Nicholas McDonald // In The Arms Of An Angel

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Doesn’t seem that long ago that this Scottish singer was in the final of the 2013 X factor and came off as runner up. Now, just a few short months after it, Nicholas McDonald releases his debut album, In The Arms Of The Angel.

Opening with Superman (what would have been his winner’s single) next it’s what did become his debut single, Answerphone (see it’s review here). When The Stars Go Blue reminds us of The Corrs version although vocally it does sound as a few notes are just a edge of a comfortable range for him.
The title track of the album, In The Arms Of An Angel is up next, but there is really no other way to sing this.

Christina Perri’s track A Thousand Years pops next before the second original track, Smile, which has a bit of an Olly Murs feeling to it. Adele’s Someone Like You comes in as a nice little acoustic number with just voice & guitar while Westlife’s Flying Without Wings feels like a note per note version.

Bruno Mars’ hit Just The Way You Are but just seems a little slow and a little karaoke-ish. The Daniel Beddingfield classic If You’re Not The One which does seems to suit his voice. And finally, we have the last of the original tracks, Solid Gold,is another Olly Mur sound a like track to close the album.

In a way, we’re a little disappointed at how rushed this has been. It almost feels like with this release they wanted to ride the X Factor wave and covers were the quickest way to get it out there. And those fall into pretty much the same genre, ballad. The other issue with these tracks is that it feels that he is trying to emulate the same sound & performance as the original instead to putting his own mark on it. Whereas the 3 original, though they have touches of sounds we’ve heard from other artists (One Direction & Olly Murs spring to mind), they tend to showcase his voice off a little better. Had there been more originals & less of the covers, and just a teenie bit of variety this might have been a decent release.

Rating: 2/5