Leona Lewis' cover of Nine Inch Nails' 1994 single "Hurt" has been posted online, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen to the track.
The track, which was originally released as part of Nine Inch Nails' seminal second album "The Downward Spiral", was also famously covered in 2002 by Johnny Cash. Lewis' version released as a single later on December 9.
Lewis' version of "Hurt" is taken from a new EP, which will also contain covers of "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls and "Colorblind" by Counting Crows.
Originally set for release in November, Lewis' third album "Glassheart", will now be released on March 26, 2012. The album is set to feature songwriting and production from Emeli Sande, Ryan Tedder, Ammo, Fraser T Smith, Steve Robson, Autumn Rowe and Sandy Vee.
Confirmed tracks on the album include "Collide" with Avicii, "Trouble", "Mountains", "Glassheart", "Fire Flies", "Blank Page" and "Sugar".
Meh. She's talented but the song loses all of its meaning. It sounds like any other pop song this way. NIN's original ended a depressing, chaotic concept album and did so perfectly. Cash's cover was full of such emotion and feeling. This just sounds pretty but isn't very good. Ah well. Was worth a shot I guess.
Meh. She's talented but the song loses all of its meaning. It sounds like any other pop song this way. NIN's original ended a depressing, chaotic concept album and did so perfectly. Cash's cover was full of such emotion and feeling. This just sounds pretty but isn't very good. Ah well. Was worth a shot I guess.
Yep, this is on the main UG page under news when more acceptable articles would have been a better fit...*cough* Mustaine playing with Metallica *cough*
Just because she's a pop star doesn't make it god awful. How many of you actual listened to this? Her delivery is far better and a lot more tender than I expected. Who says she can't have emotions because she's not up to the standards of two of the best singer/songwriters of the 20th century?
Please stop being so pretentious, UG. It gets old really fast.
I actually liked how faithful (or subdued, at least) the instrumentation on the first verse and chorus were. Once the drums came in, though, I had two thoughts:
1. What the hell happened to the rest of the verse? (Probably just shortened because it was on live television)
2. All the personality this song had just disappeared. (And it's not just the fact that there's drums; all of the instrumentation from that point on just sounds very typical to me)
I'm with Pagan_Poetry on this one.
Also, throughout the beginning part, I was just like, "SHUT THE #$%! UP, AUDIENCE, IT'S A QUIET SONG!"
Awful, she absolutely murdered this song. It's had all of its power, meaning and feeling neutered and re-packaged to be sold to kids with no appreciation of REAL music who probably don't even know who Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor are. Hell, these kids have been fed so much radio-friendly shite they probably don't even know who Johnny Cash is...
Actually she can sing it. The problem is that everything about it has no meaning or feeling behind it. It's the same as every heralded singer from the last 2 decades who chose to cover an iconic song. They think they are better than the song. In the process they lose the meaning of the song. Look at Mariah Carey and her covers of "Endless Love" and "Without You". Screamfests.
Are you guys ****ing kidding me? Of course it's not as good as the original, and of course it isn't as good as Johnny cashs. But if that didn't send shivers down your spine then you have no soul. That was better than any of you shitheads on here could do, and probably better than 99% of people on YouTube could.
I actually liked how faithful (or subdued, at least) the instrumentation on the first verse and chorus were. Once the drums came in, though, I had two thoughts:
1. What the hell happened to the rest of the verse? (Probably just shortened because it was on live television)
2. All the personality this song had just disappeared. (And it's not just the fact that there's drums; all of the instrumentation from that point on just sounds very typical to me)
I'm with Pagan_Poetry on this one.
Also, throughout the beginning part, I was just like, "SHUT THE #$%! UP, AUDIENCE, IT'S A QUIET SONG!"
She didn't include half of the second verse on the studio track either.
My thoughts are that the "Sh*t" word would cause her to lose that precious 7-16 year-old market.
Because, you know, this is a business.....
Speaking strictly from a vocal perspective, it's actually quite good.
That said, I hated it.
Nowhere near the level of emotion as NIN, and they barely come close to Johnny Cash.
Btw, for all you NIN fanboys, Trent Reznor himself has stated " [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_(Nine_Inch_Nails _song)
She just doesn't have the voice for this, and whoever did the instrumentation (while I think its generally pretty good) tried to get a little "too cool" with it. As has been said, they made a pop song.
I am not at all impressed with these vocals, she is too weak in the beginning when she is trying to build, and then she finally sings a bit in the last 40 seconds.
I don't think her range is very good for this song at all, she can't do the lower parts very well at all, and though the ending is much better, its not great.
Speaking strictly from a vocal perspective, it's actually quite good.
That said, I hated it.
Nowhere near the level of emotion as NIN, and they barely come close to Johnny Cash.
Btw, for all you NIN fanboys, Trent Reznor himself has stated " [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_(Nine_Inch_Nails _song)
Even though I openly admit to being a NIN fanboy, it doesn't mean I have to agree with Reznor on the Cash version. The original is supreme just IMO..
