Louis Tomlinson Releases New Album “How Did I Get Here?”
British singer-songwriter Louis Tomlinson released his third studio album “How Did I Get Here?” on January 23, 2026 via BMG Rights Management.
It is his first album in four years since his last album “Faith in the Future” in 2022.
The album comprises 12 tracks (deluxe edition 14 tracks), which Louis Tomlinson recorded with producer Nico Rebscher at Santa Teresa in Costa Rica for three weeks in early 2025, with additional recording done in Los Angeles and the English countryside.
Louis Tomlinson said of the album, “How Did I Get Here? I've been asking myself that question since I started my career. I'm so excited to finally say the new album is out! I feel so incredibly grateful for your years of die hard support. I've always found it impossible to answer the question of how I ended up here but one thing is for certain I wouldn't be here without you all.
This record is for you. It's yours now, enjoy.”
He told Sian Eleri of BBC Radio 1 about the album, “This is definitely the most exciting I've been to make a record. I built up a lot of my goodwill in myself and confidence from the last couple of tours. So I did kind of go into this record with a different approach. And in terms of the title, I wanted something that felt big and that had scale. And I'm reflective because, I'm getting to that age in me life where occasionally I do look back a little. So it's and also a little message to me and the fans. Because I feel like we obviously wouldn't be here without them. So collectively, we're all kind of looking around and wondering, now I got it. It's kind of cool.”
He said of working with producer Nico Rebscher, “Nico Rebscher is the producer across the board. Ad he is, I worked with him on the last record, and a couple of songs I've got out my system and a few others. And he's like, one of these, like, mad scientist kind of vibes. He's like, really, really great at pop music, but the way his brain works is very, very peculiar in the best kind of way. And musically, I think that kind of shows across the record.”
Louis Tomlinson explained some tracks for the album.
“Lemonade” “It was recorded in paradise, but I recorded it lucky enough to record it in Costa Rica. So hopefully you get a bit of feeling of Paradise from that. I'd say we'd written about half of the record before we went out to Costa Rica. The overarching thing with this record is I'm feeling really ambitious, and I really wanted to try and capture that within the record. So obviously the first single I really wanted to come out the blocks was something that was interesting, sonically and more melodic, maybe, than I've done in the past on previous singles. So I feel really good about it. I did a lot of the recording and writing in Costa Rica. Something I've always wanted to do, be able to just kind of tap into somewhere really far away from home and Costa Rica, obviously, be in that place. and just a really, really fun process.”
“On Fire” via Zach Sang Show “That was one of the early songs we wrote as I think we wrote that around the same time we wrote 'Lucid.' So getting on about two years ago now. Um that was in real contention to be a single. I feel like it's got that kind of chorus and it's it's a bit of a underplay and I really like those kind of singles where it's not an in-your-face kind of chorus, you know? It's kind of an underplay. I think that's cool like that. Um, another one of the moments in the process where that's a song that I would listen to, and I know that maybe sounds daff to some of your listeners, but that's not always the case. As an artist, you're making music that you definitely would listen to. Um, and that definitely is one of those songs. It's it's a moment of reflection of, okay, this is kind of sounds like bands that I would like I enjoyed listening to growing up.”
“Sunflowers” via Zach Sang Show
“We wrote that song in rainy England. No sunflowers, but longing for the sunflowers. Um I think maybe the sun had come out on this day. I think it had come out on this day, but it had been like quite a miserable week. And um we were about three weeks away from going to Costa Rica at this point. I'm not sure. I'm sure the other guys are much more professional than me, but like I couldn't really concentrate those sessions. All I could think about is going to Costa Rica. But also like frustratingly it was like, 'Oh, this is good that we're doing the songs here,' but I was so excited about what it was going to do to the sessions, being in Costa Rica that was also I kind of found it frustrating. I was like, 'Yeah, but let's get there and see what happens.' So, um, 'Sunflowers 'was pretty much longing for somewhere like Costa Rica and that kind of idea and and and more imaginative of what it would be like to be in that place.”
