Single Review: Gary Barlow – ‘Let Me Go’
1 min read
A survivor from the British boyband heyday of the 1990s, Gary Barlow is now one of the most prolific songwriters in British pop music, having written iconic hits for Take That such as Back For Good.
Let Me Go, the lead single of his upcoming 4th solo studio album, Since I Saw You Last, finds the current UK X Factor judge in good form.
The opening ‘hoo-hoo-hoo’ is a bit comical, but the folky acoustic guitar backing is pleasant enough to bring listeners in. However, it seems that Barlow, like many other pop musicians, has jumped on the Mumford-and-Sons-pop-folk bandwagon.
The verses take a while to warm up, before the catchy chorus (‘fly hiiigh, let me go, that skyyy will take your soul, when you pass byyy’) redeem things. Let Me Go is a rather cheerful breakup song whose message that two people are better off apart than together, even though it might take time to get used to. The bridge is a bit of a non-event and the ad-libs sound awkward though.
Overall, Let Me Go is far as the pure-pop of 1990s boybands as Gary Barlow can get. It is clearly the product of a middle-aged pop singer-songwriter following current pop music trends- not that it’s a bad thing. Although the track is not going to be iconic anytime soon, It simply proves Barlow has some hooks left in him yet.
