Sam Tompkins' 'Are we gonna sing again?' – A Musical Tribute to His Late Father

British singer-songwriter Sam Tompkins has released his second album, 'Are we gonna sing again?', a deeply personal exploration of grief following the death of his father. The album serves as an intimate follow-up to his debut 'Hi, my name is insecure', which candidly addressed mental health issues. This time, Tompkins shifts focus to mourning, moving away from the grand piano ballads of his previous work to embrace pop sounds with modern folk influences. The track 'Crawling out my Skin' captures a spontaneous, cathartic moment, recorded in a garden in Norfolk, and embodies the lightness of a liberating instant. The emotional centerpiece is 'O’Clock somewhere', a multifaceted love letter to his father and the lost time, touching on the pain of nostalgia and the relentless passage of time. The album concludes with 'Live where I don’t lose you', featuring a recording from a children's birthday party where his father asks, 'Are we gonna sing?', providing a poignant resolution to the album's title and demonstrating Tompkins' transformation of grief into music. The album was reviewed by Louisa Schumacher for kulturnews.de.