Set You Free (N-Trance song)

Last updated

"Set You Free"
Ntrance - Set You Free single.jpg
Single by N-Trance
from the album Electronic Pleasure
Released4 October 1993 (1993-10-04)
Recorded1992
Studio
Genre
Length
  • 7:16(original mix)
  • 4:22 (original radio edit)
Label All Around the World
Songwriter(s) N-Trance
Producer(s) N-Trance
N-Trance singles chronology
"Set You Free"
(1993)
"Stayin' Alive '95"
(1995)
Music video
"Set You Free" on YouTube

"Set You Free" is a song written and recorded by English rave band N-Trance, featuring vocals from English singer Kelly Llorenna. It was officially released as a single in October 1993 by label All Around the World but did not chart until a re-release in April the following year, just making the UK top 40 at number 39. Another re-release in January 1995 was much more successful, peaking at number two in the UK. Same year, it was included on the band's debut album, Electronic Pleasure (1995). Later, it was remixed and re-released in 2001, this time reaching number four. [2] Its music video was directed by prolific music video director Steve Price.

Contents

Background

The song was inspired by a night out in the Haçienda in Manchester that N-Trance's Kevin O'Toole had in 1989. "They used to pass round pints of water, and a woman came up to me and I felt her heartbeat through her top," he said. "The songs created a diary of what was happening at the time." [3]

Llorenna was only 16 when she recorded the vocals in 1992. She told Vice : "Kevin [O'Toole] and Dale [Longworth, the other member of N-Trance] came into my college and asked if anyone sung, and everyone replied 'Kelly sings!'" They later headed to O'Toole's bedroom studio to do a vocal demo. For Llorenna, her vocals "captured that childhood moment in time. It was just me and five lads in a transit van going up to Belfast or Glasgow every week, playing the song for petrol money." She claims that when people hear the opening of the song, which features thunder, lightning and rain, "their faces light up, and they're transported back to where they were." [3]

Critical reception

Larry Flick from Billboard described the song as a "lively Euro-NRG romp". [4] In December 1994, Music Week wrote, "This record is now on its third release simply because retail and club reaction has demanded it. With 50,000 copies already sold, this very Euro dance-style tune could finally make the big time thanks to a strong chorus and less of the normal quota of Euro cheese." [5] In his UK chart commentary, James Masterton said, "I would personally argue that this is a terrible record. It starts promisingly, with a strong melody powerfully sung. Thirty seconds in though this is all but swamped by a frantic rave beat, [...] N-Trance have been making inroads on the chart for over a year now but this is the first major hit for them. It is, as I said, a terrible record, but it has made No.6 first week out so what do I know?" [6] Simon Price from Melody Maker described "Set You Free" as "thunderous, monsoon-drenched". [7]

Chart performance

The 1995 version of "Set You Free" was successful on the charts in Europe, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart. It peaked at that position during its fifth week on the chart. [8] The single entered the top 10 also in Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100, where it peaked at number nine. Additionally, "Set You Free" was a top 20 hit in Sweden and Switzerland, while reaching the top 50 in Germany. Outside Europe, it was a hit in Australia, where it reached number 11. It earned a gold record there, with a sale of 35,000 singles and a double platinum record in the UK, after 1,200,000 units were sold and streamed.

Music video

The accompanying music video for "Set You Free" was directed by prolific music video director Steve Price and shot in various locations in County Durham and North Yorkshire. The video comprises scenes of fireworks, the band dancing and singing in a nightclub, in front of Cliffords Tower in York, England and travelling in a stretched limousine. The scene at Cliffords Tower was fortuitously or coincidentally shot on 3 November 1994, [9] which coincided with an annual Guy Fawkes Night Fireworks display organised by York City Council. The nightclub scenes were shot at Bianco's, Stockton-on-Tees. [9] [10] It is claimed that the video cost around £5,000 to make.[ citation needed ]

Track listings

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) [33] Gold35,000^
United Kingdom (BPI) [39] 2× Platinum1,200,000

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref.
United Kingdom4 October 199312-inch vinyl All Around the World [40]
25 April 1994
  • 12-inch vinyl
  • CD
  • cassette
[41]
2 January 1995 [42]
United States20 June 1995Critique [43]
United Kingdom10 September 2001
  • 12-inch vinyl
  • CD
All Around the World [44]

Cover versions

Scottish band Frightened Rabbit included a cover of the song on their 2008 single "Head Rolls Off". [45]

In September 2021, English singer Kyla La Grange covered the song, saying "I wanted to re-work it in a way that brought out the sadness". [46]

Related Research Articles

Kelly Llorenna is an English dance music singer, who was born in Slough, Berkshire and raised in Oldham, Greater Manchester. She is best known as the former lead vocalist for the dance group N-Trance in the 1990s. Their biggest hit was "Set You Free", which made the UK top five in early 1995. Since then she has had six UK top 10 singles.

Grace was a 1990s British dance music act, consisting of the DJs Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne and the jazz singer Dominique Atkins. The group's first single, "Not Over Yet", had lead and backing vocals by the original frontwoman Patti Low. Atkins recorded her own lead vocals for "Not Over Yet" when it was included as the first track on the group's only album If I Could Fly.

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