Bruce Sudano Releases “Two Bleeding Hearts”

Strikingly supple in tone and yet strong enough to support the weighty vocal of Valerie Simpson and Bruce Sudano alike, the new single and music video for “Two Bleeding Hearts” is undeniably driven by its lush string melody, which is perhaps made all the more enrapturing by the well-defined master mix it is filtered through. As gentle as their reverberating vibrations are, there’s never a moment where they’re lost in the haze of a harmony Sudano and Simpson can conjure up seemingly out of thin air, and although the other elements comprising the fabric of this single are just as endearing in their unique way, it was this specific component that made me fall in love with “Two Bleeding Hearts” right out of the gate. 

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The bold, almost imposing duet vocal is always the center of our attention in this song, and I think that in “Two Bleeding Hearts,” our star’s range is challenged more than it is in any other instance presented to us in his previously released material (at least among selections in the 2020s). He doesn’t hesitate to go after the biggest and most cathartic release that he can in the chorus, and while there’s no getting around just how powerful a force the instrumentation is behind him, I don’t think there are many singers who could have had the impact on this material that these two immediately did upon recording it last year. The duet is certainly a fine addition to the structure of the harmony as well, and yet I don’t think it was designed to be the main focus here considering the panache of the piece as a whole. 

I love the production technique that Sudano employed when creating the mix for “Two Bleeding Hearts,” particularly concerning the vacuum effect on the instrumentation. We’re constantly being drawn closer to the embers warming this track’s most attractive elements – the strings, the swooning vocals, the patient groove created by the verses themselves – and though there’s a case to be made that it would be just as emotional a song in a raw, straightforward format contrary to this one, I found this stylization to be more befitting for what this kind of release is trying to present the audience with. He’s flexing some muscle here, but avoiding the ugliness of arrogance altogether. 

The last few decades have been larger-than-life for Bruce Sudano and all of the music he’s had a part in making, and as I see it, this new release is yet another important cornerstone in the history of his career. “Two Bleeding Hearts,” in both its single and music video forms, is a brilliantly emotive ballad that shows off everything that Sudano does well – his wonderful skills as a vocalist, instrumentalist, collaborator, and composer are on full display here, and while it’s not the first occasion on which he’s proven himself to be capable of running with the elites in this industry, it’s certainly one of the more melodically soothing examples I’ve had the opportunity to review.  

Timothy Ball