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Usually once the X-Factor is complete, it’s the winners album that comes out first before any of the other finalists, however this time round, 2011 runner up Marcus Collins is first out the starting block with his self titled debut.
Opening with the debut single, Seven Nation Army (cover of the White Stripes song of the same name. See our review of it here), it quickly moves onto Love & Hate, a song that you could see Cee Lo Green sing. Innocence is up next and you can’t help think that it sounds like a 90’s Take That song. This is followed up by Don’t Surrender, a nice gentle pop song that showcases a nice laid back Marcus,
From laid back, we jump into more up beat Mercy featuring lots of horn flourishes before heading into what is quite possibly a favourite from his X-Factor days, Higher & Higher. That’s Just Life comes across as being a nice little summery tune that you can imagine being blasted from the car, with the windows down. Quicken the tempo, we’re brought into Tightrope. This song has got us sitting on the fence (Or maybe the Tightrope!) There’s something we like about this track, but at the same time, there’s something that we don’t. We just can’t explain it….
It’s Time brings the tempo back down to the casual pop tune, that feels very radio friendly.Next we’re back to the 80s with Feel Like I Feel. Finally we have what was the ‘b-side’ to the debut single, Break These Chains (which we loved over Seven Nation Army)
As a debut, it plays to Marcus’ strengths with regards to style. The quality of the songs (8 are co-written by Collins whilst 3 are covers) are of a high standard but our only gripe is that the track order does make it feel a little all over the place jumping from fast to slow back to fast in such quick succession. It feels like it’s been a rush job where someone’s only briefly listened to the tracks, put them in an order and gone done, get it pressed.
Fans from the show will no doubt support and enjoy. Other may take time to be convinced by this release. Only once the current X-Factor tour is over will be truly get an idea of whether he will survive the test of time.
Rating: 3.5/5
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