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Tag Archives: X Factor
Hermes House Band – Rhythm Of The Night
As much as I am northern lad who loves his 90s dance music, I have to also admit to having a very soft side for cheesy dance-y pop.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that I absolutely love the (ever fabulous) Hermes House Band’s 2008 cover of this Corona classic – it’s just so much fun!
It was used in this evening’s X-Factor show, and thus it reminded me of just how much I love this track heh!
X-FACTOR: Mary Byrne – I (Who Have Nothing)
So, once again the X-Factor has returned to our screens, and once again I’ve already picked my person that I think will be in the final few (and I’m nearly always right with my picks – and I only pick one!).
Bit of a wild card choice, granted, but I am confident that Mary could go far if given the right guidance (I’d love to see Cheryl work her magic on her – I can’t see Louis or Simon managing her properly to be honest). This clip has been on a constant loop on my PC; her voice is really really lovely!
Without doubt, this is definitely my favourite version of the classic ‘I (Who Have Nothing)’ – and by gosh has this song been (disappointingly!) covered by some of the greats…!
You go girl!! 
Alexandra Burke vs JLS (X-Factor mash-up)
AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME, FIERCE!
Jamie Archer – Sex On Fire
Although I am not overly sad that Jamie ‘Afro’ Archer was voted off the X-Factor this week, I just realised that I never gave him his due for what has to be one of the best auditions that they’ve ever had! I am still, to this day, singing along to it in my head – remarkable!
It’s just a pity that he started with his best, and gradually seemed to get weaker as the weeks went on…
Rachel Adedeji – ‘Proud Mary’
Last night, I thought Rachel gave what I would describe as the performance of the series on X-Factor – it was phenominal for this stage of the competition!
It has to be the only X-Factor performance that I have ever danced along to as well!
I’ve thought that she’s been consistently amazing throughout the competition, and so I really do hope that people vote for her.
My three to win have not changed my first predictions at first auditions, and remains as Stacey, Joe and Rachel – with all three to get record deals please!
Her reaction at the end (unfortunately not on this clip) had Greg and I in stitches…!
I couldn’t, however, watch the song without thinking of Whoopi… 
Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love
Initially disliked this, but all of a sudden I’ve had an about turn, and I love it, love it, LOVE IT!
(Update: annoyingly, all Cheryl vids are now ‘embedding disabled by request’ – so I’d suggest you go to YouTube and look up her X-Factor performance for this!)
The live performance really did help to bring the single to life – good on her!
Hope that it gets to number one this week (ironically knocking Alexandra’s fab “Bad Boys” off the top spot!) and I have very high hopes for the album now!
Yesterday, I blogged about a remix by Moto Blanco on Jennifer Hudson’s Spotlight, and it seems that there’s also a Moto Blanco remix of ‘Fight For This Love’ too – which is the best of all the remixes I’ve heard thus far (and believe me, there’ve been many!). Loving this Moto Blanco outfit – expect more blog posts devoted to their remixes!
Whitney Houston – I Look To You
I had a listen to this album today, and I have to say that I was distinctly underwhelmed I’m afraid.
I found it rather middle of the road and, as a comeback album, it didn’t wow me as I desperately wanted it to. Definitely something I could easily listen to, however it’s perhaps something for the die-hard fans to appreciate rather than the fans, like me, who like to dabble in ‘mainstream’ Whitney. I can’t remember any of the songs if I’m honest.
I heard the album version of ‘Million Dollar Bill’ and didn’t really like it. I thought that he remix version that she performed on the X-Factor last night (Sunday) was much better, though still a little bland. The remix version is, however, growing rather quickly on me, so we’ll see! Give it a few days, and a night out dancing to it, I’m sure that I’ll love this track!
(I won’t even go into her appearance last night, my initial thoughts were that it was terrible, but watching it back, I concede that it wasn’t too bad after all! I still maintain that she looked much better on the Saturday mentoring clips though!)
