British R&B singer, songwriter and musician based in Brixton in London. He was educated at St Edmund's School Canterbury. He is signed to Atlantic Records UK and releas ...

–

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

(track 8) *

Davide Rossi Davide Rossi (born 7 August 1970) is an Italian violinist, string arranger, orchestrator, songwriter, composer and conductor, perhaps best known for having been the electric violinist and multi-instrumentalist for the British electronic music d ...

– performance arrangement (track 8) *

First Aid Kit A first aid kit or medical kit is a collection of supplies and equipment used to give First aid, immediate medical treatment, primarily to treat injuries and other mild or moderate medical conditions. There is a wide variation in the contents o ...

– background vocals (track 9) * Duncan Eagles –

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly small ...

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

(track 10) * Jimmy Sims – bass guitar (track 10) *

Rae Morris Rachel Anne "Rae" Morris (born 2 September 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. She released her debut album, '' Unguarded'', in 2015. Her second album, '' Someone Out There'', was released in January 2018. Her third album, ''Rachel@Fairyl ...

– piano (track 10) Technical * Cam Blackwood –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

(all tracks),

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

(tracks 2, 6) *

– production (track 8) *

Dave Kutch Dave Kutch is the owner of the Mastering Palace and an American mastering engineer who has been nominated for 14 Grammy Awards. He has worked with international artists including Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, Blackpink, Karol G, Zara ...

– mastering * Dan Grech-Marguerat – mixing (tracks 1–7, 9–11) * Michael H. Brauer – mixing (track 8) * Liam Thorne – engineering * Dan Trachtenberg – engineering (track 4) * Jon Bailey – engineering (track 6) * Fernando Reyes – engineering (track 8) * Steve Vealey – engineering (track 8) * Charles Hicks – mixing assistance (1–7, 9–11) * Joel Davies – mixing assistance (1–7, 9–11) * Fiona Cruickshank – engineering assistance (track 6) Visuals * Steve Stacey – design * Alex Eden-Smith – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums George Ezra albums Albums produced by Cam Blackwood Albums produced by Fred Again