Leona Lewis feat. Childish Gambino – “Trouble”

Published August 21st 2012 by
Filed under Reviews

20120821-100714.jpgLeona Lewis’ Trouble, featuring Childish Gambino, premiered today on UK radio. So far, I don’t know what to make of it. It sounds like a Leona track without sounding what you’d expect a Leona track to sound like. By that I mean, it doesn’t sound like anything she’s done before but at the same time it suits her perfectly.

Trouble isn’t very instant. On first listen, it’s not the most memorable track. It doesn’t have a catchy melody but it has “something”. So while it’s not the kind of track that gets stuck in your head for hours, it’s interesting. And for that reason, it makes you want to listen to it again. It’s also nothing like Collide. It’s not a dance-pop song. It’s a ballad, but more interesting than a typical Leona ballad.

Childish Gambino’s verse on Trouble is actually surprisingly fitting and sounds good. I was expecting it to sound like “oh, we’ll put a rapper on this track for the sake of making it more credible”. But it doesn’t sound like that at all.

Overall, while I don’t love the track yet, it’s definitely a song that will grow on me after a few more listens. It’s hard to know what to expect from Leona’s upcoming album since both singles have been completely different to each other. I don’t know how this will fair in the charts but with the right video to accompany it, the song might make more of an impact.

You can listen to Trouble below:

Trouble is out on October 7th following an X Factor performance.