There are not many music contestants that make it big in the harsh pop world. It doesn’t matter if they found fame from Pop Idol, X Factor or whatever else you can think of (Fame Academy?). By 2008 when Alexandra won X Factor the majority of the UK general public were no longer interested in underdogs winning a possibly rigged game show. Alas all of the grannies and little girls who watched the show gathered around and bought the only CD single they would buy that year. And to great effect as it did reach #1.

What I don’t like about this is that firstly it gives a false impression of how easy it may be to make a hit pop single to the winner (I’ve only been on the earth just over 20 years and I can tell you it isn’t easy!) and secondly it simply strokes Simon Cowell’s ego boner providing him weight to get another cookie-cutter show on the air next year to keep the bank happy.

The song, is a cover – they’re always covers, rarely ever are they original songs and are usually chosen by the producers of the show not the singer themselves. The cover is fine, but nothing special. The original song by Jeff Buckley is painfully beautiful, yet this rendition seems to lose a lot of that power.

The additional tracks are lacking. The second track is a piss poor recording taken directly from the TV broadcast and sounds terrible on any hi-fi system. The third track seems to follow suit with another poor flat sounding recording, and is terribly short.

These singles, and the albums that come with them, slowly fill up landfills, boot sales and charity shops alike – worth nothing, not even their weight in polymer plastic. This is no different, and it appears that Alexandra has decided to take the route so many of these contestant winners do – theatre, where they should have probably started in the first place.

Although even today the BBC still put out these “fundraiser” songs every year for either Children In Need or Red Nose Day, these novelty tracks have a strange nostalgia linked to them. I always recall them being on the TV and radio, pushed usually by the BBC themselves on their radio and tv stations. Most of these tracks are ultimately forgettable covers of a much more popular and successful song, sung by various performers line-by-line (reminds me of school, where you’d read a book chapter by chapter out loud), trying desperately to pick up on the success of the most successful fundraiser act, Band Aid.

This release is no different. Perfect Day (originally sung by the late Lou Reed) is a firm favourite of mine, it works well with my melancholy moods. There is nothing inherently wrong, or bad with this recording its just so bland if it wasn’t made the world most probably wouldn’t care – no one talks about this track, even if the topic is focused on fundraising songs. Seeing as you don’t get much else with this release (most likely a licensing issue, as all proceeds do go to the charity, which is a good thing) but this one track, not an instrumental nor the original version. The whole point of buying this record was to give your £2/3 to the charity, to which most people have likely sent their copies to the recycling bin or charity shops across the nation. It comes down to this thing, people are more likely to part with their money if they get something in return – no matter how naff it might be. I guess thats why you see Marie Curie and Cancer Research fundraisers giving out stickers and keyrings to people, to make it feel like you’ve earnt that item. It seems maddening, surely you’d feel better giving the charity your money expecting nothing in return. Hey ho, this record exists sadly and that’s that, maybe in the year 2050 we’ll be down to the last 10 copies of the CD on the face of the planet and then they might be worth something – unlikely unless polymer plastic ends up being worth more than precious metal!

This review has been republished on CritiqueBrainz

You can’t deny it, S Club 7 were a force to be reckoned with in regards to pop acts from the turn of the millennium. Every single person born in the early 90s in the UK knows the band and their most popular hits and most of them will tell you why – birthday parties. Their catchy, simple, upbeat songs were popular choices to play on the boombox to let a room full of 7 year olds run around like mad. But maybe they had some foresight in them too, to see that bands like themselves were soon for the chopping board and were about to be denounced of their Top 40 throne in favour of more glamourous R&B, hip-hop and electronic acts.

From their disbandment, many members went on to try and start solo careers – one of the most notable ones, or ones that I could think of without using Google to aid me, is Rachel Stevens. Maybe her success sticks out for two reasons; firstly she was my first memorable celebrity crush, secondly her more popular solo track “I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)” features on a NOW compilation which I used to listen to while playing Forza Motorsport as a kid.

Like my previous review this is another track that I do not recall at all, instead I recall the previous more successful hit. Once again, there is nothing wrong with this track – its that electro-pop blend that was ever so popular at the time, trying to bridge the gap between pop and electronic club music. The thing is these tracks never have any major faults, the performer usually has enough money following the disbandment of their more popular act to afford high quality musicians and songwriters to make them cookie-cutter pop songs. The issue is that they are usually not alone, and have to compete with other cookie-cutter productions, and because of this many tracks like this which could have been rather successful hits end up missing the mark, and hitting Woolworth’s bargain bin within a fortnight of being released.

The second track, the defacto-remix of the title track, does not stray far from the original hit and simply ups the tempo and throws in a few extra effects. Throwaway track that adds little to no value to the release. The same goes for the third track, an unreleased track that was cut from the album “Come And Get It”.

Sadly for Rachel she went the same way so many popular names in British pop music go – into television. She has appeared on a dancing show, a few singing shows and to top it all off her song was used in an advert to sell sofas. She and the other original band members (to which none of them saw much success outside of S Club) are planning a reunion tour to replenish their bank accounts and tug at the nostalgic heart strings of the British public.

I like Geri Halliwell. I can’t sit here being in my early 20s, growing up through the late nineties and say I don’t know who she is or how she is popular. I like her more after recently watching a documentuary about her music career on the BBC, which revealed to me that deep down she is a sweet woman who simply just wants to entertain others with her singing and dancing. She was the first to split from the world-beating iconic girl group Spice Girls, which at the time came as a surprise and people wondered how well she would survive in the pop world alone. Well to begin with she did well, and then fizzled out by the middle of the following decade – a fate that seemed to affect a lot of defectors from 90s boy and girl bands.

Anyway, she managed to put out this track which is a very good pop track. It has that 90s cheesy feel, but with a little more sophistication. There is a lot of energy present on this track too, with Geri really going for it with the vocals. It does feel dated however, and rarely gets any air time these days. But I always enjoy it when I hear it.

The release also includes two remixes. The first is a standard issue house remix by Mark Picchiotti – it is ok, but again falls victim as with many of these bundled remixes as being very generic and uncreative. The second remix by Terminalhead brings a slightly different tactic, giving the title track a The Prodigyfeel with an upbeat techno mix – does this work with the original track, er not really.

All in all, a good pop track.