Just because she's a pop star doesn't make it god awful. How many of you actual listened to this? Her delivery is far better and a lot more tender than I expected. Who says she can't have emotions because she's not up to the standards of two of the best singer/songwriters of the 20th century?
Please stop being so pretentious, UG. It gets old really fast.
She can't sing it because she has no emotional investment. Trent and Cash both fit the song's theme perfectly, Trent because of his dark, chaotic, emotionally-charged album concepts and Cash because he basically lived the song.
Lewis is nothing more than a jukebox, making every song she sings - cover or "original" - sound like a simpering load of nonsense about the pain of love. There's no emotion in her music, despite how hard she tries to make it seem otherwise.
I think she sings it well since she's a very talented singer. But of course it wont have the same amount of emotion as the original or Cash's version since her record label has most probably just given her the song and said "Right you're gonna sing this song and you'll be paid £XXXXX". Whereas Reznor wrote it so it's full of emotion then Cash just made it his own. That's my thoughts anyway.
I have no idea who this person is, but all those people showed up to hear her sing karaoke -- there literally is one person on stage.
And, I'm assuming due to the fact that there is nowhere to divert your attention to, it feels rushed, like they left out any bits of instrumentation to get back to the vocals as quickly as possible, and I think she left out some of the second verse.
It's really nowhere near as bad as I expected -- still not my style, though. But it really didn't sound that bad. I didn't hate it.
And I like the NIN and Johnny Cash versions. I don't have a favorite between the two, either -- they're so different from each other.
I honestly prefer the original BUT I do like this more than Johnny Cash's version, but hey thats just me. also on the youtube page, no mention of who the original artist is at all....hmm not right that me thinks.
It's actually a pretty good performance imo. I guess a lot of people thinks she doesn't have the edginess to make this work, which is fair enough. There's a certain amount of Johnny Cash's original that works because he is ****ing Johnny Cash, whereas perception is that she hasn't had a hard enough life to really pull this song off. From Simon Cowell perspective a good publicity stunt though.
I think she did a brilliant cover. She made it her own, not trying to be NIN, and singing it her way. If someone had of told me before the song started I would of gone 'meh going to be crap', but going into it completely open and not realizing till later on meant that I actually listened to the song rather than start comparing it straight off.
actually their teen spirit/enter sandman would be wish, this wasn't even a single upon release, rick rubin convinced cash to cover it to better connect with the new generation, same with rusty cage by soundgarden.
Didn't particularly enjoy it. IMO, Cash nailed the song perfectly and made it exactly what it was supposed to be (though no disrespect intended towards NIN), so I guess it's kind of hard for anyone to cover it with the bar set so high.
id be lying if i said she wasnt a good singer theres no doubt about that but shes completely missed the point of the whole song its chilling and almost creepy whilst sad at the same time, its full of emotion, this is just manufactured pop with a hint of vocal talent, nothing special
Meh. She's talented but the song loses all of its meaning. It sounds like any other pop song this way. NIN's original ended a depressing, chaotic concept album and did so perfectly. Cash's cover was full of such emotion and feeling. This just sounds pretty but isn't very good. Ah well. Was worth a shot I guess.
It's actually a pretty good performance imo. I guess a lot of people thinks she doesn't have the edginess to make this work, which is fair enough. There's a certain amount of Johnny Cash's original that works because he is ****ing Johnny Cash, whereas perception is that she hasn't had a hard enough life to really pull this song off. From Simon Cowell perspective a good publicity stunt though.
And there we have it. JC's original? Really? *facepalm*
So I thought I'd go see what views the top two versions of Hurt had on YouTube. One Johnny Cash version had more than 27 MILLION views. The NIN version around 4 or 5 million due to there being more than 4 or 5 uploads of it.
I love the slightly altered vocal melody at the end of the first chorus, and she does have a decent voice, but the lack of any real emotional connection with the song and her overly dramatic vibrato ruin it for me.
It's better than I expected, but still bad
The first minute was pretty alright but then it just degraded into pop bullshit
I mean, she sang well, but I couldn't hear any of that passion you could hear on Cash's and Reznor's versions
Actually she can sing it. The problem is that everything about it has no meaning or feeling behind it. It's the same as every heralded singer from the last 2 decades who chose to cover an iconic song. They think they are better than the song. In the process they lose the meaning of the song. Look at Mariah Carey and her covers of "Endless Love" and "Without You". Screamfests.
I personally didn't think she sang the quiet part at the start very well, but that's my opinion.
her cover of snow patrol's run was terrible, always this incessant wailing,showing off her 'pretty pop vocals'. never a moment of just instruments.same in this cover of another cover. she is far too glamourous for songs about grief, loss and pain. she must cover uptown girl or some crap like that. when i started the video i kinda was hoping UG were just trying to rick roll me.
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