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Great review Fraser, and 3 stars from me too.

It may be all 'heartfelt' and sweet and summery but my problem is this (it's not exactly a mystery): When Olly was doing a little karaoke on the Excrement Factor, he was very much one of the very good acts; one that didn't have the greatest set of pipes but one that had his own voice y'know?

So tell me this: Is Simon Cowell (Olly has a joint contract with Syco and Epic) so insecure or just plain dumb that he can't think of an original corner for Olly to stand in? I mean, since when have any of the acts from any Simon Cowell reality show (with the exception of Lemar and Will Young, who were brought to fame when his shows were just additional entertainment for Saturday nights) ever actually been original.

Any act that has ever been signed to Syco has been marketed as someone else far better than the 'new talent'. Shayne Ward was a new Justin Timberlake, Leona is a Mariah Carey, Leon was marketed as Michael Bublé, and Alexandra is being compared to Beyoncé (though Alex's songs just don't match her standard).

But of course the people who stood up against Simon's marketing shemes are nowhere to be seen these days, namely Steve Brrokstein. But Rhydian, Paul Potts... all these people are people who stood up against him, or just weren't marketed in the way he wanted because they weren't 'mainstream' enough, so now they've disappeared into obscurity, leaving dry, emotionless numpties to make it big.

THing is, Simon only sees marketability, not an artists - he will never spawn anything vaguely original from THAT show because once they win, he won't let them be themselves - he doesn't consider the fact that the person he's holding a contract for might actually want to have a lot more input than he let's them have. And if their style isn't marketable enough, he will change it.

And now, Simon's gunning to squeeze all the juice he can from Olly Murs and market him as the next Will Young.

Big mistake. GET OUT OF WILL'S CORNER YOU SCHMUCK. THERE'S NO ROOM.

I love Will Young, he has a quality to his voice that no other mainstream singer can emulate, so you can imagine my horrified expression upon listening to 'Please Don't Let Me Go' because Olly had never actually used falsetto before, and as far as I'm aware his performances were always quite growly, like he'd had a little whisky every night when he was younger, so why is he crooning like he is Will Young when clearly Will Young is more attractive. *blushes*

The worst part is, of course, the unforgivable swagger jacking of Will Young. Since when did Olly wear a hat? When did that strategically placed pair of glass appear and wear did that feather come from? More to the point, since when did Olly ever have this 'indie'/Will Young-esque tone to his voice?

But with that aside (:L) the song is annoyingly inoffensive, dreary pop music that, without the breeze block of the Excrement Factor, would be blown away in the wind and never given a second look in.

Sorry for the essay, but after Leona, Olly is the most annoying Excrement Factor alumni in like EVAAAA.

It's a nice enough song and should secure him a top 10 hit but it does sound a lot like Will Young and is incredibly bland, not terrible like some of JLS's output but nothing to interest anyone really. 2 STARS

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

YASSS!!! Not Another Music Blog is my blog! Thanks for the shoutout, Fraser!

Yeah, I despise this song, it's so bland and soulless. 1 STAR

Better than most X-factor trash... But it's just so underwhelming and cliché...

2 stars

:O MY COMMENT TOOK AGES.

Please bring it back Moderators. The only reason it could possibly have gone was because I may have called a certain ITV shows 'Excrement Factor' and I apologise.

Either that or some Olly fan got annoyed I called him a numpty.

I agree with that gorgeous dog called Harry .
Down boy !
This should be a hit , and could trouble the top 10 , due to it's high profile radio airplay on commercial stations .
Radio 1 have had the heart to bypass it .
It is a catchy , sweet , inoffensive kinda song with a memorable chorus .
It is incredibly easy listening , but by the same token is extremely bland and magnolia , and could be sung by any number of other singers.

Olly has not stamped his personality on it , and in places , it can be mistaken for a Will Young singalong .

On a sidenote though , there is no doubting Olly's charisma and sex factor with the ladies . This will be a huge bonus when it comes to aiming at the target song buying market , many of whom will lap this up .

I expect this to shift at least 40,000 copies in it's first week .

The only problem is , he is up against the likes of Katy Perry , Kanye West and Brandon Flowers in the race for number 1 .

I put my money on Katy a month ago , but the Murs Man will give her fierce competition , I'm sure .

And if you look West , you might see some Flowers wanting some considerable chart action .

Should be exciting !

What do you all think ?

I must say Katy Perry's single Teenage Dream is the absolute perfect pop single .

It ticks every single box for a track completely drenched in hooks and pop sensibility .

As a music lover , it is nigh on impossible to find a single fault with it .

It is a clear stand out 5 star song .

I will be very , very surprised if Chart Blog fail to give it five stars .

It would be a travesty of epic proportions .

I thought Teenage Dream wasn't getting released until next week when the album is out? I'm sure it'll be no.1 when it does get released, but if that's not this week then I will be surprised if Taio Cruz doesn't reach no.1 next Sunday.

Teenage Dream is released on August 30th , the same day as Olly and Kanye . Brandon releases on August 23rd .

I have a feeling the Same Difference comeback will stop Katy and Kanye...



Defo.

Wow Spirit! Teenage Dream a 5 STAR song. I feel it somehow lacks the quality of a 5 STAR song so it gets 4 from me!

