REIGEN, “I Want To Know What Love Is”
NYC singer Reigen previews upcoming new music with his unique take on Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is”. It’s a bold move, considering that this was a massive Grammy-nominated 1985 hit that’s much loved today. I probably appreciate the song more now than back then. Reigen, whose aching EDM ballad “Come Back To Me” was my #13 song of 2015, manages to keep the same wonder and fascination about love intact with his interpretation. But he takes away the big, almost over-the-top choral power of the original, and breaks the song into pieces, rendering a subtler vocal here, and a more emphatic one there. The arrangement poses many questions on first listen, so Reigen succeeds at making you listen a few more times to figure out how he’s restructured this classic. To me it works beautifully, though I think the casual listener in love with the original will probably not appreciate this kind of reimaging. Reigen is a versatile and creative talent whose music challenges you every time, which makes his upcoming project well worth the wait. You can buy “I Want To Know What Love Is” on iTunes.
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