Cassie Valentine - Love & WarThe New Single
Track Overview 'Love & War' is a mid-tempo song written by Cassie Valentine, Mercedes Payne and Dustyn Blue. It was produced by upcoming female producer, KOOKIE, who has worked with Mercedes Payne recently.
'Love & War' is about a guy who has feelings for Cassie yet is too proud to admit it and instead acts tough, as if he's heading into war but in reality he really wants to fall in love.
The single is 'darker' than Cassie's previous work yet doesn't stray too far from her usual R&B style. 'Love & War' combines elements of an R&B/Pop ballad with trip hop and contains a melody driven by strings and a piano. The track has a haunting feeling to it throughout the verses due to its light and soft instrumentation alongside Cassie's vocals (sung in falsetto) which sound very delicate and almost as if she's hurt and crying. When it reaches the chorus, the trip hop element comes in and gives the track a great beat and raises from a typical piano ballad to a powerful song. Cassie's vocals also become 'fuller' in the chorus, sounding more passionate and forceful than in the verses. In verses 3 and 4, Ms. Valentine returns to the falsetto style vocals and the gentle piano comes into play again. However, in verse 4 a few high notes are added in to create much more impact and show off her vocal range. The dramatic and attention grabbing chorus comes into full swing again. In the bridge of the song, the strings are very prominent more so than the piano. Cassie's vocals are light and breathy until the section where she sings the first part of the chorus on its own. With no backing music except from the odd key played on the piano, a fiery Cassie sings;
"/Put down your arms, boy I surrender/Can't win this war, I admit defeat/Can we just fall in lo-ove?/Ooooh,Why can't we fall in love?/Yeeeahhhhh." before diving into the powerful chorus. The chorus represents the 'War' side of the song, filled with passion and aggression whilst the verses represent 'Love', very tender and showing how much love can hurt.
PopJustice ReviewSince arriving onto the scene last year with the beautiful single;
'I Love You', Cassie Valentine proved that you didn't need to show lots of skin and sing about getting drunk and dancing to have chat success. Her debut album;
'Pink Romance' sold exceptionally well and was met with rave reviews. After releasing a few more singles from her debut album that charted moderately well, Cassie soon fell off people's radars for a bit. She laid low whilst recording her sophomore effort and instead of doing the usual 'celebrity' thing and doing something outrageous to get her in the headlines to keep the spotlight on her whilst we waited....she did nothing. She released
'If You Don't Love Me (Leave)' as the lead single from her second album in early 2012 and the single was a success peaking at No.1, however it soon fell off the charts and Cassie remained quiet and talks about her second album and updates just ceased.
Now....SHE'S BACK! Teaming up with KOOKIE as the producer and getting help from Dustyn Blue and Mercedes Payne in the songwriting department, this song is a sure fire hit. Cassie's vocals are as strong as ever and we are even treated to a handful of beautiful high notes. Again, she's stuck to R&B and that's a good thing as she can pull it off instead of going down the dance/dubstep route which many fellow artists have. Whilst the song isn't really a huge power ballad, it still delivers and gives the listener goosebumps, making every hair on their body stand up with every note she hits.
'Love & War' is now being treated as the lead single from her upcoming album and we are sure it'll put Cassie back on the map. With excellent lyrics, amazing production and outstanding vocals it's safe to say that Cassie Valentine is back!
OVERALL: 9/10
Cassie's Comment"For me, 'Love & War' is one of my favourite songs that I've recorded for this album so that was one reason it had to be the lead single but another reason that I chose it was that the lyrics in the song were really personal to me. I've felt like that before. A guy I liked and who liked me back wouldn't admit it and if he just told me how he felt, we could have fallen in love and who knows what else but he decided to play hard to get and took it to far so instead, it became a war. I wrote the outline of the song when I was in the studio one day and Mercedes was there, who is a friend of mine. I showed her the song and she pitched ideas and I loved them so we worked on it together. Later on, I still felt something was missing and Mercedes said; 'I know this boy, Dustyn, who is in Weekend and he is a great little songwriter so maybe we can pull him into this to see what he can come up with' so, I agreed and the next day we worked our backsides off together, just us three in this little studio, we ate and drank our own body weight in cakes and tea and by the end of it 'Love & War' was finally finished. When it came to recording, I called up KOOKIE to produce the song. I heard what she did with Mercedes and her style is very different and quirky which is what I wanted for the track, I didn't want it to be just another ballad. So I called her up and she was so passionate about it, she was pitching so many ideas and I loved all of them. After a while, she finished the track and whilst I was recording my vocals over it I actually had butterflies in my stomach because I couldn't believe how proud I was of this song. I loved every single minute of working on 'Love & War' and I hope you enjoy listening to it!KEYChorusHigh NoteI know how you feel about me
Just ask anyone, it's so plain to see
Yet you deny your heart to the very core
I want love, you want war
I get close then you push me further
You love to tease me don't ya?
If it's me you're fighting for
Boy let's make love and not war
Put down your arms, boy I surrender
Can't win this war, I admit defeat
Can we just fall in lo-ove? Why can't we fall in love?
I can't escape or run for cover
You're in my head, I keep on losing sleep
Can we just fall in lo-ove? Why can't we fall in love?Skin to skin yet you pull away
You can never find the words to say
We both know that you want more
Yet you turn this into war
You torment my heart, can't you
se-ee?
Do you really want to be with me?
Well just say it, what you waiting
for?
You're making this a war
Put down your arms, boy I surrender
Can't win this war, I admit defeat
Can we just fall in lo-ove? Why can't we fall in love?
I can't escape or run for cover
You're in my head, I keep on losing sleep
Can we just fall in lo-ove? Why can't we fall in love?Wave your white flag, please surrender
Put down your guns, don't have to pretend, yeah
Fall in to my arms, what you waiting for?
Come on, end this tug of war
Put down your arm, boy I surrender
Can't win this war I admit defeat
Can we just fall in lo-ove?
Ooooh,
Why can't we fall in love?
YeeeahhhhhPut down your arms, boy I surrender
Can't win this war, I admit defeat
Can we just fall in lo-ove? Why can't we fall in love?
I can't escape or run for cover
You're in my head, I keep on losing sleep
Can we just fall in lo-ove? Why can't we fall in love?Can be compared to;
