Written by Hasan, SheBOPS
Following a successful North American tour, rising star LÉON has released her second EP, ‘For You’.
Unfortunately three quarters of LÉON’s ‘For You’ EP was already made available to listeners, leaving the title track as the only unheard song for the collection. However, it’s great to hear those soulful LÉON gems again, but this time together as their own body of work.
https://twitter.com/AppleMusic/status/838820696612569088
LÉON’s confessional, heartbreakingly honest and raw approach to song writing can be heard across all 14 minutes of ‘For You’. This is especially apparent on the EP’s title track, a bop incredibly deserving of holding such an important position on a release. Over a jagged synth bass with vocals beautifully fluttering, the Swede elegantly wonders, “Was I special? / For you, only you?”
This theme of love’s insecurity flows throughout ‘For You’. It is the third track ‘Liar’, a haunting and harrowing tale of losing the one you love to somebody else, which is the crowning moment of ‘For You’. A lazy comparison of the piano driven ballad would be to Adele, especially because of LÉON’s powerfully painful vocals. But, as the rest of the material on ‘For You’ proves, LÉON is her own artist, with her own sound and her own lyrical style. Listeners will truly get a sense of this with the dreamy rhodes and synths on ‘Sleep Deprived’. “The way that it burns, glass under my nails / An itch, I can’t scratch when I hear your name / My baby got me sleep deprived,” LÉON sings in her lusciously husky yet smooth voice.
https://twitter.com/SonyMusicGlobal/status/837426679500914688
‘For You’ closes with LÉON’s breakout hit ‘Think About You’. This seems like a very deliberate choice, as ‘Think About You’ reaffirms exactly what makes LÉON so unique. This distinctiveness is what has enabled the Swede to connect so widely with her music; ‘For You’ has a collective streaming total of over 14 million on Spotify to date.
LÉON will surely be here to stay.