“Lazy” via Zach Sang Show
“It's so funny. He didn't mean it in the way that it sounded, or at least he then backtracked, but my manager said to me the first time he heard Lazy, he was like, 'I've never heard a song that is more innately you.' Fuck you, man. What the fuck? But it's actually kind of true. Like, not that I'm lazy, but that I take comfort. That song is about taking comfort in doing nothing. When he said that to me, I was like 'Fucking hell, you cheeky bastard.' I think he meant it in a nice way.”
“Palaces” “This is kind of where we left off on the last record, with faith in the future, to be honest. Kind of the glue between the two records, the last one and the new one. But also really in line with the kind of stuff I love listening to the kind of stuff I love singing, love performing. It all came together pretty quickly to be honest. This kind of stuff is a bit more self explanatory to me. I tried to take a few more risks on the album in general. But this was me doing something that I really, really love. And I think hopefully you can feel that.”
“Broken Bones” via Zach Sang Show
“ I also thought, the thing with 'Broken Bones' is like, within my fan base anyways, I famously shattered my arm and utterly broke it bad. So, I thought it was a little bit tongue and cheek. I kind of like that. I quite literally broke my bones and probably will do it again. Hopefully not. I really hope not. But I do remember waking up from this injury thinking my body is never going to be the same again. And for the sake of four vodka rebels, I'm not sure it was worth it. But hey, it's a good story. I get to write a song called 'Broken Bones.' So there you go. And obviously also a metaphor for like fame and all of that and I would there's definitely parts of this job that take a lot from you, but the payoff is worth it. Those live moments, those those moments of the shows, like that's why I do what I do.”
“Imposter” “I actually had the luxury of recording a lot this record in Costa Rica. So it was written and recorded in Costa Rica.To be honest, it was more about the setting. As I said before, lucky enough to be written in Costa Rica. And this whole record was really just trying to surround myself with paradise and just kind of good feeling. I'm an optimistic guy anyway, but just surrounding yourself in that kind of beauty, it's certainly kind of good for the record. And I really wanted to make something a little bit more melodic and more pop this time around. I think 'Imposter', maybe across the whole record, is the most melodic. I think so it was time to have a little bit more color. I'm feeling good in myself. I'm a bit of a psychology nerd. I find all that really interesting. And imposter syndrome definitely something that I feel like I I've had, or maybe even continued to have, doing this job. So it's kind of just the idea of that dressed up in the context of being like a new relationship. But, I'm kind of interested in psychology.”
“Sanity” via Zach Sang Show
“I think I'm at that time in your life like you know, I'm at that kind of age where the idea of sanity is more interesting. To be honest in me 20s I could give a fuck about that. I wasn't really bothered about that. In fact I was kind of striving for the opposite. Well, just like like uh socially, you know, like kind of off the wall and like doing stupid shit and then you get a bit older and you realize that yeah, like that that kind of and really that that that song is just a metaphor for like um self-confidence really and allowing myself to be sane, allowing myself to kind of put my feet up. Um, that's a it's a funny song that because that's a song that people often people have heard the record point out and say they seem to like. Um, it's so breezy that song. I love that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It kind of really matches the the concept for what it is. Um, and it's funny because I I didn't didn't have the biggest belief in that song. We wrote that song in about two hours and the sun was shining in England which was rare and we all had our tops off because it was that hot. You know what it's like in England. We don't need it to be that we top off. Just take the opportunity. We were playing footy out um out in the garden and to be honest, I couldn't really be asked to write. I was not really in that kind of headsp space. And then I remember listening back to the song and it kind of that that that also comes across a little bit. There is a little bit of nonchalant to even the song in itself.”
“Lucid” via Zach Sang Show
“'Lucid' was one of those songs that we wrote. That was one of the first songs we wrote. Interestingly, the title is in that song. And that was a really interesting moment in the process for me. It was a song that I would have listened to and I really felt proud of. Also really into lucid dreaming. I haven't quite got there yet.”
