All the Colours of You is the 16th studio album of English rock band James that was released on 4 June 2021 through Virgin Music Label & Artist Services. James began writing the album before the release of their 15th studio album Living in Extraordinary Times (2018); they accumulated 100 Jam sessions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, the band members were stuck in different countries. Vocalist Tim Booth began working with producer Jacknife Lee at his studio in Topanga Canyon, California, where Booth acted as a liaison between the band and Lee. The album has been described as a stadium rock and electronic; its songs were influenced by the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the murder of George Floyd.

Music critics gave All the Colours of You generally positive reviews; some of them complimented Lee's production and noted the album's anthemic nature. It peaked at number three in the United Kingdom, and charted in Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, and Switzerland. "All the Colours of You" was released as the album's lead single on 1 March 2021, and the tracks "Beautiful Beaches", "Recover", "Isabella" were released as follow-up singles over the next two months. James played several festivals in the UK in August and September 2021, and ended the year with a UK arena tour with Happy Mondays. A tour of Portugal in April 2022 was followed by more UK festival performances throughout June 2022.

James released their 15th studio album Living in Extraordinary Times in August 2018. Two weeks prior to its release, the band's four songwriters in the band had assembled at a house in the Yorkshire Dales, north-east England, to start writing the follow-up. Living in Extraordinary Times was promoted with tours of Australia, Europe—including a co-headlining United Kingdom tour with The Charlatans—New Zealand, South America, and the United States—a co-headlining tour with the Psychedelic Furs). The cycle saw the introduction of new member Deborah Knox-Hewson, who was subsequently replaced by her friend Chloe Alper.

In June 2019, bassist Jim Glennie said the band had a remaining writing session before they intended to do any major editing with the aim of release an album the following year. Booth said the band wanted to focus on grooves and explore sounds they had not previously explored, such as contemporary psychedelia. In early 2020, at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the band had accumulated 100 Jam sessions in 17 days; they were halfway through a planned year-long break from touring. They made demos and wrote lyrics in preparation for their next album. Before the pandemic, the members worked on demos in their own studios or met in pairs and worked together for a few days. The lockdowns resulting from the pandemic isolated members of the band in different countries. They used the video-conferencing software Zoom to discuss how to continue working towards the new album.

Booth, Glennie, keyboardist Mark Hunter, and Glennie's brother Peter did pre-production. James had planned to record their next album in the UK with Charlie Andrew, who had produced their previous album. After a member suggested working with Jacknife Lee, they learnt he was living within two miles (3.2 km) of vocalist Tim Booth in Topanga Canyon, California. Booth called Lee and visited him; they talked and Booth showed him demos he liked. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Booth was the only member of James working in Lee's home studio. During a trial session, Lee created what would become the intro to "All the Colours of You". The band members loved the intro, and Lee was engaged as the album's producer.

Lee, Matt Bishop and Hunter acted as engineers during the recording process, with editing by Bishop, and additional engineering from Beni Giles, Matthew Walsh, and Matt Glaseby. Lee is an experienced mixer who edited the band's demos, adding loops, providing electronic textures, and changing the structures. Booth served as an intermediary between Lee and the rest of the band; whenever they needed a part, such as a trumpet, he would contact trumpeter Andy Diagram, who would record it and send it to the pair. Lee mixed the recordings and John Davis mastered the album at Metropolis in London.

The sound of All the Colours of You has been described as stadium rock and electronic. According to QRO editor Ted Chase, James has an "emotional stadium size more akin to big eighties outfits from when they got their start, than either the slamming pop or intimate indie of today". Booth, who wrote the band's lyrics, cited the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting lockdowns, and the murder of George Floyd as influences on the topics covered on the album. All of the music was written between Booth, guitarist and violinist Saul Davies, Glennie, Hunter, and Lee. Drummer David Baynton-Power does not appear on the album; Lee played his parts in the majority of the songs, and Bishop performed on "Beautiful Beaches" and "Wherever It Takes Us". Lee also played guitar and keyboards on every track, background vocals on five songs, and bass guitar on "Hush". Giles, who had worked on the previous album, played keyboards on "Zero" and "Beautiful Beaches". Peter Glennie sang background vocals on "Zero", and played EBow on "All the Colours of You", strings on "Magic Bus", and cello on "Isabella".

All the Colours of You's opening track "Zero" talks about death and warns the listener to not worry about their remaining time. Its opening lyric "We're all going to die", which Booth changed due to COVID-19, was originally "We're all going to shine"; he said in spite of the alteration, he "discovered the song was still uplifting". The slow-tempo electronic song starts with ambient sounds, and a gentle piano-and-guitar part guides the rest of its runtime. "All the Colours of You" criticises the presidency of Donald Trump, which Booth observed while living in the US; the track was partially influenced by the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd. The song's mix of guitars and dance music earned it a comparison to the work of New Order and to James' own song "Ring the Bells", which appears on their fourth studio album Seven (1992). "Recover" is a tribute Booth's father-in-law Saville Shela, who died as a result of COVID-19 in April 2020. Its minimalist instrumentations and Booth's intimate vocals were attributed to Lee's production style and earned a comparison to the work of Muse. Grace Galarraga of mxdwn said the track details the "middle part of quarantine, where people realised that 'nature needs a break' and people were all 'out of a job.'" "Beautiful Beaches" is a pop song about climate change; its outro features distorted drums similar to the ones heard in "It Might Be Time" (2019) by Tame Impala. It was inspired by a dream Booth had after meeting a Peruvian shaman in which he imagined earthquakes, fires, and "all hell breaking loose in California". The morning after the dream, a wildfire was blazing through California, which caused Booth and his family to evacuate their home.