While I’d never heard of Bradford’s Darren Ellis before, one short burst of this song had me hooked. Why so, you ask. Well it’s because ‘Won’t Change My Heart’ was written, and is performed, by Darren with heart and soul.
Look, it’s not one of those strikingly innovative tracks that grab my attention, or an ‘of now’ electro pop thing; it’s a slightly soul-y, somewhat jazzy ballad that’s timeless. You see I have somewhat eclectic and catholic musical tastes. In a general sense, I like music that isn’t manufactured and I hear it as coming from the soul of the writer and performer.
The key things about this song are the words, the tune and arrangement, and Darren’s vocal. The words don’t seek to be clever, they speak of emotion communicated with plain simple language. The soul in the song is expressed through the words; this is real and meant. The tune is beautiful, simple as that really. And the arrangement; well, it’s backbone is a graceful saxophone that runs through the whole song. Anything else is there to support that saxophone and Darren’s vocal.
The topic of the song is undoubtedly emotional and romantic; not that there’s anything wrong with that, I love an emotional and romantic song. In fact, I don’t come across many of these reviewing things for LSF, but I have many of them in my musical collection. My helpful friend described it as a bit soppy, although again this isn’t a criticism even though it may sound as though it is. Neither of us see soppiness as a reason not to like a song, it just means it’s emotionally out there and heartfelt, and these are good things. But this is before you add in that tune and that beautiful saxophone; somehow this raises it above the average love song.
Reading this back it appears I’m trying to justify the fact that I love this song. Perhaps this is because it’s not ‘of now’, or weird and strange, or noisy, or any of those other things I review and love. So no more excuses. Simply, I heard it, it connected with my soul, I love it.
This is a wonderfully beautiful timeless song. And we all need some wonderful beauty in our lives sometimes don’t we?
