James MorrisonBroken Strings
James Morrison (0000)
The player will show in this paragraph
  
|
|
Broken Strings
| "Broken Strings" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Single by James Morrison featuring Nelly Furtado | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Songs for You, Truths for Me | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| B-side | "Say It All Over Again" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | 8 December 2008 (UK) 16 January 2009 (Europe) 26 February 2009 (USA) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Format | CD, download | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Pop/Rock | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Polydor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | James Morrison, Fraser T. Smith, Nina Woodford | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Mark Taylor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Certification | Gold (RIANZ)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Broken Strings" is the third single by James Morrison from his second studio album Songs for You, Truths for Me. It was released on 8 December 2008. The song is a duet with Canadian pop/R&B singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado. The single became Morrison's most successful single to date, peaking in the top ten on many European charts, in the top three in the UK and Ireland and topped the charts in Germany and Switzerland.
Contents[show] |
[edit] Writing and inspiration
According to co-writer Fraser T Smith in an interview with HitQuarters, the song was not originally intended to be a duet,[2]
"James, myself and Nina Woodford were writing the song, and Nina put a harmony in as a backing vocal idea. The more we listened to it, the more we thought, 'Hey, this could be an interesting duet.'"[2]
It was the record label that decided to contact Nelly Furtado about appearing on the track. Smith suggests that the similarity between Nina and Nelly's voice may have influenced their decision.[2]
It was also recorded another version with spanish singer Marta Sanchez, performed in spanglish this version was released on november 2, 2010 for Marta's duets album "De par en par".
[edit] Reception
The song received positive reviews from the critics. According to Michael Menachem from Billboard,
Broken Strings offers two of the most vulnerable performances yet from each artist, venting an obvious metaphor for the struggles at the close of a relationship beyond repair. Their voices are richly expressive, harmonizing in an aural marriage as the midtempo ballad quietly builds to an intense climax as they belt: "Oh the truth hurts and lies worse/How can I give anymore when I love you a little less than before?" Producer extraordinaire Mark Taylor energizes "Broken Strings" with just enough accompaniment to showcase the paralyzing performances. Morrison is a staple hitmaker overseas, but in the States, phenomenal singles like "You Give Me Something" and "Wonderful World" were snubbed. Furtado's visibility has already vaulted the song to most-added status at adult top 40. At last, Morrison gets his due.[3]
Girls Aloud performed a cover of the song at their Out of Control Tour in 2009, and JLS performed a cover of the song in their ITV1 Christmas special in 2010, later appearing as the B-Side to their single Eyes Wide Shut.
[edit] Chart performance
"Broken Strings" was released as the second single off Songs for You, Truths for Me. The track was released on the 15th of December 2008. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number seventy-three and slowly rose for four weeks before, following a performance of the song with Girls Aloud on The Girls Aloud Party, broke into the top ten at number six, giving Morrison his fourth top ten hit. The following week the song rose to a new high, rising to number four on the 2008 Christmas chart. This makes Broken Strings Morrison's most successful single by peak position to date in the UK as, on January 11, 2009 it climbed to number two. In the week ending January 30, it reached #1 in Germany marking his first #1 in the country and Nelly Furtado's second. On the issue date 21 February 2009 the song reached at number 1 on the European Hot 100 becoming his first number one single on that chart and Furtado's third. In Canada it debuted at #95 on the Canadian Hot 100 and rose to number #41.
[edit] Music video
A music video in support of James Morrison's "Broken Strings" has made its world premiere on 17 November. The video features the English musician performing the new track with Nelly Furtado also appearing in the video. Micah Meisner directed the video. Parts of the video are inspired by the film "Paris, Texas", while the reversed explosion is inspired by the film "Insignificance". Nelly and James filmed their parts on different days. On the video, James is in a hotel room and Nelly is behind the glass of the room, James starts to sing the song and when Nelly starts to sing her part, behind the glass, things begin to break, such as the guitar, the television and more. When the video is ending, everything that is broken goes back to normal and Nelly disappears.
770
