Patrick & Leanne – “Poem In Three (Make Me Your Love Song)”

Patrick & Leanne – “Poem In Three (Make Me Your Love Song)” – Single Review

It has been a minute or two since we had the music of Patrick Noel Russ on our pages…and from the looks & sounds of things, he’s been up to something new by joining forces with Leanne Phillips for this new single right here.  As far as I can tell, it looks like it’s their first collaborative effort together, and I’d imagine that based on the solid quality of the results here, it won’t be their last.  Patrick’s music has always been pleasant in the past from what I’d experienced on his EP called Rise Up, and that remains to be true here on this latest offering…he’s got a knack for creating tunes that’d be hard to object to.  This time around, with the sweetness of Leanne’s vocals and the lyricism of poet/author Peggy Shimmelman, Patrick’s come equipped with completely capable talent surrounding him to fully complement his own.

When it comes to this new single called “Poem In Three (Make Me Your Love Song),” I’m a bit of two minds about it.  On the positive side of things, I think the execution is straight-up stunning…like…there’s absolutely nothing to complain about whatsoever.  Leanne’s vocals are spot-on, the music & production is equally flawless, and the lyricism is great too – all stellar aspects of this single for sure.  While there’s undoubtedly a Country/Folk bend to the overall sound you’ll find in both the song itself and in the way that Phillips sings, I find her voice as endearing, moving, and charming as someone like Sarah Bettens – that’s certainly a comparison that puts her in the finest of company as far as my ears are concerned.  Patrick’s musicianship is excellent…all-in-all, it’s seamlessly played and flows perfectly…the fiddle is wonderful and the song itself possesses a very east-coast Canadian vibe if I’m being entirely truthful with ya – that might not be my thing in particular, but everything sounds enticing.  I love the instrumentation here, and definitely dig the harmonies that Leanne creates too.  As for Peggy’s lyricism, she’s done a great job as well…I really like how many different ways she’s added in the names of other songs & musical references that you’ll recognize along the way…”Poem In Three (Make Me Your Love Song)” is very cleverly meta in that regard for sure.  Melodically, that’s probably where you’ll find a bit of an argument to possibly take a few points away here & there, depending on who ya are…while the execution is entirely flawless, the sound is very familiar.

So we arrive back at the age-old conversation about whether or not we all need to set out to recreate the wheel, or whether it’s simply A-OK to make a really good song we can be proud of, and play it to perfection.  I’m of the mind that there are ways to do both, but that we don’t always need to do both – the reality is, there are risks to be found in either direction.  There ain’t nothing wrong with playing music for music’s sake or creating a great song that bears similarities to others, you just have to prepare yourself for the comments to come in the court of public opinion is all.  Conversely, if you end up with something that’s altogether different or unfamiliar, you might be years ahead of your time and find yourself waiting for the world to catch up, whereas creating something comparable to something else could have you finding some degree of success right quick – you following me?  There’s no right or wrong answer, there’s no pleasing everyone anyhow, so just do what makes ya happy, and do that to the best of your ability…somewhere in there lies the real recipe to happiness in the pursuit of your art.  These two, both Patrick & Leanne, should be genuinely proud of the results on “Poem In Three (Make Me Your Love Song)” and how it shines as brightly as it does…there’s nothing that I’m hearing in their performance that I feel like they could have done any better than you’ll hear in this recording.  Leanne’s vocals are fantastic with a whole lot of heart, Patrick’s music is professionally played with passion – you really can’t ask for more than that in any given scenario.  They’ve achieved what they set out to do, and from here, it’s all about whether or not it appeals to people’s personal taste.  Like all music, it’ll be a song for some & not for others, and that’s okay – the bottom line is that they put themselves in the conversation by giving all they had to the moment and created a track with flawless execution from start to finish, from the music to the microphone.  What I think I like even more than perhaps the song itself, is the collaboration you’ll discover between Patrick & Leanne and how they complement each other.  Lest we forget, this is a debut single, which implies there is still plenty of room to evolve and grow if they were to choose to continue on from here.  The potential they’ve got is enormous, and the sound they supply on “Poem In Three (Make Me Your Love Song)” should certainly encourage them to keep going.  If this is where it all starts for Patrick & Leanne, they’ve got a very bright future ahead of them for sure.

Make sure to keep tabs on’em at Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/4u0whYLBELMSDDbeU0Lr6n

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