Avicii - Levels

You'd be forgiven for thinking Avicii's last minute inclusion on Leona Lewis's Collide would overshadow any future releases by the Swedish DJ - with all the furore over the track it did more than take away from the actual quality of how good the producer's command of dance essentials on the song were. The inspired reworking of the Perpetuum Mobile piano riff, the rise and fall of the track's surging bassline - that was all him.

But he's back, and with a club-busting smash to boot - new single Levels boasts one of those indelible dance hooks that on first hearing already feels familiar. Surely, if anything, the sign of a future classic. With all the R&B/dance crossovers at the moment, Levels is a refreshing return to good honest floorfiller magic at its best.

Levels is released on the 2nd January.

Some very nice video stills from Leona's Collide...

What with all the attention afforded to the rather unsavory dispute between Leona Lewis and Avicii over 'that' sample, it's easy to forget just how good a track Collide actually is.

The more you hear it, the more it grows on you, just as the track itself builds and builds within itself to a jaw-dropping crescendo.

Listening to it on some flash speakers or headphones, you can really appreciate that thundering bassline in all its majesty - and above it, that piano riff soaring and crashing like waves breaking on a distant beach... which leads us nicely on to the first of these gorgeous stills from the track's upcoming video:

Stunning! The full video premieres later this week - we can't wait! As many others have commented, Collide is kind of what you imagine Coldplay would come out with if they 'went all dancey' - and this is a very good thing indeed.

What's more, Leona has always been in possession of a truly peerless vocal, but on Collide - removed from the epic balladry of her first and second albums - you appreciate new subtleties, new textures to it.

Here's another shot - Leona looking very hot as she takes a ride in a sporty classic car. Nice!

Leona Lewis - Collide

You can't accuse Leona of not taking chances - well, in this latest incarnation at least. You see, it would have been so easy for her to come back with another epic ballad of the kind she clearly does so well. The trouble is, it would never be as good as Bleeding Love.

That track, both her making and her undoing. Bleeding Love stands as one of the greatest pop tracks of the last decade, spending an incomprehensible amount of time at Number 1, and enchanting a host of people on both sides of the Atlantic.

But it also means that everything Leona has done afterwards will be compared to it and weakened due to the simple fact that it just won't live up to those dizzying heights of Bleeding Love.

What to do then for her third album? Traditional the make or break point for most pop acts, Leona has made the spot-on decision by going and doing something completely 'out there'. Well, as 'out there' as you can get with Leona. And you know what? It's damn good.

Collide is pure dance-floor beauty, the summer club anthem with class. Riding on an enchanting piano hook that repeats again and again throughout the song, there's a music-box-like quality to the track, a mechanical precision that rather than sounding overly-produced, seems so exquisitly crafted and buffed to a sheen that you find yourself asking, is this the same Leona?

But then, that's the point. This is Leona proving all the doubters wrong, proving that she has more than one trick in her bag. Collide is like Coldplay given the 200% dance overhaul, accentuated beautifully with African-esque chants that remind me of Dario G's Sunchyme.

I'll admit, I wasn't convinced initially; but as the track builds and builds, properly kicking in with the second chorus, you know what you're looking at - a bonafide smash hit. And Leona pulls it off with considerable aplomb - well done indeed, Miss Lewis.

Collide is released on the 4th September.