In a glorious musical career spanning over two decades, James Blunt has achieved the kind of success that any artist vying for stardom would feasibly bite one or indeed both of his hands off to achieve. His debut album Back To Bedlam shifted over 17.5 million copies and saw him become the kind of decade-defining cultural phenomenon who attracts both fervent fans IRL – as countless sold-out arena tours attest – but also a huge online following after he became one of Britain’s best loved and funniest Tweeters. “Idk who needs to hear this, but you’re beautiful,” came an innocuous tweet from Nicki Minaj to her millions of followers last year. Without missing a beat, James shot back: “You’re a little late to the party.”

But if you think this former British Army Captain, pop supremo and pithy genius is a man now thoroughly happy with his lot and hellbent on soaking up the Balearic sun in his Ibiza mansion, you’d be best placed to think again. A new chapter of the James Blunt story now arrives in Airplane Mode, and the man who achieved the top-selling album of the noughties is ready to thoroughly back himself with it.

“Artists always say we’re excited about an album, but you’re often left trying to work out what level they’re reaching on the bullshit-o-meter,” Blunt explains.

“But this album. This one I really believe in. I really know in my heart of hearts that I can look you in the eye and say this is one of the best albums that James Blunt is ever going to make. My first album was massive and my second was maybe more established, but I think maybe this one tops that.”

A single listen of the record thoroughly backs up his convictions. These songs prove that it’s very much a welcome return and offer a frank dissection of the worries that swirl around the heads of nearly every decent human on Planet Earth. Being a multi-platinum musician, you will be surprised to hear, does not mean that these things go away.

“I need music to express myself and on social media, I’m a clown. In the pub, I’m a clown. But music is where I put all the thoughts that I struggle with, the thoughts that keep me up at night, and music is where I go and put them to bed,” he says.

The album title, for instance, reflects the inherent joy of being largely uncontactable on a plane as a framing device for what it’s like to shut your mind off from the outside world.

“When I’m writing at my best, I think I’m really touching on the things I struggle with,” he explains. “The mind is a lonely place, no matter how many loved ones and friends you have, and most of the time you’re just living with that one voice in your head. I wrote about the madness of that isolation on Back To Bedlam, and I think that Airplane Mode is actually the same title, but with a sense of peace.”

It may sound like sobering stuff, but it’s delivered with a lightness of touch that long-term fans have always loved, backed by the fully formed sound of Blunt’s band after he opted for a different approach and laid down the tracks with them in the studio together.

“I’ve worked with some incredible producers”, he says, “but they’ve often done the recording when I’m not in the room, which I then have less connection with, and it doesn’t quite sound like me. This time around I got my band into a studio in Banbury. I’d call the various producers I wanted to work with and say, “you’re coming in on Monday”, the next on Tuesday and so on. I’d tell them they were still the boss, but it’s going to be my band and it’s going to have my input. It meant I took control of my album, and I made it sound the way I hear it,” he says. “Somewhere back there, I felt I’d lost my way, but now I’ve found it again – in a studio in Banbury.”

It is an album of consistently brilliant work. The breezy ‘Tastes Like Summer’ comes alongside a music video which acts as a wonderfully deranged homage to A24 horror movies, while the epic balladry of ‘Circles’ is a track which sees James heading back to his roots.

Similarly, the stirring ‘In My Blood’ is a reflection on the kind of intrusive thoughts that plague ninety percent of the planet and allows this record to become one of James’ most universally relatable. For James, then, this record has been understandably quite the experience.

“There’s a heaviness to this record, and what I realised is that I’ve been trying to do these happy radio songs for so long and, and that’s not me. Misery sells and misery is what I do best!,” he reflects. “So, when I started writing this album, I warned my family that I was going to go into my darkest corners and write about them. What was interesting is that I wrote all of those songs, but at the same time, I found real celebration as well. I was originally going to call the album ‘Reason To Die’, but along the way, I found songs that actually express a great sense of excitement for life and an excitement about the people I share it with, and the joy and happiness that they bring me.”

“I was trying to write the album of my life,” he surmises. “And I did.”