After spending more than two decades helping shape modern pop, Toby Gad is finally putting more of himself in the frame. The Danish-German-born, Los Angeles-based songwriter and producer has co-written massive songs including John Legend’s “All of Me,” Beyoncé’s “If I Were A Boy,” and Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” accumulating more than 23 billion career streams along the way. On “Alone Tonight,” however, the spotlight shifts from the hitmaker behind the curtain to Gad the artist, with rising British-Nigerian vocalist JERUB bringing the song’s loneliness vividly to life.
The track begins with gentle piano, immersive and spacious, immediately establishing an intimate atmosphere. JERUB enters in a husky, deep, grainy voice, keeping his delivery low, tight, and close to the listener. There is something wonderfully vulnerable in the way he sings: breathy, sincere, and melancholy, as though the words are being admitted. His longing feels especially poignant against the restrained piano, which leaves plenty of room for the vocal to breathe.
Then the strings begin to swell. They writhe and rise with an almost physical ache, gradually transforming the song from a private confession into something cinematic. JERUB’s voice follows that ascent, lifting higher until it reaches an ethereal emotional peak. Every new layer seems to deepen the loneliness already sitting at the centre of the song.
That emotional core comes from a painfully recognizable idea: feeling alone during moments supposedly designed for togetherness, particularly holidays, when everyone else appears to be celebrating. It is the sort of loneliness that can become louder precisely because the world around you is making so much noise.
Recorded at Dalston Lane Studios in East London, “Alone Tonight” also marks the pair’s second collaboration, following their reimagining of Madonna’s “Living For Love.”
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Review by: Naomi Joan