You must not listen to a lot of gospel, because a lot of them already and have been doing that for years and years. Glad to see it being welcomed and appreciated on a mainstream level.
When I first heard her runs I was like what the hell who could even think of this stuff?? Makes sense it was him lol and she was the perfect person to accomplish it
Cuz that's what they wanted to do. I don't think it's unnecessary if that's the style they're playing around with. The classic and beautiful song is still there to listen to and appreciate, but it's also super cool to see other renditions, even if it's unorthodox
The entire rendition is, both harmonically and melodically, about tension and release - the runs contrast with the simplicity of Tori's entry on the song which is soft and gentle, and occur during the harmonic climax of the song which has maximal tension - all to then resolve with the harmonic resolution and melodic sustain at the end The cover that this was based on (Yebba) featured many runs, and Jacob himself said for John Legend's part that he originally recorded a run-heavy gospel-style recording, which Jacob then asked him to re-record as if he was singing to a child. You'll hear in John's verse, it starts off simply, and then builds in complexity and tension before releasing again. Each of the verses starts simply, builds into a tense, harmonically dense climax with runs galore, and then resolves. In the case of Tori, the resolution is the grand end of the song Hope that helps - obviously it's all taste, so if it's not your thing that's fine, but I think that this concept of tension and release is so key to Jacob's music, and part of what I personally love about it
