In her third single, “How I Feel,” indie pop up and comer Leni Black gets a little more forceful with her lead vocal, and to me comes into her own in a fashion we just didn’t experience in her last two singles. Don’t get me wrong – “Barcelona Butterflies” and “Marigold” were real stunners from any angle, but there’s something decidedly more mature about the construction of “How I Feel,” and you don’t have to be a professional critic to recognize as much. Black is at ease with her narrative in this single, and despite the weight of her words, she isn’t hesitant in her execution for a second here.
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The lead vocal has a way of overpowering everything in this mix, but I think this feature was entirely intentional on the part of producers. Beneath the harmony formed between the verse and the instrumentation in the backdrop lies a bevy of textural expressiveness Black doesn’t want to let go of, and by using her voice to conceal its presence, her melody implies a fear of vulnerability quite appropriately matched with the style of the storytelling in these lyrics. Black has tremendous poetic depth, and that’s impossible for anyone who has heard “How I Feel” to deny.
This product quality is absolutely squeaky clean from top to bottom, and I think it highlights the fact that indie players like Leni Black don’t have to over-gloss or even break the bank to achieve a stellar result at the end of the day. There’s still a bit of a DIY element to the burn of the hook, specifically when she’s straddling the groove following the chorus, but it’s never presented as a jagged edge here. Refinement can come in many different shapes, and it’s obvious this artist took some time thinking about how she wanted to employ it in her latest release.
The powerful tone of the lyrics is made possible mostly through the intensity of Black’s vocal rather than the thrust of the instrumentation or even the presence of the beat, but this doesn’t take anything away from the black and white value of their content, either. Duality is something that sets the pros from the amateurs apart in the pop genre, and if we’re to judge this player off of her most recent submission to the masses, I think it would be safe to situate her in the category of the burgeoning underground elites.
Last year was a breakout time for Leni Black, even with the music industry being hobbled by the pandemic, and if she can keep the energy going into this new year and the slight return to normal will hopefully, bring, she’s going to be in for a lot of success – both critical and financial the same. When comparing this with “Barcelona Butterflies,” the growth Black has experienced just in the past twelve months becomes difficult for even ignorant listeners to miss, and I don’t believe it’s going to slow in momentum as long as she stays dedicated in the studio.
Jodi Marxbury