Last weekend, I decided to give some stuff a listen…..some of my favorite artists came out with some music recently that I hadn’t heard yet and since it’s been a while, I thought i’d check out one of their songs.

The song that i’ll be discussing today is called Weight and it’s by one of my all time favorites artists Alexz Johnson, Weight came out two weeks ago well sorta……the song technically came out a few years ago, but only recently officially released this year (try saying that line 5 times ha)

I knew about the song, but I had never heard it before until recently, although it’s the same song that she wrote all those years ago…….she did make a couple of changes to it, so even though it’s the same, it’s also pretty different at the same time.

Now before you even say it, I know a lot of you won’t know who she is and that’s because she’s not really popularly well known…..she’s an independent artist, a Canadian American artist, she’s also an actress, she’s been in a few shows as well as some movies that you might’ve seen or heard about, but this could also be the first time you’ve ever heard about them too.

You might know her from the movie Final Destination 3 or you might’ve seen her on her popular (well i’d like to think of it as popular) show called Instant Star (one of my all time favorite shows might I add) it was featured on then network The N (now known as TeenNick) along with shows like Degrassi (The Next Generation) Radio Free Roscoe and a few other ones.

You should definitely check out Instant Star, it’s a good one and i’m not just saying that because it’s my favorite show…….alright I am a little, but it’s a really good show and I think some of you might enjoy it, feel free to check out the other shows and movies too.

Although she is an actress, she mainly focuses on her music the most and believe me when I tell you she’s amazing!! I actually had the pleasure of meeting her not once, but twice when I attended two different live shows of hers, the first time was back in 2013 and the second meet was about 2 years ago in 2017, both times were great getting to meet her, she’s a lovely human being, down to earth, good sense of humor and just all around great!!

Without further ado, let’s get to this song of hers shall we!? Now I could go on and review it, as well as interpret the song, but in all honesty i’ve never once thought to review an Alexz Johnson song and i’ve never felt the need to try to interpret her songs before either, I always felt they spoke for themselves when listening to them.

I mean who knows maybe one day i’ll sit down and try to break down the lyrics to her songs, but for now we’re just going to talk about it, in the best way that I can explain it. Before I listened to Weight, I gotta be honest, I was nervous……not like bad nervous, more on the excited side of town, I wasn’t sure what to expect of it and that’s why I was nervous about it.

For those of you who don’t know, Alexz last album A Stranger Time, released almost 2 years ago (it’ll be 2 years come this September) and so it’s been a while since hearing anything new from her…….when I found out about Weight, I was caught off guard, I didn’t even know she was writing new stuff. It wasn’t until I went on one of my social medias to see her counting down to the release of the song to know about it, although I didn’t hear it on the release day, I was still buzzing to hear it!!

When I actually heard the song I thought i’d be a little calm listening to it, but the minute I hit the play button and heard her voice, I stopped it immediately……..I needed to get myself in order first before continuing on with the song, well I tried to continue on listening in a calmly fashion, it didn’t quite work out that way though…….I mean I was semi calm, but had some enthusiasm added to that calmness, but tell me how else do you react when one of your favorite artists releases a new song unexpectedly!?

Exactly, you react accordingly and by accordingly I mean how ever you feel that emotion to be during the moment and that was mine in the moment.

I also had the biggest smile on my face when listening to the song, even though I had no idea how I was going to write about it, once it had finished. Alexz never disappoints me with her music, even if there’s a song that i’m not too fond of, i’m still not disappointed with it……her music is just incredible and I think she’s uniquely wonderful!!

With that said, I don’t know if this will sound weird, but the way she speaks is the way she sings, that might sound confusing so i’ll try and explain, you know when you’re listening to an artist and you hear them talk and from the way they speak you wouldn’t think that their singing voice would be any different, but then you hear them sing something and you’re like “That voice did not just come out of you!? No way I would’ve never guessed!!”

That’s what I mean, but with Alexz, her voice is both so simple, yet so outstandingly out of this world at the same time, the power she has with it and the way she uses it with her music…….I love it!! She’s just really amazing, I got chills listening to her hit a high note towards the bridge of the song, that’s how good she is!!

Also yes I know anyone can give you chills with their singing, but there’s always that special one that is very different from the rest and gives you that special kind of feeling and Alexz is one of those people to me.

Whether it’s with her voice, her writing style, just everything, she’s just really incredible all around and with this song, well with any Alexz Johnson song really, in my opinion anyway, you can’t help, but want to listen to it and really take everything in that you’re listening to…….be it because of the lyrics or her voice, she leaves you without words and just makes you feel you know!?

I played the song more than once within the same night, so I can say I know a pretty good amount of the chorus now and other parts to the song too.

Now there’s other versions to the song Weight performed by Alexz Johnson herself of course, where she sings it in different ways, adding different things to it as well. In the original her voice is a little younger, but not too young, my first thought about it was that it sounded like a song that would’ve fit very well on her show Instant Star…..

Well the original one would’ve i’d say probably between the 3rd-4th season, but had there been a 5th season I think the newer version would go well, if you listen to it and you know the show you’d think so too.

In the original you’ll also hear a xylophone in the background, there’s other versions where you’ll still hear it, but there will be a few tweaks to it here and there each time you listen to it with the way her singing style is, the different instruments added to it and just the different transformations it went through to be what it is now.

The lyrics to the song changes a little as well and the arrangement of the song sorta changes too, there’s a lot of different changes you’ll notice when listening to it…….In the new version of what Weight came to be, the first thing you’ll notice is that the Xylophone was removed from the song completely, i’m not sure why though, I personally thought it gave the song some character and was quite nice in the background…..

However I could also understand why maybe she felt the need to remove it…….she might’ve thought at that time it went well with it, but once she re listened to it, she thought to herself “it’s good, but it could be better”or she most likely felt a recreation to it would do it a lot more justice.

That’s probably why we have all these different versions of it, maybe throughout the process of wanting to release the song in someway, she was trying to work out the right sound for it…..it took a decade for this song to be released officially and i’m sure now that we’ve got it, Alexz is very proud with the way it turned out, plus she got to release it her way and i’m pretty sure that’s a bonus in her book.

The sound and feel that Weight has to it now, I believe, that was the sound we were meant to hear, even though we’ve already heard the original version to it, what it turned out to be was what we were supposed to get from it and what we got turned out to be quite amazing, now we can listen to it as freely as we like without any worries!!

Final Thoughts: If you were to ask me whether I prefer the Original or the newer version of Weight, i’d say although I really did like the Xylophone in the background of the original…….

I would say the newer version of Weight takes the cake!! I really like the arrangement of the song and the style she chose to sing with this version, I think you feel the song more and I feel it’s actually quite better this way, because you get to hear the growth to it each time you listen to it from the other versions and then to this one and I think that’s great!! It’s like you’re walking through the process of it and getting to see the progress and journey of it as well and that’s something you don’t see nor hear too often.

I really do admire Alexz Johnson, i’ve been a fan of hers since her Instant Star days and have kept up with her since then and i’m just real glad to be a fan of hers and to be able to get to listen to these incredible songs that she creates, I can’t wait to hear what else she’s got coming along!! I’m sure it’s going to be something and I mean that in the best way possible.

If you haven’t heard any of her songs I would highly recommend giving them a listen, I don’t normally share her music with people because she’s a special one to me, but i’ll add you guys as an exception haha……

If you guys are interested in giving both versions a listen i’ll leave it for you, feel free to share your thoughts on the song and let me know which version you prefer!!

Original: Weight (Take Your Breath)

Newer Version: Weight

All The Love ❤ ❤

~Lexa~