Leona Lewis has released a new song from her upcoming third LP, Glassheart. And people, you can all relax, because the dance direction last single Collide was showcasing is nowhere to be found. Instead, new song Trouble is a dramatic, and building mid-tempo song that puts Leona Lewis firmly back in safer (musical) territory, though with an edgier attitude courtesy of the lyrics.
Fellow British Diva Emeli Sande was responsible for penning Trouble, and her influence can be heard strongly throughout the song. Not just lyrically, but musically: with the composition and structuring of the song seeming to mirror Sande's own breakthrough hit Heaven quite heavily. It's a choice that really only fails on Trouble's chorus; which contains too many distracting pauses in the vocal melody for this listeners taste.
Trouble has Leona Lewis taking, overall, a slightly different approach with her vocals. Throughout the song's verses she sticks to her warmer, breathier upper range; whereas in the song's chorus it's the lower half of her belting range that gets a workout. This approach works well through the first two-thirds of the song, but when we really need the crescendo -after rapper Childish Gambino- there's none of her trademark high-belting, or held notes to be found, and as such Trouble ends flat and strangely abruptly.
This is definitely an improvement on Collide, and I think it could have even been up there with Bleeding Love if not for problems with the song's composition- particularly its chorus. However, who's to say that this is the final cut of Trouble- it's not released until October 5th- so there is still time to polish this a little more and make it really shine!
Rating: B-
Heaven:
I definitely agree that this could have been Bleeding Love 2. However, I'm still left slightly unimpressed by her music. Ever since X-Factor, I swore she was going to be one of those divas that makes classic music along the lines of Mariah, Whitney, etc, but her music just never seems to measure up to her talent (or my expectations)...
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that this could have been Bleeding Love 2. However, I'm still left slightly unimpressed by her music. Ever since X-Factor, I swore she was going to be one of those divas that makes classic music along the lines of Mariah, Whitney, etc, but her music just never seems to measure up to her talent (or my expectations)....
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, the song doesn't get up to speed after the rap verse - it just STOPS! What's that all about?!
ReplyDeletehopefully its incomplete or a radio edit!
ReplyDeleteI think this song is her management trying to figure out how to place Leona in the current musical climate- Collide made it clear people weren't going to buy into leona doing dance tracks. So I think theyve decided to use Emeli Sande as their new template for relaunching Leona Lewis.
ReplyDeleteYes, what IS up with that? This fascination with Sande. I mean, Olympic opening and closing ceremony overused her and now as a "template"? I think she is extremely over rated as a singer.
ReplyDeleteThe sound was awful but I liked the song itself. And I think that ending really works. The singer I find, much like Sande, very over rated.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised with how much they used her. I thought after the opening that would be it, but then she popped up twice in the closing, too! Her music was also used heavily throughout the ceremony; I'm guessing someone sees her as the future of British music.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised Jessie J was called out twice...there are other Young British singers- Joss Stone, Leona Lewis, Adele, Amy Macdonald, Katy B- that could have been used instead.
Perhaps both were filling in for others who couldn't make it at the last minute.
I'm not the biggest fan of Leona's new choice of sound...I wouldn't even call this bleeding love part two. I liked Leona best with classical sounding ballads with some good ole R&B mixed in. Im not saying she has to give up some good party songs. She just needs to find her right sound. So far Echo and Spirit were far beyond this...Track.
ReplyDeleteNot bad at all. I like the way she builds up the tension and after the moment of suspension she rewards us with chorus just to start building the tension once again. Pretty smart dynamic structure. However as you said I expected peak and resolving whole musical action in the verse after Gambino's part. She left us walking away instead. She was only teasing. It's just like promise of marvellously orgasmic sex which eventually ends up at the foreplay stage. Quite pleasurable foreplay I must say.
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought in the beginning of the closing ceremony when it was all
ReplyDeleteabout London, they really missed an opportunity not having Adele there,
singing Hometown Glory.But I realized later, her pregnancy might be at a
stage where she didn't feel up to such an event.
Since I think way more highly of Jessie J's skills, I had less of an issue with them using her twice. ;)
I am eternally grateful they didn't use Leona Lewis, don't know Amy and
Katy but yeah, Joss would have been nice but of course her genre really
is very American rather than British so I see why not since it was all
about British pop music.
ps it's getting annoying how often I can't log in through facebook lately
I'm not gonna lie, I really like this!! But as you say its missing that last big belt, but then its just nice to hear her voice over something that fits it better than a churning dance track!
ReplyDeleteThe writing is fab and the production is pretty impressive, even if its a little shambolic in places. I think I might pre order the album as I will be buying at some point anyway.
This might be unpopular but I didn't think Sande sounded good at all, in both the opening and closing ceremonies, she just sounded awful...
ReplyDeleteNot unpopular with me Stuey because that was my issiu with her performances..they left me thoroughly unimpressed.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen an interview with her I would like to add, as a person, she left me thoroughly impressed though.
apparently Disqus are having "issues". Thats what I get for using a free service! :P
ReplyDeletewhat an interesting way to put it..hehehe
ReplyDeleteI like it, too. It's definitely growing more and more on me!
ReplyDeleteThe acoustic version of this is much prettier :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl-5a4OwBhA
its definitely more powerful. I also like the chorus better here.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely
ReplyDeleteYeh, Sande does nothing for me, personally! And don't get me started on her olympics performances...
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that this could have been Bleeding Love 2. However, I'm still left slightly unimpressed by her music. Ever since X-Factor, I swore she was going to be one of those divas that makes classic music along the lines of Mariah, Whitney, etc, but her music just never seems to measure up to her talent (or my expectations)...
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that this could have been Bleeding Love 2. However, I'm still left slightly unimpressed by her music. Ever since X-Factor, I swore she was going to be one of those divas that makes classic music along the lines of Mariah, Whitney, etc, but her music just never seems to measure up to her talent (or my expectations)....
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, the song doesn't get up to speed after the rap verse - it just STOPS! What's that all about?!
ReplyDeletehopefully its incomplete or a radio edit!
ReplyDeleteI think this song is her management trying to figure out how to place Leona in the current musical climate- Collide made it clear people weren't going to buy into leona doing dance tracks. So I think theyve decided to use Emeli Sande as their new template for relaunching Leona Lewis.
ReplyDeleteYes, what IS up with that? This fascination with Sande. I mean, Olympic opening and closing ceremony overused her and now as a "template"? I think she is extremely over rated as a singer.
ReplyDeleteThe sound was awful but I liked the song itself. And I think that ending really works. The singer I find, much like Sande, very over rated.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised with how much they used her. I thought after the opening that would be it, but then she popped up twice in the closing, too! Her music was also used heavily throughout the ceremony; I'm guessing someone sees her as the future of British music.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised Jessie J was called out twice...there are other Young British singers- Joss Stone, Leona Lewis, Adele, Amy Macdonald, Katy B- that could have been used instead.
Perhaps both were filling in for others who couldn't make it at the last minute.