Oh Randy , what a travesty of epic proportions ! :)

Random - congrats on your blog it looks really good, but me being OCD about spelling I immediately noticed the 'n' missin in 'unbiased', just thought I'd point it out asap.(btw really sorry if this offends you, I don't mean it to at all)

Yeah Rady , stop missig the "n" out of your words .

It is so aoyig !

Sorry for beig so pedatic ! lol

LOL @ Spirit!

Ooops, I hate typos! Thanks for the correction Knoxx! :) I'll fix it now!

Ha ha !

Yeah , Knoxx . DON'T FIGHT IT !

Randy's a genius .

WOOO! My comment is back. Exciting stuff.

And it was an excellent comment !

Personally, I don't see the Olly and Will Young comparisons at all. Olly has always worn a hat, OddOne. While Will's music is really classy adult contemporary pop with great lyrics and powerful production, Olly is just trying to pull off a Jason Mraz vibe and failing miserably.

I haven't heard this song yet and I hope it stays that way.

@ 20

Really Randy? It jumped out at me like a moose on a motorway.

Okay, maybe I missed that hat, but 'Please Don't Let Me Go' is just a lightweight début single. It does nothing.

From someone with such a personality, it's particularly dry and lifeless, not conveying any of the Olly we came 'to love' on the X Factor. It's like a completely new, more marketable person.

Ugh, makes me sick, he's acting like he's already got the #1 single.

Actually, the chances of that post being deleted are pretty high due to a word in the link title, but TAKE A MINUTE MODERATORS!, it's only in the spirit of music and opinions, and of course there's the fact 'nudism' is an art, while stripping is not.

Hopefully that'll clear up anything the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ might see as a conflict. :)

It's weeks like this that make me lose what little faith I have in the charts these days. It's little wonder hardly anyone cares about them when seemingly anyone who reaches the latter stages of X Factor can easily get a no.1 single with a bit of hype and airplay. I haven't even heard the song but that's not the issue.

And the most insulting thing is that Simon Cowell will tell everyone how 'hard Olly has worked' and how 'he deserves it'.

Strangely after I gave him 2 Stars for this song I'm actually feeling the need to (SHOCK HORROR!) defend Olly Murs. I've heard the song a couple of times over the week and have to admit it has grown on me a bit, not really enough for me to properly like it but enough for me to give it three star if I was feeling generous, and from what I can see there's nothing really that wrong with it, apart from it being bland. If this song was released by any other artist (let's say Will Young) sure it probably wouldn't recieve glowing reviews but it wouldn't create the hate-parade that seems to be thrown Olly's way.

If you look at the top 40 it's actually no worse than any of the rest and is actually a bit better than a lot of the chart right now, it's nice to have a song that doesn't mention 'shawties' or 'the dancefloor'.

My point is that it seems more people hate X-Factor and it's ability to make anyone famous than Olly Murs himself, the hatred towards the song seems to be a way of transfering a dislike of Simon Cowell and his music monopoly. As I said before if another artist released this song, and it got the same level of media coverage obviously, it would probably chart the same but the backlash would most likely be less. It might be the current chart climate or just for some unknown reason but this song feels like a breath of fresh, if unoriginal, air, it's a nice song and Olly seems like a nice guy, what's there to hate?

P.S: I know this whole thing probably seems completely hypocritical when I think back about what I've said about other X-Factor artist but I think the song's alright actually.

Your point is a good one, but I find myself disagreeing to an extent.

You see, Olly may have been in the spotlight on the X Factor, and he may have earned quite a few fans, but at the end of the day X Factor is Saturday night karaoke with a recording contract involved, so we didn't see 'Olly', we heard Olly's voice sing songs chosen for him by Simon or whoever it was mentoring him (I barely watched last year's, it was truly awful).

Now, Olly had the chance to bring out that cocky Essex swagger from the live shows into a real recording career and he gave us this. It's lifeless, soulless, and has no charm at all: it doesn't even sound like Olly.

'Please Don't Let Me Go' is OLLY's début single, sure we've heard him sing on the X Factor before but as I said, they weren't his songs. Now we're supposed to hear what Olly can really do given control over what he sings and what he writes, but if 'Please Don't Let Me Go' is supposed to convince us he's got something special, then I fail to see how he's going to last (actually I don't: teenage girls) because, if this is what he keeps churning out, then I'm afraid he has been moulded by Simon into someone else already, in a bid to piggy back off of someone's success, rather than create his own niche.

And regarding the Will Young comment, yes, if Will Young had put this out, it wouldn't be hailed as his greatest moment, that's for sure, but Will Young is already a seasoned popstar - he's been around for ages, he has nothing to prove with his music, so he's allowed a few mis-steps. But as for Olly, this, his début cannot be simple and basic, but it is. It should pack a much more memorable punch than it does.

Any artist releasing this without the leg-up from the X Factor would find themselves spiralling around the #90-#100 margin.

I agree with what your saying about being disappointed at Olly's lack of creativity with his song but what could anyone expect really? He got famous because he could sing not cause he could write a great pop song so to expect him to come out with anything exciting or inventive is a bit unfair.

Also on an X-Factor related subject Start Without You is at no.1 on Itunes, WHY!!!!!! Surely it's rubbishness is obvious from first play so why buy it! Even Same Difference's new song is better than that!

'Party Girl' for president. Whoever she is.