Leona Lewis, the best-selling new artist of 2008, whose "Bleeding Love" I deemed "a colossal and timeless debut" in Billboard, returns with the stunning first single from her sophomore album "Echo," due Nov. 17. Curiously, "Happy," also written with and produced by Ryan Tedder, is so strikingly similar to "Bleeding"—the opening chords, overall chug-along beat and keyboard backdrop—that I flinched a might. It's one thing to strive to duplicate success, but another to use the very same musical brushstrokes to do so.
What makes the song succeed is Lewis' vaulting tour-de-force vocal. With precious few female vocalists who actually
sing anymore, I'll take what I can get, despite the caveat of redundancy. And god knows, comparing Leona to chart temptress Lady Gaga is like saying that a diamond is too bright. I'll take the former's 14 carats to latter Gag's... oops, I mean, Gaga's synthesized zirconia vocals anyday.
Leona Lewis, the best-selling new artist of 2008, whose "Bleeding Love" I deemed "a colossal and timeless debut" in Billboard, returns with the stunning first single from her sophomore album "Echo," due Nov. 17. Curiously, "Happy," also written with and produced by Ryan Tedder, is so strikingly similar to "Bleeding"—the opening chords, overall chug-along beat and keyboard backdrop—that I flinched a might. It's one thing to strive to duplicate success, but another to use the very same musical brushstrokes to do so.
What makes the song succeed is Lewis' vaulting tour-de-force vocal. With precious few female vocalists who actually sing anymore, I'll take what I can get, despite the caveat of redundancy. And god knows, comparing Leona to chart temptress Lady Gaga is like saying that a diamond is too bright. I'll take the former's 14 carats to latter Gag's... oops, I mean, Gaga's synthesized zirconia vocals anyday.
One critic described it as being the older, more mature sister of Bleeding Love. Feels more organic to me (beautiful piano line tinkling underneath) and far further removed then the identikit Beyonce/Kelly Clarkson/Jordin Sparks retreads.
ReplyDeleteThe real beauty of the song is that you just know Leona will absolutely knock this out of the park live.