Poptastic Confessions!: Heavy Love by Louise

Dear Poptastic Readers,

UK singer Louise has just released her brand new studio album Heavy Love. And it’s her first one in 20 years!

Louise first became famous in the early 90s as part of the girl group Eternal. She was in the group only during their first album Always and Forever, which included some excellent singles such as “Stay” (a top 20 hit in the US), “Just a Step From Heaven”, “Save Our Love”, “So Good”, and “Crazy.” She left the group after a string of UK top 20 singles and was launched as a solo act.

As a solo artist, she had 3 top 20 albums and 12 top 20 singles in the UK. Her last single was “Pandora’s Kiss” in 2003. It was supposed to be the lead single from her fourth record, but then it was unfortunately cancelled, and we heard no more from her. In 2017, she came back for a tour in the UK, which was successful and led to her recording new songs for a new album!

The first single in 2019 was “Stretch,” a kind of funky song, which was VERY Louise, but at the same time didn’t sound dated at all. She recorded a sexy video for it. A very nice Initial Talk remix was also released, which was a cool nod to Louise’s time with Eternal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUFYiUVrOwo

The second song released (though it wasn’t really considered a single, maybe a buzz track?) was “Small Talk”, which sounded a bit more contemporary than “Stretch” and showed a bit more of the direction she was moving into.

The third song (and actual second single) was the banger “Lead Me On.” Produced by Clean Bandit, it’s a perfect summer song. The video is very summer-ish and shows Louise dancing with her partner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av_vyJA5heA

Next track released was the ballad “Breaking Back Together.” It’s proof that even staying away from music for more than a decade, Louise’s voice is still very enjoyable, even for a sad song like this.

“Not The Same” was next in line, sounding nothing like the other songs. It’s another banger. Even though the lyrics are sad, about a person who feels their partner is getting distant, it’s a very uplifting song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk7Gpqt8rUE

“Hammer” was the 6th pre-album release song. Written by Louise with a songwriting team than includes Hannah Robbinson (responsible for many amazing songs by artists such as Bananarama, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Annie) this song feels like a nod to Eternal as it is a bit funky, a little bit RnB, and it might be one of the best vocal performances in the record. She recorded a video in the studio to go with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKL-VKFhQV8

The 7th and last song to be released before the album was “Hurt.” This might be our favorite! A tears on the dancefloor anthem, this song would not feel out of place on a Kylie Minogue record.

Heavy Love features a fusion of many styles of pop music. Some of the album tracks are not as instant as most of the singles and are somewhat calmer, like “Just a Minute” and “Wonder Woman”, but they present another side of the singer and are a nice balance to the more dance-y songs on the first half of the album. Of all the newest songs, our favorite is “Straight to My Heart.” With a happier theme, this disco-influenced banger could be yet another single off the album.

It’s so good to see an amazing popstar such as Louise return unashamedly to pop music after such a long time. But it’s even better to see that she returned with a mission to record songs that are so good! Heavy Lovemight be Louise’s best album, it’s diversity and cohesiveness already make it an early contender for this year’s best albums lists!

We've added these songs to our 2020 Poptastic Confessions Playlist on Spotify.