Recommended Tracks: “Piece Of Your Love,” “Loser,” “How?”
Artist You May Like: Ben Ellis, Sebastian Croft, Gray Connors
In a wary space of uncertainty, former pop trio New Hope Club member George Smith, known synonymously as GRESLEY, embarks on a brand-new solo journey shaped by breakups, heartache and everyday coming-of-age stories.
Following the band’s split after a 10-year run in early February 2025, GRESLEY returned home to the United Kingdom, moved back in with his parents and began writing what would become his 10-track debut album, Songs I Wrote Since She Left.
“A lot of them on the record were started in my childhood bedroom & I feel like it gives an insight into the thoughts & feelings, the up’s [and] downs that I was going through at the time,” GRESLEY explained in a March 27 social post initially announcing the projects, offering an intimate glimpse into the emotional highs and lows of that period.
The album opens with “Thinking Of You,” a song that dives into heartbreak and emotional aftermath. “When I think of you it’s sweet, but it’s torture / Oh, when I think of you I’ll bleed out for you / It breaks me into two when I think of you,” he sings. The track sets the tone as a stripped-back ballad, released alongside the album’s first three tracks as singles in reverse order of the tracklist.
While still thinking about an ex on “Babyface,” GRESLEY slips into regret over the breakup on “How?”, seemingly trying to cope through unhealthy habits. He sings, “How do I make it all alright? / When all I wanna do is wake up next to you.” The track marks a shift into emotional self-destruction following obsession and regret.
A major shift comes with “Piece of Your Love,” the most upbeat song on the album up to this point, built on steady acoustic guitar and percussion. It explores the willing submission of love: “You can play me like a fiddle / I’ll meet you in the middle / Even if the middle’s more on your side.” GRESLEY, known for his songwriting and guitar work, shines here.
Both “No Man Without My Woman” and “Loser,” which appear to be influenced by The Beatles’ music, explore how dependency evolves into insecurity-with-love rather than insecurity-without-love. While the former is all about dependency in the sense of “I’m no man without my woman,” the letter suggests fleeting self-worth without connection. In both tracks, though, it’s clear that GRESLEY lacks a stable sense of self outside the relationship. Ultimately, that dependence is something he’s afraid of losing on “Loser.”
After “She’s My Girl (Interlude),” “Break It” focuses on the anxiety of loving someone so much that you become afraid of your own impact on the relationship. Here, it’s clear everything feels unstable, with GRESLEY holding things together while gradually falling apart.
Even though the relationship has mostly dissolved on “Miss You Already,” GRESLEY is already missing someone who hasn’t even left yet. It’s a hard pill to swallow that things are all said and done. It becomes a quiet resolution that builds from the start of the album, where obsession and regret dominate.
He sings, “Maybe the boys are better off / I hope we take it from the top / Someday.” There’s no villain and no blame. Instead of your typical breakup album, GRESLEY admits that he doesn’t know how to love without losing themselves in the process. Instead, he loves too hard, loses himself a little bit, falls apart and only recovers a little bit — leaving behind a collection of Songs I Wrote Since She Left.
