Stunning in tone but naturally seductive as if to extend the duality of the composition itself, Sharon Hendrix’s lead vocal is reason enough to take a look at the new single “It Takes Two” and its accompanying music video this July, but hardly the only feature worth writing home about. Hendrix straddles a definitively soul-laden groove with ease here, ushering forth a pop harmony with her collaborator in Marvin Robinson that is stealthy enough to sneak up behind us but so piercing once it arrives that trying to evade the venom of its verses is next to impossible. She’s got a lot of attitude for a cover track, but then again, when taking into consideration the class of artists she’s looking to join on the mainstream end of the spectrum, her eager approach is definitely on par with the best in the business.
The contrast between the swing of the beat and the colorful visual elements in the music video for “It Takes Two” is compelling from the onset forward, and I even think it creates a sense of urban mystique that wouldn’t have been present here otherwise. If there’s one thing that Hendrix proves beyond question with the release of this song and its video, it’s that she isn’t interested in being even somewhat the plain-Jane soul singer that some of her peers would just as soon compete to mimic. Hers is a sophisticatedly intricate pop sound that depends far more on witty poeticisms and deep feeling confessions to hit home with fans than it does anything artificial, and that’s obvious even in a casual listening session with this song.
There’s a minor discordance created between the rhythm of the bass and the percussion in this single that makes the chorus all the more pulsating, and whether we’re experiencing it in the music video or the song itself, there’s no arguing this moment’s importance as the climax. “It Takes Two” feels a lot more smothering than it is because of its detailed aesthetical trappings – all of which are sourced and applied to areas of the composition that many artists outside of Hendrix and Robinson would have ignored entirely for a litany of reasons. It’s a bit experimental, but that’s to be expected in a cover as famously stacked as this one.
In a year that has thrown an unfair amount of shade at the soul underground in contrast to the artistic, Sharon Hendrix emerges from the underground brilliantly representing her scene’s sound with a collaborative cover single in “It Takes Two” that listeners around the country would be wise to take a peek at as soon as possible. Hendrix doesn’t have to do a lot in this performance to speak volumes about what kind of an artist she is and wants to become in the future here, and although this isn’t the lone indie soul track that I’ve been intrigued by this past June, its video is easily one that I’d recommend pop fiends check out before the year has come to an end.
