PERFORMER Leona Lewis — WRITERS Rycin Tedder, Jesse McCartney
Guide to the sections:
1. The Hooks Takes a closer look at “the hooks” that helped make the track a hit.
2. The Lyric Examirtes the lyric of the song and considers the nature and extent of its role in making the song ahit.
3. Song or Track? Looks at the extent to which the song’s success depended on the production and performance of the song, and the extent to which its success relied upon “the song’’ itself.
The Hooks
Whatever your thoughts on talent shows like X Factor, American Idol and the like, you cannot deny that the marketing and business bigwigs behind the scenes on these sorts of projects – and Fm not just talking about Simon Cowell here; he’s just the tip of a very large, all conquering iceberg – are on the ball. They are, truly, masters of exploitation.
Take this year’s X Factor in the U.K., for example. In a simple yet clever move bordering on the genius, the show’s producers in alliance with the show’s associated record label scheduled the 2006 and 2005 XFactor winners (Leona Lewis and Shayne Ward respectively) to perform as guests on the show just as both are releasing new product. It’s a formula that’d make Einstein jealous. High-rating prime time entertainment show + old familiar faces with tnusic to sell + the approaching festive season = kerching! [Interestingly, there is the potential for this otherwise watertight ploy to backfire: what if the show’s former stars overshadow the efforts of the current erop? At the time of writing, this is perhaps already the case. We shall see . ..]
So here we have Leona Lewis’ first “proper” single release (last year’s A Moment Like This being too closely associated with the show to be regarded as a true debut). Arguably among the best vocalists ever to emerge from the Idol /X Factor series, Leona’s vocal performance is Bleeding Love’s most immediate feature. It’s virtually flawless, captivatingly soulful and engaging throughout. Her tone and technique is perhaps most obviously comparable to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, yet there is a •melancholie edge that makes her distinct from these two, and which lends itself perfectly to the song’s melody and lyric. It’s a very good match of singer and song; a shrewd piece of A&R’ing.
The song itself is unusual – in a good way — in that while the verse, bridge, and chorus seetions are quite easily identifiable, each one is so strong that no one stands out as such. In most cases, to write song with no single obvious highlight is the kiss of death. But, perversely, the opposite is true with Bleeding Love – the whole song is one big hook.
The verses have a very memorable melody, and the writers are clearly aware of this. Almost one minute into the song and they still haven’t shifted up a gear to the bridge. There aren’t many mainstream commercial releases that can afford to hang around on the verse this late into the song – in fact, it’s rare not to hear the chorus by around 45-50 seconds in most big hits. Not only does this rule-breaking demonstrate great songwriting ability, but also the writers’ confidence in that ability. Impressive.
The high quality of craftsmanship continues in the bridge and chorus seetions. The melodie variety between the seetions never allow the listener’s attention to drift. Even with a running time of 4:24 – quite lengthy for a single release – Bleeding Love still manages to sound lean, concise and with no excess baggage.
The Lyric
Having conducted a quick survey of reactions to Bleeding Love’s lyric, most people seem to fall into one of two camps: those who praise the originality of the metaphor and the directness and sense of sincerity of the lyrics, and those who find the metaphor clunky and some of the imagery overly graphic.
There’s plenty of evidence to support the arguments of both camps. On the one hand, the linking of physical bleeding to emotional pain is a fresh and quirky way of taking on what is probably the most common theme in pop music. Yet, it’S understandable why some listeners may squirm at some of the lines – scoring highest on the grimace-ometer is the line: “My heart’s crippled by the vein that l keep on closing”. Even the less squeamish can’t help but raise an eyebrow at that one!
Of course, objectivity is something of a myth when it comes to any form of art. Ultimately, everything’s simply opinion verses opinion. No onc is right, no one is wrong. Even if all Bleeding Love ’s lyric does is divide opinion and create debate, that needn’t be a bad thtng. After all, creating a reaction is what good songwriting is all about.
Song or Track?
There’s no doubting that producer and co-writer Ryan Tedder has done a great job on the track. The hard-hitting kick drum and. percussion lead proceedings, with the tuned Instruments playing a more subtle padding role further back in the mix. Bleeding Love is essentially all drums and vocals, which exactly how the song itself demands it be.
There is slightly trivial but nagging issue, however . . . Tedder is a former protégé of the ubiquitous Timbaland, who mentored him for two years. The Timbaland influence is blatantly obvious; you’d be forgiven for automatically assuming it was him behind the desk here. But this, if one were to be picky, is a problem. Timbaland has been responsible for so many of the big hits in the last couple of years that he has, quite rightly, come to be regarded as something of legend. But this success, it could be argued, has led to an over-exposure of his distinctive production style. So it’s not that Bleeding Love is a bad production, it’s just that the avalanche of Timbaland-produced songs that have preceded it make it sound somewhat cloned and lacking in identity. It’s a minor point, granted, but one worth mentioning when taking the song in the context of the wider pop music landscape as it stands today.
