Album review: Matt Terry - Trouble
The path of the X Factor victor is about as unstable as the San Andreas Fault in the action movie bearing the same name starring Dwayne Johnson.
Some are superstars. Others…
So before we even look at the music, there are some interesting X Factor stats that might tell us more about Matt Terry – the 2016 winner – than any music review could.
For the superstitious among our readers – he is the 13th winner of the contest. Put off yet?
He is only the second winner to have finished in the bottom two at any point in the competition. The first? James Arthur – and he hasn’t done too badly. But on the other hand, he is only the second to release an original material single upon winning the show. His was the Ed Sheeran-penned When Christmas Comes Around. The last victor to do that? Shayne Ward. So we might be seeing Matt in a soap before too long after all.
But enough of the stats, what about the substance? Matt can clearly sing. You don’t win a multi-million-grossing TV talent contest if you can’t. He’s got a good range, and he can sing in Spanish as easily as English.
He does so here, on the soft ballad Romeo Y Juliet. It is a tender love story as you can imagine, but the mystery added by the language switch gives another layer to the acoustic heartstrings.
But there is a lot here he does seem to have heard elsewhere and doctored. Take the title track. We aren’t quite sure how anybody can release a song powered by these beats so close to Sheeran’s dominant Shape Of You without being called up on it.
The album follows a path like the full circle of a relationship. From that excited first gravitational pull to the often inevitable implode. So those who may have just been hurt might want to listen to Don’t Ask for help to get back on their feet. The upbeat undercurrent will help broken hearts soar.
It’s not ground-breaking and so leaves us unsure which direction of previous X Factor winners Matt will follow. For harmless inoffensive pop, though, this ticks the box.
Rating: 6/10
