With Amelia Lily’s single out in the open and Misha B due to release ‘Home Run’ this weekend, now seems like a good time to take stock of last year’s X Factor crop and see how everyone’s faring. The 2010 run of the show proved particularly fruitful, with Rebecca Ferguson, One Direction, Cher Lloyd and Aiden Grimshaw all equalling and, in many cases, bettering winner Matt Cardle; and with the 2011 group firing out the traps particularly early, let’s see how they line up…
GOOD NEWS: CONTAINS NO MATT CARDLES
1. Little Mix – ‘Wings’
Now we’ve had a couple of weeks to calm down and consider the fact that the pop world may have over-reacted slightly to the goodness of ‘Wings’, we can safely say that… the pop world did not over-react slightly to the goodness of ‘Wings’. Now we’re beginning to hear it on the radio, it’s actually sounding even better. Y’know what’d really mess it up though? Is if, like Jordin Sparks’ ‘Battlefield’ and all of the singles from Avril Lavigne’s last album, its amazingness was scuppered by a terrible music video. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED, GIRLS.
2. Misha B – ‘Home Run’
Right we fannied around quite a bit with what order to put Misha and the act at No3 in. Maybe what edges it for Misha is the fact that ‘Home Run’ seemed (comparatively) like such a non-event when it first premièred but it has become quite the grower. We especially love the lead-in to the final chorus (“…I know it’s something I can NOOOOT IGNOR-AWAWAWAWAAAAOOOHHH” etc). It’s out this weekend and we really hope it does well – we’re really curious to know what else she has up her sleeve.
3. Amelia Lily – ‘You Bring Me Joy’
‘You Bring Me Joy’ is basically a cross between The Saturdays’ ‘All Fired Up’ (also a Xenomania tune, lest we forget) and Kelly Clarkson’s ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’… and, like both of those incredible tunes, we think it’s going to take a few listens to “make sense”. At the moment it’s a catchy, semi-euphoric electropop song that doesn’t try anything too clever and is all the more likeable for it… and it sounds like, once it starts getting more airplay and a hopefully-amazing music video, its amazingness will increase by arouuuuund 82.3%.
4. Marcus Collins – ‘Mercy’ & ‘Seven Nation Army’
Look, we liked Marcus on The X Factor and all, but since when has rush-releasing a runner-up album in time for Mother’s Day EVER been a successful strategy? Are we deliberately trying to replicate the Eoghan Quigg ‘success story’ of 2009 or what?! OK, so ‘Seven Nation Army’ was nowhere near as bad as the White Stripes purists liked to point out, but the point is that Marcus, clearly an able songwriter, should have had more time spent on him in development rather than rushing out a will-this-do collection of lukewarm retro-pop. ‘Mercy’, the Top 195 smash hit that followed ‘SNA’, should never have even been released. Whether he’ll be putting out a second album any time soon is anyone’s guess, but label bosses should be looking to themselves for someone to blame rather than whatshisname wot sung it.
Oh, and also – 2 Shoes - ‘Turn Me On (Turn Me Out)’
So much to say, so few words to say it.
