Leona Lewis heads in the right direction with “Hurt” EP

In the wake of Leona Lewis‘ classy club cut “Collide” being a big flop, her third studio album has been pushed back until next year, and the famous vegetarian is preparing an EP release instead.

And can I just say how happy I am about this? The EP, I mean, not the fact that she flopped.

Usually, after an artist has a chart dud, their album is pushed back indefinitely, they spend the next year recording new material, and by the time they get their shit together all their old stuff has dated and has to be scrapped for good. The least they could do — especially artists like Cassie, Nicole Scherzinger, etc — would be to release their music legally on iTunes so the fans have something to listen to and purchase. The songs are just going to leak in their crappy, half-finished demo forms anyway.

One artist who knows this all too well is Teairra Mari. The girl hasn’t released an album since her debut disc in 2005, but she’s kept her name in circulation for years now by releasing mixtapes and EPs, many of which contain the tracks that have been cut from her upcoming sophomore release. Of course, a little known R&B artist like Teairra is a bit different to a superstar like Leona, but a similar promotional model could definitely be utilized by some of pop’s bigger names.

Unfortunately, Leona’s Hurt EP, due out December 9th in the UK, only contains three cover songs and no original material, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction for the British diva. Check out the official tracklisting below, via Toyaz-World.

Hurt: The EP

1. Hurt (Johnny Cash/Nine Inch Nails cover)
2. Iris (Goo Goo Dolls cover)
3. Colorblind (Counting Crowscover)

As you can see, she’s chosen some great tunes to cover, but would it have killed Syco to throw on two extra original songs to flesh it out? Even a “Collide” remix would have been nice.

Baby steps for now, but hopefully as the industry continues to change and digital distribution grows, more artists will turn to EPs and mixtapes to keep their fans happy in between releases.

Seriously, how amazing would it have been if Cassie was releasing a series of Electro Love EPs with remixes, covers, and scrapped material? Best release it yourself, before the hackers do!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 5th, 2011 at 8:16 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.