Alexandra Burke – Overcome
So, it’s Monday morning, and without doubt, the highlight of my week is that Alexandra Burke’s debut album, ‘Overcome’ is out!
Very pleased that it was on Spotify first thing this morning!
Alexandra has done a lot of press for the album recently, and had a reported thirty songs that were being considered for the album. She has said in interviews that she wanted to do a double CD, though the record label wouldn’t hear of it due to it being her first!
I had a listen to the album whilst at work, so I made a few thought notes against each track, which I have shared below. I know many of the words that I have used aren’t real words, but they seemed appropriate when I was note-taking
NB – these are in order of how the ‘random’ function on Spotify played them, so are not in track listing order.
Bad Boys (feat. Flo Rida): Anthemic – and easily the song of the album (and my song of 2009 thus far!)
Overcome: Great, powerful ‘feel-good’ song. Potential single?
Bury Me (6 feet under): weird… but in a good way! Love the classic sound to it with the piano coming through!
All Night Long: dancy R’n'B song, catchy chorus – album track maybe, but also a club favourite?
They Don’t Know: Christina Aguilera/emo-esque clean vocal song… you long for her to belt, but, surprisingly, this never comes. Good track, unexpected style more than anything.
The Silence: Perhaps what I was expecting from ‘They Don’t Know’ – like, very much! Almost 80s power-ballad’y! Another potential single?
Good Night, Good Morning (feat. Ne-Yo): Another R’n'B track, no doubt will be released as a single due to collaboration with Ne-Yo. I like it, but it’s not really my taste… that said, this song is perfect for the number one spot of the UK charts given the tracks that tend to get top spot these days.
Gotta Go: Nice ballad track, album track in my opinion.
Dumb: punchy and great for dancing along in a club! ‘dumb dumb dumb’ *jigs*’ – infectious! Love it!!
You Broke My Heart: Adore those opening bars, a little Duffy-esque in vocal style, but with much needed attitude! Power tune if ever there was one, with some great chords thrown in for that ‘sass’ factor! (I can’t listen to this without rolling my shoulders and wagging my fingers heh!)
Hallelujah (Bonus Track): Her version of this track speaks for itself really… what a set of lungs!
Broken Heels: Bouncy song, great to dance to at a party but an album track I think. My neck is sore from head-dancing heh! (NB – I’d suggest you listen to this track in private, otherwise your colleagues may look upon you and your head-dancing strangely!)
Nothing But The Girl: Different to the rest of the album, love how this builds up, a good pop record.
A frantic few months for Alexandra, but they have definitely paid off and, in my opinion, resulted in what must be the pop album of the year!
Robbie Williams – Electric Proms (trailer)
Rather liking the trail spot for Robbie Williams’ spot on the BBC Electric Proms schedule!
For UK readers, the gig will be broadcast from 7pm on Radio One on the night (Tuesday 20th October 2009), and will be shown on BBC Two shortly afterwards (on the Tuesday). The gig will stay available via BBC iPlayer/ the ‘red’ button until 31st October.
For those outside the UK, the Prom is due to be shown around the world at various cinema screens (visit this link for more information).
My favourite Robbie performance was the one that he did in Berlin for the album launch of ‘Intensive Care’ (incidentally, this is my favourite Robbie album, and also the one that I thought had the best artwork surrounding it! – t’was awesome I thought) and so I am hoping that this performance harks back to that more mature and stylish performance style/sound. I loved the inclusion of ‘real’ instruments back at the 2005 launch!
As an aside, there is a give away called ‘Songbook’ in The Mail On Sunday this weekend (11th October 2009) – as loathe as I am to say it, I may consider purchasing The Mail so that I can get hold of a copy :-\
Again, for those in the UK, look out for Robbie on this weekend’s X-Factor Live Show too!
More Robbie tracks from the new album (‘Reality Killed The Video Star’) to be previewed please!!
