Lemar - It's Not That Easy Single Review

Lemar
It's Not That Easy
Sony Bmg
Uk Release Date 4th September
Single Review

Lemar's first single to be lifted from his very strong and eagerly awaited third album. In its original form it could have come straight out of the Motown explosion, classy, well produced, accessible, strong musically and vocally melodic soul music.

The string and guitar intro is met within seconds by a vocal performance that shows that Lemar has really grown vocally and that isn't saying he wasn't already a strong vocalist, he has simply become even more powerful. Again, both Lemar and his A&R man Nick Raphael's vision and realisation that you need remixes to be able to cross all the t's and dot all the i's has added to Lemar's success. They have stayed faithful to those that have brought them success and saying "why fix what is not broken" springs to mind.

First up the 5am mix, firstly 5am have been away from the remix scene for about a year after remixing just about every serious R&B track of the previous two years. Why have they been away, well they have been fully producing three albums for artists of their own. So what a way to come back, this is the first of about six mixes you are going to here from the UK's R&B remix kings in the coming months.

There are two versions of the 5am mix, the radio and extended version. So I will concentrate on the extended version. The intro on this is simply breathtaking, face slappingly smooth snares, keyboards and the kind of bass line that will rattle many a car sound-system across the UK this summer. But the genius here in the remix is the way they have exploited the new power of Lemar's vocals to their maximum potential.

Currently being smashed on specialist radio across the UK but, trust me, the mix is that good that it could have been the straight up radio mix. Meanwhile Kardinal Beats use the music intro from the original version and chorus and then add some more hip hop driven beats and try to take the pace up a touch at the same time. A great value for money single with it's remixes adding to the flavour. Welcome back to UK's undisputed king of soul.

5/5
BIGGER