Music

Blog

The Sound

Digital Spy's music blog has the latest midweek chart updates plus news, videos and more.

Follow us:

Let's discuss the new Jordin Sparks single

Published Thursday, May 14 2009, 11:32 BST | By Nick Levine | 19 comments
Last summer we all went a bit nuts for 'No Air', Jordin Sparks's uber-emotional duet with the then uncontroversial Chris Brown. Now the American Idol star has done it again. Her new single, which popped up online a couple of days ago, is already one of the songs of 2009.

It's called 'Battlefield' and it's co-written and produced by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, the man behind 'Bleeding Love' and 'Halo'. It does bear a passing resemblance to the latter, but it's more bombastic, more overblown and, well, just plain better.

"Why does love always feel like a battlefield?" Sparks asks on the chorus, presumably awaiting a response from eighties rock queen Pat Benatar. Actually, Benatar isn't a bad starting point when describing what 'Battlefield' sounds like. It's got desk-rattling drums, lashings of guitar, a corking vocal performance, lyrics that really go to town with the "love is war" metaphor and a production job that's as subtle as Lady GaGa's dress sense. It's essentially a classic soft rock ballad pumped full of steroids and given a gleaming noughties makeover.

Oh, and when Sparks sang it on American Idol last night, she did so in true soft rock fashion - surrounded by industrial quantities of dry ice. Number one surely beckons.

What do you think of 'Battlefield'? Use the space below to have your say.
19 comments

Loading...
New DS games
Re-enter the exciting realm of link-matching madness with Chainz 2: Relinked.
S21 T1.2211039066315 {run_id}