Reviewed by Nanci Rawsthorne
Released on 21/11/20
Wistful piano music floats into your ears as Been Here Before starts playing. You know this is going to be good even before Ro Jordan’s beautiful voice even breaks into the song.
Ro’s vocals completely reinvent the song from a subdued piano track to a powerful pop ballad. Her voice, full of soul and passion, is the real highlight of the song as she takes us on an emotional journey.
On Been Here Before, Ro Jordan sings about a relationship that keeps going around in circles, with no mutual growth and no care for who gets hurt. Even if you haven’t experienced what Jordan sings about in Been Here Before, the soulfulness of the track and the pain in her lyrics will make you feel like you have. It’s relatable and packed full of raw emotion that anyone can understand. Not only can you sing along to Been Here Before, you can also feel along to the intensity that flows from every line.
Not only does Ro Jordan provide the expressive and moving vocals on the track, she also wrote, produced and engineered it, proving herself as a true auteur in the genre. She is a true talent across all of these fields and a genuine force to be reckoned with on the music scene.
The production and arrangement on the track mimic the atmosphere of Jordan projecting her voice in an arena – a beautiful and unique take on arrangement. The over-dubbing on the track provides layers of emotion and serves to reinforce just what a unique, original and pioneering take on sound engineering Ro Jordan possesses.
It’s not just me who truly believes that Ro Jordan is one to watch – she has been featured in the Top 25 most played on BBC radio as well as BBC introducing as a vocalist and producer.
Her soft yet immensely powerful voice and her deep cutting lyricism remind me of indie rock musician Phoebe Bridgers. If you’re a fan of Bridgers, I would highly recommend Ro Jordan for her immeasurable abilities as a songwriter and as a vocalist.
Ro Jordan cites her main influences as coming from 90s Divas as well as modern-day pop, soul and R&B artists. It’s clear that Ro Jordan has taken influence from major pop ballad forces such as Celine Dion and Mariah Carey as she takes over the track with her commanding vocals, letting us all know that she’s here to stay as a significant artist on the scene.
Ro Jordan has broken onto the music scene with such force and talent that she is hard to ignore.
Stream Been Here Before on Spotify here.
Watch the video for Been Here Before on YouTube here.
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