There are a lot of rumors buzzing since the start of the year that Emeli Sandé’s second album is nearly finished. I have heard this several times though over several months, but no release date has been set to as far I know, despite of Emeli postings recording pictures onto her social media accounts.
Still, without warning - and via a bit of a detour- new music was dropped last Friday.
Jermaine Scott Sinclair, or rather Wretch 32, released his “I O U” single Friday featuring Emeli’s amazing vocals. The two have probably crossed paths while working on Naughty Boy’s debut album, which features them both separately back in 2013. Then again, Wretch has always been able to get the biggest UK singers to feature on his tracks (Ed Sheeran for instance).
“I O U” is the lead single for his upcoming album “Growing Over Life”, but I am most curious whether it will also lead to the new Emeli Sandé album. It’ll be good to see her back in the charts and I think the song will find its way there pretty easy. Emeli’s catchy parts lift the song up and both Wretch and Emeli are chart topping artists, so it’s an easy equation.
Emeli’s vocals have always been reminding me of a mix between Beyoncé and UK one hit wonder called Shola Ama (known for her cover of Richard Turley’s “You Might Need Somebody”). It’s just something about that pitch and the strong vibrato, which I always hope she doesn’t overdo any further to the point that’s it not beautiful anymore. She sometimes gets right on that edge though, but so far so good.
On “I O U”, she’s also getting a little bit of help from a children’s choir mixed into the background. It’s a great touch to link into the subject of the song and it’s nice because it’s subtle.
