Billy Ocean is returning with his first new album in over a decade. The upcoming set, titled,One World, will be released on April 17th, with the news of the single coming on the heels of Ocean's recent appointment to a MBE for his services to music at Queen Elizabeth's New Year’s Honors.One Worldsees Ocean reunited with producer Barry Eastmond who wrote and produced a number of his biggest hits including "When The Going Gets Tough" and "Love Zone."One World was recorded over the summer of 2019 in studios in Manchester and New York Billy co-wrote all 12 tracks on the album.
Born Leslie Charles, the Trinidad-born Ocean, who turns 70 on January 21st, talked about the album in the official press releases, explaining: "One World is my first original studio album in over 10 years. It’s like a landmark for my 70th birthday! I feel this album reflects my maturity, and the many genres of music I’ve been exposed to -- coming from the Caribbean as a little boy influenced by calypso music, to growing up in the East End of London, where music was so wonderfully diverse. I truly feelOne Worldhas captured all of my musical influences over the years. The album reflects my thoughts, and the way that I feel at 70 years old, but most of all I hope that it will make people stop and think about life and its meaning."
While recording the new album, Billy Ocean explained that simply writing and recording new material isn't all there is to creating a new album: I wrote 17 songs to select 11, which is what I have. So, there's six -- not they're not good enough -- but you're talking about matching up an album, you look at the rhythms of them, you look at your structure; fast, slow, medium-tempo. So, it's all about balancing the albums."