ETA! You can hear Blake Lewis’s single, “Break Anotha” HERE!
Quick verdict: Ditto what Ken Barnes said below. It’s catchy, danceable. Could be a big club hit…
The press release has been issued! Not to me, of course. But, Ken Barnes over at USA Today’s Idol Chatter blog has heard Blake Lewis’s new single. It’s called Break Anotha. Here is what Ken has to say about it:
The thoughtful folks at 19 also included a link for lucky recipients of the press release to hear the single, which I did. It sounds like a clever maximizing of Blake’s musical inclinations in a contemporary pop context. Or, in plainer English, it’s a heavily produced pop-soul tune featuring a chanted chorus with a striking strings figure and a bit of beatboxing and other vocal gymnastics. Seems to be aimed straight at the Justin Timberlake market, and — with a properly warm radio reception — it could hit the jackpot.
Back in August, Blake told me the first single would be released on October 30th, and would be a re-working of one of his songs–with some help from Chris Richardson. Obviously, those plans changed. Break Anotha is written by Sam Watters (former Color Me Badd member and husband of Tamyra Gray. Yep. He co-wrote the treacly Season 3 coronation song, I Believe, with Tamyra) and producer Ryan Tedder.
The rest of us will get to hear it tomorrow when the song is officially released to radio.
Sign up at blakelewiscomingsoon.com, to receive a message on your cell phone when the single is available to be heard via phone. There’s also a little video posted at the site featuring Blake discussing his upcoming album, Audio Day Dream, set to be released December 4th.
For the latest on Blake, check out my sistas over at Team Plaid. Sarah, from Team Plaid, spoke with Josh Hoge last night at the Elliott Yamin concert (Josh is opening for Elliott) in Orlando, FL:
He wrote two songs that Blake considered, but Blake only ended up recording one, and Josh knows it will be on the album, and thinks it might be a single (at first, he said the first single, but then kinda changed the wording of that to …a single). I asked him what the title was and he said …Know My Name. He said he originally wrote it with Ryan Tedder, and that he (Josh) was going to record it. But, since Ryan is producing for Blake, somewhere along the way, Blake heard the song and loved it. So Josh gave the okay for Blake to record it and the rest is history.
