Lopez Blogs

Shayne Ward was really a bit of a breath of fresh air on the X Factor. There hadn’t really been a true “pop” star emerge. Oh I love Will Young and think his music is generally stunning, but he didn’t scream instant popstar, more classy person’s unashamed album choice. Let’s skip over the Anus (Michelle Mc) and Steve Brookstein, who were about as pop star as David Sneddon’s last name. Shayne was a good looking boy, nice fashion style (as seen in vid above), suitably rough background to make him abit of a rebel in the eyes of impressionable young girls (so much gold jewellry dripping from his chavvy mom) and a clear understanding of what pop is. And he did it uptempo. Check out his sassy version of Take Your Mama Out above, and then ponder like the rest of the nation did why (first two singles notwithstanding ~ That’s My Hole and No Promises) he made an album of increasingly dull ballads. Really, he should have something like Gareth’s Skeletons for the third single and then a nice double AA side Christmas single with his genuinely incredible version of Over The Rainbow backed with his cover of Cry Me A River. Cos Lord knows he tries to emulate Justin T enough of his sophomore set…

Which leads me nicely onto Breathless. Frankly, If That’s Ok With You has turned into one of my most endearing pop tunes for this year. I’m still not bored of it. What I am slightly bored of however, is the pseudo r’n'b stylings of No U Hang Up and current single Breathless. Cohesively, the three singles played in order of release tell a rather sweet story of deepening love and devotion. It’s just the style of those latter two I am bored with. So it’s rather unfortunate that they kick off the album, though by the time OK comes on, it’s quite the breath of fresh air and sounds even better than before. Now I have to confess that on my first somewhat hurried background listen to the album, I was quite disappointed and found it quite mediocre. Blasting it out in the car twice today has totally changed my mind! The shrieky wail at the start of Damaged put me off initially, but it soon turns into the beat from All That She Wants and is really a less vicious more metrosexual version of M5’s Wake Up Call. See Adam? Violence isn’t always the answer! Stand By Your Side is a rather good slice of feel good pop, not far off from Ari Gold’s recent Mariah tribute Where The Music Takes You. Bit dubious about the choir joining in, but ultimately it works and makes me want to sing my little heart out. Some Tears Never Dry is a more exciting version of No U Hang Up ~ plinky piano works well, along with ominous strings and a cute little chorus. Tangled is about as good as this album gets - and that is very good. It mixes a bit of 90s boyband, some 80s dance influence and a tiny bit of electro for an almost pop masterpiece and a definite contender for single material. Tell Him is Shayne Ward doing Destiny’s Child Survivor via Justin Timberlake, and as pleasant as his version of Just Be Good To Me is, i can’t listen to it without going “tank fly boss work jam nitty gritty”…

Now there was a lot of talk about there being only one ballad on the album, and I assumed that was going to be Breathless, so was a bit disappointed. Shayne described it as a killer ballad - so I was expecting something like Say It Isn’t So by Gareth Gates, not the wishy washy stuff about babies having your eyes. So it’s a bit of a surprise to find two other ballads on the set ~ and both better than Breathless. Until You is a sweet ballad reminiscent of Blue, but the real triumph here is Melt The Snow. Cutesy vocal samples and a great shuffling beat, this has some incredibly corny lyrics, but they seem to work within the context of the song. I can even forgive the line “kick him to the curb” because this song is as adorable as Same Difference. In fact, if Shayne doesn’t release this as a single, then they should. Lovely. So overall, very reminiscent of lots of other people’s works, but get past that and it’s not nearly as boring as I first thought and actually I now can’t seem to get enough of it. Or Shayne. Rar.

Potential singles: If That’s Ok With You, Breathless, Tangled, Damaged, Melt The Snow