Debbie Gibson - Promises

Buy Promises here (UK iTunes)
Read my article "50 years of pop with Debbie Gibson" here
Read my 25th anniversary celebration of Electric Youth here

In it's own way the new single, Promises, from enduring pop star Debbie Gibson needs to be a lot of things. As a key ballad from her new movie The Music In Me, it has to provide an emotional attachment to the movie whilst furthering the narrative of the plot. As a song in it's own right it needs to stand out for adult contemporary radio yet remind people of her more well known slower numbers like Foolish Beat, Lost In Your Eyes, No More Rhyme or Think With Your Heart. And as the unofficial follow up to her still excellent song Rise it needs to demonstrate a consistency that hints at the potential for a possible future album. It's a difficult triple line to straddle and in the hands of a lesser composer and performer it may have suffered - this is Debbie Gibson, however, and Promises is a triumph in each and all of those areas. It's a beautifully constructed, heartfelt ode to the mistakes we make in life but how we all have the opportunity to learn from those mistakes (whether they be our own or other peoples), pick ourselves up and embrace what lies ahead with a revitalised energy. Set to a melancholy yet mellifluous piano melody with sweeping strings providing motivational inspiration in the chorus, it feels more akin to No More Rhyme in it's tone and tempo - reminding all of what a gifted song writer Ms Gibson is. The glorious backing vocals provided by the choir have tinges of gospel in their delivery and help the song soar like a heart full of love. In fact I hesitate to call them backing vocals because they are as essential to the overall effect of the song as the lead vocal and instrumental. Note - these harmonies make it feel like a seamless segue from Rise (indeed, gospel effects in Debbie's work can be traced back to unofficial equal love anthem You Don't Have To See from her flawless Think With Your Heart set). Within the confines of the movie, it's a suitably rousing number that has you rooting for that happy ending. In fact, there's an element of musical theatre in the production that makes you see The Music In Me as equally viable on a Broadway stage - not just the small screen. Truly timeless pop music that will sound just as resonant in twenty five years time as, say, her 1990 song One Hand One Heart does now. Now an album please, I beg of you :)

(Also, a Memory Lane 3 of all the songs you haven't used post Naked! Cougar, Famous, Rich Girl et al)!