It’s a well known fact that success in the X Factor is no guarantee of any kind of career, in the lasting more than four years sense. There are those who’ve excelled like Leona Lewis and Will Young. Those who did ok and then gracefully went away, like Shayne Ward and Rhydian and the utter failures. Steve Brookstein anyone?
Last year’s runner up Olly Murs has decided now is the time to unleash himself on the pop world, presumably because winner Joe McElderry is still being told by Simon Cowell and whoever else he has follow him around that he’d better do a Leona and wait till they’ve found at least four decent tunes before he actually releases anything. Murs, unfortunately, has been the recipient of less good advice as to pen his debut single, he’s teamed up with Claude Kelly, the man behind most of Christina Aguliera’s poorly received new direction and the odd album track for Miley Cyrus and Kesha. Kelly’s back catalogue is solid and unspectacular, a lot like Murs’ debut single “Please Don‘t Me Go.”
The single is a plodding, middle of the road stinker, with no spark, verve or even decent melody. It’s lilting pop by numbers, with Murs clearly deciding he doesn’t want to start out with a big ballad and would like to market himself as a sort of sub Jason Mraz, the kind of singer who can play Blue Peter, have a drink with the lads and not get bottled off at V Festival. He may well start wearing vintage hats, kooky trousers and start talking up how much he loves the Flaming Lips in interviews, but the whole façade is paper thin. His label have clearly made the decision that the success of singer songwriters like Mraz, Joshua Radin and Jack Johnson is the kind of thing he should be emulating, they’ve perhaps decided this because it’ll be cheaper than recording with a big orchestra and you can pass off all kind of naff rubbish off as easy going pop. There’s no urge to try new things or do anything other than the bare minimum. No-one will mind it, but no-one will love it either.
The prospect for Murs’ debut album don’t seem high either, with collaborators including Scouting For Girls and Preston, it’s going to be so middle of the road, it’ll be in the central reservation.
Murs probably falls in the middle category of X Factor hopefuls, he’ll do alright for a while and he’s definitely got more potential than McElderry, but that’s not saying much. It seems likely he’ll do a Leon and not a Leona.
Decide for yourself below:
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