Music-making machine Nick Jonas is back at it again. After being in the business for 15 years, one might think that the youngest Jonas Brother would want to step out of the limelight at some point. But with the release of his latest single, “Levels,” it looks like Nick Jonas is not going anywhere anytime soon.
As soon as I listened to this track, I immediately took note of its incredibly funky beat. Throughout the entire song, the percussion and synthesized beats in the instrumental constantly drive Nick’s voice forward and truly make the song unique. Beats range from a traditional electronic pattern in the verses to an extremely diverse sound in the chorus that consists of an offbeat cowbell noise and an auto-tuned, low male voice repeating the word “bum” to mimic the sound of a bass guitar. I am very confident that the exciting and versatile instrumental in this track is one of the factors that will make it an incredibly big hit.
As per usual, Nick’s voice is incredibly sexy in this track as well. His smooth vocals are extremely captivating, and his range never fails to blow me away. Some of my favorite vocal moments occur in the chorus when Nick sings, “I know, we can get higher / There’s levels to your love / Yeah, there’s levels to your love / And I know, we can get higher / There’s levels to your love / And I keep on climbing up.” He has truly perfected his falsetto over the years and that aspect of his voice truly shines through at this point in the song. Nick also sings the lyrics in this track with soulful emotion and even a touch of sass, emphasizing the word “levels” and the highest note of the chorus which comes on the word “keep.”
In this song, Nick blends pop and R&B influences together perfectly to create an incredibly unique and refreshing sound. Hopefully, this sound appears on a lot more of the tracks from his new album, which is rumored to drop in 2016.