Tim: New track for you here, presumably from the soon to be re-released and embiggened Halcyon album. Annoying when artists do that, but that’s a gripe for another time. Here’s this.
Tim: Pretty good, no? Halcyon was, unfortunately, a tad disappointing – a couple of decent tracks on there, but largely filler. This, on the other hand, is a very good track indeed – a wonderful two part chorus, with the lovely melodic first half and the nicely aggressive second burn with the bells and synths and everything else coming in.
Tom: Agreed. Big commercial pop music is all about the “hooks” — as many memorable bits as you can, crammed into a chorus that is, as Sum 41 said, “all killer no filler”. That’s strongly evident here.
Tim: It was originally recorded by Leona Lewis a year ago, though never released in any form.
Tom: Other than on YouTube, apparently. Wonder why that was?
Tim: Not sure – I’m guessing it was recorded, then ditched as people weren’t entirely happy with the way it worked. Something about the deeper voice, perhaps, which doesn’t quite work for me like this does. Then it got leaked, as these things have a way of doing. It’s not a hugely different sound, really, lack of bells and different vocal style aside.
Tom: This one, quite literally, has the bells and whistles. And it works.
Tim: I prefer this – it has a nicer contrast between the singing and backing, resulting in what seems to be a more identifiable vocal. And that’s a nice thing, when the lyrics are about what they are about – “we got the fire, and we’re burning one hell of a something”.