Sounds (and looks) uncomfortable.
[Video][Website]
[4.50]
Thomas Inskeep: Desperately wants to be “Rolling in the Deep.” Isn’t.
[3]
Iain Mew: For someone with ten UK top ten hits to her name, Leona Lewis has a real lack of memorable songs that aren’t someone else’s or “Bleeding Love.” Maybe that’s why her career has been able to crumble so fast when she was still adding to them eighteen months ago. It’s difficult to imagine another monster power ballad would be doing any better than this frenzied stomp is, though. It’s derivative, but it has some life to it and does something new with her vocal power that works, so I don’t think the song is too much to blame, as much as “moving on to bigger things” takes an unfortunate new meaning.
[5]
Alfred Soto: That she’s listened to “Rolling in the Deep” is a safe assumption, but an acquaintance with Florence + the Machine isn’t out of the question either.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: Stuffy stomp-alongs that the singer is unable to sell.
[2]
Katherine St Asaph: The score fluctuates depending on whether I think Leona’s ripping off “Rolling in the Deep” or “Fighter.” “Fighter” wins.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: It seems easy to say that this is hamstrung by the typical Leona Lewis problem of technical proficiency failing to fill a charisma vacuum, and that’s partly because it is extremely rote. But Leona is not a blank slate. “Collide” had euphoria, “One More Sleep” combined yearning with anticipatory excitement, and songs like “Come Alive” and “I To You” from her last proper album were expertly executed doompop. With the right songs, she can tell a story. With a limp Adele rewrite, she can only keep her head above water.
[6]
Brad Shoup: Kang forgive me, but Lewis has no stank. The pianist does, at least until the psych organ shuts things down. Why can’t she just do EDM?
[4]
Mo Kim: Weak acapella beginning (“and I feel it in my heartbeat,” really?), but the more sounds Lewis puts on this, the more it sizzles. Points for the gospel harmonies, the horns in the bridge, and the entire last minute.
[7]
Rebecca A. Gowns: The verses are reheated Adele (which was already reheated soul to begin with), the choruses bring to mind an Outback Steakhouse commercial… and strangely, it’s got a tremendous bridge! Those 20 seconds are a welcome respite from the rest of the song. While most bridges rest the hook, making you crave the hook even more in its absence, this bridge rests the stale and annoying hook, and Leona takes it down a notch to a nice bit of riffing off herself, with horns echoing her softly in the distance. Where did those soft horns go in the rest of the arrangement? Since we only get to breathe once, the rest of the song sounds all the more like a chore when it comes thudding back.
[3]
Ramzi Awn: Rudimentary though “Fire Under My Feet” may be, Lewis’ voice still shakes, rattles and rolls. “This may not be perfect, but I’m happy, and I’ve earned it,” she sings in summation, self-referencing her own catalog to boot (she did just want to be happy, after all.) Cross-pollinating the Fried Green Tomatoes shuffle of Gaga’s “Teeth” with some fire from Alicia Keys, this may not be Ms. Lewis’ most original single, but it manages to sound genuine.
[5]