Listen: Shura - "Just Once" (Honne remix)

27 August 2014, 13:20 | Written by Melanie Battolla

(Tracks)

(Shura) (HONNE)

Russia-born, London-based singer and songwriter Shura unveiled her second single, the mellow, modern-day ballad “Just Once”, at the beginning of the month. The track is an equally reflective and day-dreaming piece, seemingly channeling Michael Jackson’s longing and despair of “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”.

Now that the end of summer is clearly approaching, the artist handed the track over to London-based duo Honne who have reworked it with their own brand of soulful and smooth production, prolonging the warm season with a few more sun rays. The duo inject a slow-dancing pulse and a new lease of life into the original, with a shuffling, bouncing beat and dance-appropriate synths. They also centre the attention on a loop of probably the track’s most dejected lyrics, “gonna go get drunk”.

It climaxes with a one-more-look-over-the-shoulder to the past summer, reminiscing through tropically refreshing waves of synths and bass lines that appear to have been lifted from one those early noughties French house singles à la “Lady”.