Sir William of Young is one of my very favourite male solo singers. In fact he is definitely in the top five, and is currently jockeying in a three way with Simon Curtis and Robbie Williams for the top spot (What a three way that would be :O )... Not only does he have the amazing ability to regrow hair, but he has successfully emerged from the monolith of the Idol series and established himself as a distinct and successful singer of fine pop-jazzy tinged-funk tunes in a way that very few people manage to do. Plus despite his plum-in-mouth upbringing, I imagine he's a right dirty fucker in the boudoir. But the focus here is just catching up on his career before he launches his assault on the charts again next week.
A non-idle idol:
"Ah as the ticker tape rained down on Mr Young looking quite elegant in a dark suit and t-shirt, he quickly and discreetly wiped the glitter from his tongue as he sang the westlife album track he had been saddled with. It wasn't really supposed to be this way, he thought, as that hedgehog haircut of the runner up blocked the cameraman's unfettered view of his carefully selected converse come fuck me pumps. Gareth was meant to win, have a startlingly brilliant pop career and sleep with big busted glamour models whose bv (bucket-vadge) is so big he can barely keep his little willy in there. He was meant to be the runner up who released an album full of covers that he had sang on the show, albeit in his own inimitable style. Then every mothers day a new album would follow - the movie songs, tracks from the musicals, the swing album, will sings the greatest hits of Steps... it was a solid plan. Now was he chance to show everyone that he was gonna make it on his own. He held the last note to evergreen perfectly and wished he had a hat to throw in the air a la Rhoda."
Ooo you all got a sneaky peek there at my unofficial William biography that will be in a shop near you, well, never actually but still. I have a minor problem with the start of William's career. The focus was definitely on Gareth Gates - Gareth got to release the winners songs on his Unchained Melody cd single just 3 weeks after William; he got the first post-idol original song and then on that godawful duet, gareth got the AA side which was on a Disney soundtrack for fluff's sake!! There was an awful lot of songs that William had sung as part of the Idol process floating around in studio format that could've made a nice introduction to William Young style album, prior to From Now On. And luckily apart from Long and Winding Road, most were pretty decent cover versions. Of course the stand out is his lovely laid back version of Light My Fire - everything about that song works on so many levels. The arrangements, the piano chords, William's vocals - it's all a lesson in cover version loveliness. So in my collection, there is the Pop Idol rush released debut album as such...
- Evergreen
- Anything Is Possible (tragically not a Debbie Gibson cover)
- Light My Fire
- The Long and Winding Road
- Beyond The Sea
- I Don't Dance
- Ain't No Sunshine
- The Sweetest Feeling
... and then there is the debut album proper without all that extraneous stuff on there. And it's actually a very mature and well crafted album. Lover Won't You Stay is now the opening track of the album and establishes the tone of what William is trying to achieve. It's a gorgeous tune with swirling strings and acoustic arrangements that are matched by William using his voice as an instrument to bounce the melody around and create a warm intimate vibe. Lovestruck goes for a more ethereal floating vibe as it weaves in and out of a self created musical dreamscape. It's the first original solo single from William that absolutely soars though - You and I is powered by a passionate vocal delivery and some gorgeous layered harmonies. It's a gently seductive song that proves to be very romantic and has led to a few unshareable DazPaz moments after a few glasses of red wine. In a perfect world, this would have been followed on my version of the album by the strumming b-side Don't Let Me Down, which has another gentle and harmonised chorus, yet this time it's William overlaying his own vocals and adding a blissful tonal quality to the proceedings. Other highlights on the album include the stunning Cruel To Be Kind which builds up some percussive treats into a great chorus which is the near perfect fusion of jazz and pop; Over You with the makes-my-knees-go-to-jelly first few notes "and i dooooooooo" and the hauntingly epic Fine Line which is a masterpiece of smoky, moody instrumentation matched by Williams dark vocal. Miraculous that this made it onto an idol winners first album. Here is the track listing that should've been...
- Lover Won't You Stay
- Lovestruck
- You and I
- Don't Let Me Down
- Side by Side
- What's In Goodbye
- Cruel To Be Kind
- Over You
- If That's What You Want
- From Now On
- Fine Line
Stay tuned for part two which will focus on albums 2 and 3, as well as more excerpts from the "unofficial" "biography"! It's "" airquotes madness...
Sir William of Young is one of my very favourite male solo singers. In fact he is definitely in the top five, and is currently jockeying in a three way with Simon Curtis and Robbie Williams for the top spot (What a three way that would be :O )... Not only does he have the amazing ability to regrow hair, but he has successfully emerged from the monolith of the Idol series and established himself as a distinct and successful singer of fine pop-jazzy tinged-funk tunes in a way that very few people manage to do. Plus despite his plum-in-mouth upbringing, I imagine he's a right dirty fucker in the boudoir. But the focus here is just catching up on his career before he launches his assault on the charts again next week.
