So it’s that time of year again and the release of the latest X-Factor winner’s single. Last year we had the good cover of Biffy Clyro’s ‘Many of Horror (When We Collide)’ which, though not a patch on the original, was an interesting cover and well done by Matt McCardle, even if it was a cover that, like most of them before, flatly refused to do anything revolutionary with the track so it may as well have just been karaoke. Actually. I lied. They changed the name so it was just ‘When We Collide’. Ooh. Daring.
This year, after what sounded like a promising rumour that singer-songwriter and now judge Gary Barlow would pen a song for them – surely what could be a great move considering his song writing prowess even in the light of his questionable adaptation of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ for ‘Children In Need’ – we are stuck with yet another cover, this time of Damien Rice’s beautiful stripped-back 2002 hit ‘Cannonball’ that, considering it wasn’t a massive hit at the time, is one of those songs that has permeated the public consciousness because of its sheer beauty.
So what have Little Mix – the first ever girl band to win ‘The X-Factor’ screams the publicity, completely forgetting about ‘Girls Aloud’ who came from what was basically ‘The X Factor’ with a different name – done to the track under the supervision of SyCo’s production house?
Well, unsurprisingly it is a catchy pop-friendly number, communistically split up into equal sections for each of the four singers, complete with key change and all the other DNA elements of an X-Factor winner you could almost throw it on Jeremy Kyle and do away with the expense of a test. However, in throwing a synthesizer at the band – no jokes please – and creating what is basically a competent karaoke performance, they have stripped the raw, acoustic-guitar-led original, of any emotion at all. Plus, they take turns on vocals throughout the song like some sort of karaoke relay race.
It becomes basically Atomic Kitten does classic acoustic tracks, sounding considerably like that band during the harmonies. And Atomic Kitten could sing their own stuff.
When they’re not covering Blondie of course.
Opening line ‘There’s still a little taste of my mouth’ turns from a touching memory of an old lover to something less palatable. The echo present on the vocals throughout suggests production trickery that means they may be not be as good singers as we hope, and the urge for the singers to extend the words well beyond them fitting into the tune shows the influence of waily-waily singers like Mariah Carey continuously on female led songs. Yes, your vocals sound great and there’s power there, but sing the song please and don’t show off.
Throwing in some ‘woo’ bits, choral harmonies and the most obvious drum machine since Daft Punk stepped up to the charts whilst also shaving a minute off the song, it’s as expected the most poppified version of the song that could be.
Little Mix are supposed to be the Spice Girls of 2012 complete with girl power. Unfortunately the only power on this record is the electricity controlling the by-numbers keyboard backing. At least the Spice Girls could, in the most, release original records.
Sure, as it’s an X-Factor single, it will sell millions and I’m sure you’re saying at the moment that any winner is an easy target for slagging off their first release. But when there was the opportunity for them to sing something original – look at Matt McCardle who has released some cracking co-written original songs – written one of our best singer-songwriters but instead they take what was a great emotional song, strip it of any power it has, wail their vocals over it and re-package it as a pop song with multiple vocals that sound too disjointed, there’s a big element of a shame.
From what I’ve seen of the band they seem to have talent and promise, but not if their work is going to be re-strained like this. It’s an interesting version of the song that does something a little different but it’s a poor cousin. Download the original instead and hope they release something more interesting in the new year.
This year, after what sounded like a promising rumour that singer-songwriter and now judge Gary Barlow would pen a song for them – surely what could be a great move considering his song writing prowess even in the light of his questionable adaptation of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’ for ‘Children In Need’ – we are stuck with yet another cover, this time of Damien Rice’s beautiful stripped-back 2002 hit ‘Cannonball’ that, considering it wasn’t a massive hit at the time, is one of those songs that has permeated the public consciousness because of its sheer beauty.
So what have Little Mix – the first ever girl band to win ‘The X-Factor’ screams the publicity, completely forgetting about ‘Girls Aloud’ who came from what was basically ‘The X Factor’ with a different name – done to the track under the supervision of SyCo’s production house?
Well, unsurprisingly it is a catchy pop-friendly number, communistically split up into equal sections for each of the four singers, complete with key change and all the other DNA elements of an X-Factor winner you could almost throw it on Jeremy Kyle and do away with the expense of a test. However, in throwing a synthesizer at the band – no jokes please – and creating what is basically a competent karaoke performance, they have stripped the raw, acoustic-guitar-led original, of any emotion at all. Plus, they take turns on vocals throughout the song like some sort of karaoke relay race.
It becomes basically Atomic Kitten does classic acoustic tracks, sounding considerably like that band during the harmonies. And Atomic Kitten could sing their own stuff.
When they’re not covering Blondie of course.
Opening line ‘There’s still a little taste of my mouth’ turns from a touching memory of an old lover to something less palatable. The echo present on the vocals throughout suggests production trickery that means they may be not be as good singers as we hope, and the urge for the singers to extend the words well beyond them fitting into the tune shows the influence of waily-waily singers like Mariah Carey continuously on female led songs. Yes, your vocals sound great and there’s power there, but sing the song please and don’t show off.
Throwing in some ‘woo’ bits, choral harmonies and the most obvious drum machine since Daft Punk stepped up to the charts whilst also shaving a minute off the song, it’s as expected the most poppified version of the song that could be.
Little Mix are supposed to be the Spice Girls of 2012 complete with girl power. Unfortunately the only power on this record is the electricity controlling the by-numbers keyboard backing. At least the Spice Girls could, in the most, release original records.
Sure, as it’s an X-Factor single, it will sell millions and I’m sure you’re saying at the moment that any winner is an easy target for slagging off their first release. But when there was the opportunity for them to sing something original – look at Matt McCardle who has released some cracking co-written original songs – written one of our best singer-songwriters but instead they take what was a great emotional song, strip it of any power it has, wail their vocals over it and re-package it as a pop song with multiple vocals that sound too disjointed, there’s a big element of a shame.
From what I’ve seen of the band they seem to have talent and promise, but not if their work is going to be re-strained like this. It’s an interesting version of the song that does something a little different but it’s a poor cousin. Download the original instead and hope they release something more interesting in the new year.
