Pop Is Not The Enemy: Track of the Week #9

It's only the bloody track of the week!

For this week's featured track we're showcasing the comeback single for a British diva who has been a little quiet recently following her rapid rise to stardom in 2007. The artist and track in question are the amazing Leona Lewis with 'Fire Under My Feet'. Here she is taking her umbrella for a walk.

It so great to have Leona back after being out of the spotlight for a while since her Christmas album in 2013 (still an eccentric choice in my opinion), and this is a stomper of a comeback single. Let's just get this out of the way now, yes it bares more than a passingly resemblance to Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' and 'Love Runs Out' by OneRepublic (both of which had the Midas touch of Ryan Tedder), but this deserves to stand on it's own merits. The acapella intro brings those velvety tones back with a bang then the instantly familiar combo of booming drums and driving piano (it's great to see Leona playing too) launches us into quite the pop moment. Midway we also get a smattering of brass which has echoes of '4 Minutes' by Madonna and Justin Timberlake, it's a really nice touch. It would seem that signing to Def Jam has given Leona a bit of grit and brought the spark back we haven't seen since her earlier material. For me this is a great tempo shift for her, a nice break from her well-worn track record of pop ballad belters but not going too far in the other direction. As much as I loved 'Out of My Head' from the Echo album and 'Glassheart' the third album's title track, people never seemed to buy Leona on a dance track but this seems to be a good fit.

The lyrics are bold and defiant and almost certainly aimed at a certain music mogul who may have wanted to clip the singers wings.

"Moving on to bigger things,

I began to spread my wings.

No longer in chains,

I'm dancing over these flames."

In my opinion the only weak link is the chain is the video, it's a little basic and looks kind of cheap, but the song is enough of a statement to carry the weight of expectation on its own.

I for one am really pleased to have Leona back on the pop scene and I hope that this single and it's parent album, apparently called 'I Am', propel her back to the lofty heights she hit with 'Bleeding Love' and 'Spirit'. Welcome back Leona, I can't wait to see what you've got coming up next!