This Week’s Top Picks – 23rd November

Olly Murs –Troublemaker

This image shows Olly Murs stood against a bright blue background whilst holding his hat.He’s been pretty successful over here in the UK over the last couple of years, and now, as with most artists, he wants to try and crack America. And with a voice as unique and as catchy as his, he probably wouldn’t have much difficulty doing it alone. But in this new record, he’s teamed up with Flo Rida.

To be honest, it’s quite difficult to see why he’s done this. The majority of the song is typically Olly – it’s catchy, upbeat, and packs a punch of personality that gets you drumming along with it. Olly’s obviously still in the limelight with this one, but when Flo Rida comes in, it almost seems kind of pointless. I can see why you’d want to put someone into a song who’s already famous across the pond to try and crack it yourself, but this song is already so perfectly structured and loveable that it just seems unnecessary and waives the attention away slightly from Olly’s style. Still an amazing tune though!

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Girls Aloud – Something New

This image shows the five members of Girls Aloud stood in a line, wearing purple dresses and against an orange background.

It seems like an age since Girls Aloud announced they were taking a yearlong break, but now they’re finally back and arguably better than ever. Whilst the vocals on their comeback single ‘Something New’ still aren’t perfect, the catchiness and typical Girls aloud style make up for that!

For the first few listens, it’s likely to sound rather undesirable. As a definite grower, you really will have to listen a few times before it hits you. But when it hits, it’ll hit hard, and it’ll swallow up your head for the rest of the day. It stays true to their older stuff, with a poppy and light tone, but you can also see how they’ve all developed since they took a break. They’ve adapted their style ever so slightly, so that if fits in pretty much perfectly with the current charts. It’s definitely something new, and is brilliant!

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Example – The Evolution of Man

This image shows Example's album cover, which is of him holding a photo of himself as a child, whilst facing a huge crowd of peopleAs his fourth studio album, progression and development as an artist would of course be expected. And there’s definitely a lot of this. The album in general seems to have taken a slightly new angle, and when comparing it to his previous album, Playing In the Shadows, this change is in vision.

Far from being electric and quite uplifting, it actually seems more vapid and stripped back. Not in an extreme way though, in fact, there are sections where you’d probably not notice at all. Whilst it does sound really familiar, and tunes like Perfect Replacement are super clubby, it’s much deeper and his personality is glowing through in a way that’s almost blinding. The title of the record refers directly to Example himself, and the way in which he’s moved on from things like drugs. As you’d expect, it’s catchy. Very catchy, and the transitions between singing and rap are perfect. There’s just something really special and friendly about his voice that makes it impossible not to listen.

It easily sounds as good as his last couple of albums, and might just be his greatest one to date.