Emeli Sandé impresses with long awaited comeback single ‘Hurts’
It is already five years ago that Emeli Sandé stormed the UK charts for the first time with her debut single ‘Heaven’. It took the rest of the world a little longer to warm to her, but ‘Next To Me’ did the trick. It turned Emeli Sandé in an international hit sensation with the successful follow up singles ‘Read All About It’ and ‘Clown’ to further cement her name. Debut album Our Version of Events sold over 2 million copies in the UK alone. Unfortunately it took her more than four years to come up with a follow up. Sophomore album Long Live The Angels will be released later this year, but comeback single ‘Hurts’ is out now. Is it strong enough to regain the public interest?

Especially in the UK Emeli Sandé is big enough of a name to attract a lot of attention with a comeback and it definitely helps that ‘Hurts’ is an absolute whirlwind of a track. It opens with Emeli’s distinctively soulful vocals only, but soon picks up pace with thunderous handclaps. The verses are suspenseful and the chorus delivers with a huge soaring melody and an emotive climax. “Baby, I’m not made of stone, it hurts. Loving you the way I do, it hurts”, she sings on the top of her lungs while the production keeps building. There are some hints of gospel here and there and it sounds like exactly the comeback single Emeli Sandé needed to stay relevant. The way it is produced slightly reminds me of the bombastic build up of Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’ and that is a big compliment of course! UK radio is going to eat this up, isn’t it?

Update: Emeli recorded a moody black and white video for ‘Hurts’.