Single Review: ‘I Just Want You To Know’ – Amy Rose
12 years ago Liv Carter 2
Songwriters: Max Martin, Dr Luke
Canadian country artist Amy Rose, returns to radio with, ‘I Just Want You to Know,’ the first single off her upcoming album.
Reading the accompanying one-sheet, I found out that this song is a cover of a Backstreet Boys song released on their 2005 album Never Gone that was written by über-producers Max Martin and Dr.Luke. Already, my interest was piqued, because I like it when artists cover songs from other genres and make them their own.
The track starts with rhythmic acoustic guitars that are meant to mimic the tremolo-ed electric guitars of the original, which is a really cool touch. In fact, the arrangement, instrumental and vocal, is one of the highlights here. The guitar and keyboard work on here is top notch with little lines crossing each other creating mini-hooks themselves. I really liked the electric guitar work in the original and after hearing it, I wished they’d kept some more of the textural parts as they really catch the ear. But what’s here’s powerful and dense, yet you don’t have to strain to hear any of the individual parts.
Amy Rose’s vocal performance is excellent and ‘I Just Want You To Know’ shows off her range pretty well. The verses showcase her lower range which is robust and warm, while the chorus gives way to some Carrie Underwood-style belting, all very well done. Her tone never gets thin or nasal and she never sounds like she’s about to lose control of the pitches, something that can’t be said about a lot of the belting female singers these days. It’s a cool touch when Rose holds a high note in the middle of the last chorus, the band fades away, and a Backstreet Boys-like vocal group comes in to help pick up the slack. It’s a powerful aspect of the song’s arrangement and is even better done here than on the BSB original.
All that said, the track sounds like it’s 100% ready for the radio, and therein lies the problem. There’s not much about ‘I Just Want You To Know’ that’s distinctive or that would set it apart from anything else that’s already out there. Everything that’s here is well done, but it sounds like they got together and said, “Let’s record a Carrie Underwood song.” Rose’s voice, while good, sounds too much like Carrie’s, especially once the chorus kicks in. None of this is to say the track is bad, because it’s not. It’s just that it invites too many comparisons to an established artist, which never helps an up & comer, and in this day and age when there are so many people trying to do it, anything that distinguishes you from the pack is an asset.
You can listen to ‘I Just Want You To Know’ on Amy’s Reverbnation page.
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
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