Albums: Sam Ryder Heartland

Sam Ryder Heartland

Tracks: Olympic ’89; The Feeling Never Went Away; OH OK; Heartland; White Lies; Suffer In Silence; Armour; Burn It Down; Better Man; Up Down; Come And Go Like The Asteroids Do; Electric Marine Blue; Eyes On You

Label: Artist Theory


Sam Ryder’s Heartland is a statement: moving beyond Eurovision gloss, beyond the expectations, into something deeper, more personal. He’s shed a layer of pop spectacle to reveal both vulnerability and courage — and he sounds all the more powerful for it.

Vocally, Ryder has always impressed. Here, his voice anchors the record with more nuance: falsetto shards, husky lows, and moments of tremor and release. On The Feeling Never Went Away, you hear that classic Ryder lift — emotional and controlled, even when the lyrics ask him to confront longing he imagined he’d left behind. In Better Man, his voice becomes a vessel for regret, struggle and ultimately resolve. He isn’t just singing; he’s inhabiting these moments.

Lyrically, Heartland mines territory many pass over: self-doubt, forgiveness, emotional weight, and the aftershocks of fame. But he doesn’t do it with heavy hands. White Lies and Suffer In Silence, explore the distance between what we show and what we feel. Eyes On You closes things out with something like hope, an acceptance. There’s honesty here, in the cracks of the phrasing, in the pauses between choruses as much as in the choruses themselves.

Sonically the album builds a new Sam. He calls it 'Frontier Soul'—a fitting name. There is warmth, space, a hint of Americana, and sometimes cinematic breadth, particularly in Olympic ’89. At the same time none of this feels like pastiche; it’s authentic to where he is now. Recording in Nashville, stepping into independence — you can hear that growth. The production supports rather than overshadows.

What Heartland suggests is that Sam Ryder might be transitioning from a rising UK star into something more durable: an artist whose work resonates not just