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:
