Alyssa Reid Feat. Jump Smokers – Alone Again
Until fairly recently, Canada’s was probably best known for moose, Mounties and Bryan Adams. However, it seems the US’s quieter northern neighbour is now seeking to corner the market in pop exports. Ontario-born Justin Beiber already has the world at his tiny feet and it looks as like his compatriot Alyssa Reid is well on her way to emulating him.
Another resident of Ontario, Reid’s story shares a few more features with that of the Bieb’s. Like him she was discovered via videos posted on YouTube, specifically a gender-swapped take on his hit ‘One Less Lonely Girl’ (cheekily re-titled ‘One More Lonely Boy’).
‘Alone Again’ pulls a similar trick. It takes elements of ‘Alone’ – the 1987 smash hit from big-in-Canada lady rockers Heart – and reworks them into an emotional, rap-embellished piano ballad perfectly designed to get lighters in the air from Alberta to Albuquerque.
“I was just sitting in my bedroom, writing a completely different song called ‘Again’,” she told Canadian Interviews of the track’s genesis. “I wanted to send it to my label to see what they thought of the song, but I didn’t write a chorus yet. The chord progression from Heart’s song ‘Alone’ was the exact same progression, and I love Heart, so I knew the song. So I sang that overtop, just as a filler-chorus almost, just so they could see the song as a whole, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I was like, ‘we have to get the rights to this song!’”
Judging by the response, this Heart transplant was the right move. The single and Reid’s debut album ‘The Game’ have gone on shift in massive quantities, both in her native Canada and elsewhere. Looks like Bieber had better watch his back.
Check out ‘Alone Again’ here.
