The annual release of the John Lewis Christmas advert has become a welcome tradition in British homes, signaling the start of the festive period. This year especially, the release of the new advert is a sense of familiarity and stability we all need. As well as the visual element of the advert, the all important audio that solely narrates the tone of the advert is dear to our hearts.
With this in mind, Celeste and her beautiful smoky tones could not have been a better choice to accompany the advert this year. Celeste is the first artist who has been granted permission to write an original track for the advert, with artists usually releasing a unique version of a cover. The original new song titled ‘A Little Love’ is different to what we have heard in previous years. It is far from the heavily orchestral and ballad-type release that we had from Bastille last year with ‘Fight This Feeling’. Rather, Celeste has produced a gentle and ‘lullaby-esque’ short song which, along with the work of multiple different animators, (which create the various interlinking scenes of the advert) promotes the message of spreading positivity.
A sense of poetry
“Keeping it simple and understated is the key to the success of this song”
Despite only being 2m:58s in length and lacking any distinguishable chorus, this gives the track an increased sense of poetry. The opening line, ‘Put it in your pocket, watch it move a mountain’, beautifully hints to the fact that it doesn’t take a lot of happiness or love to make a huge difference, giving the title ‘A Little Love’ even more relevance. Accompanied by a subtle piano and the jingle of bells automatically acts as a metaphor for the festive season. Keeping it simple and understated is the key to the success of this song, Celeste doesn’t need instrumental accompaniment or auto-tune for her jazz vocals: this gives the song texture and is far from monotone or boring.
In complete contrast to her biggest single to date, ‘Stop This Flame‘. which features a fast tempo piano bassline and fits more into the pop music genre, ‘A Little Love’ isolates the vocals and although haunting is weirdly relaxing. The artist, who is fresh off her Rising Star award win at the latest Brit awards and the recipient of BBC Music’s Sound of 2020, has a classy tone that compares to the late but great Amy Winehouse and global conglomerate Adele with this latest track living up to these comparisons.
Love and generosity
Even without the knowledge that this is a Christmas advert, it could work at any time of year and that is precisely the point. This evergreen message of love and generosity is extremely important and thus why this song will be popular even after the advert runs it course on our screens. Celeste has achieved something of rarity with this new song and I’m sure will be a fierce contender for the esteemed Christmas number one spot.
Celeste’s ‘A Little Love’ is out now via Universal Music Operations Ltd.
Written by Lauren Russell
Featured image courtesy of Michael Fenton via Unsplash. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
