Alexandra Burke – Overcome

When reality TV talent show winners win we’re sure they’re very excited about their careers and all the exciting people that will want to work with them and they are sure that the dream that they have dreamed for so long will finally become true. For many though the dream is still a dream/ gets kicked in the face as they’re forced to sing tedious covers rush released for Mothers’ Day and are then dropped into obscurity, never to be heard from again except for an add on MySpace where they have longer hair and songs played on guitar about hating The Man.

Alexandra is in luck because the ‘management’ have decided she doesn’t have to be one of those people. They’ve clearly tried to differentiate her from Leona by giving her some upbeat songs and these are the best songs on the album. Bad Boys, the best selling single of the year so far, is a romping stomping ode to fancying ‘players’. Broken Heels is Red One produced with a boys versus girls “Anything you can do I can do better” theme. Dumb is full of cool little breakdowns and Nothing But The Girl is a bit trancey. There’s a HELLO RADIO 2 moment in You Broke My Heart, co-written by Pixie Lott with brass and ‘powerhouse’ vocals. The duet with Ne-Yo has a good line in “Is it good night or is it good morning” but the song plods a bit. There are also a few ballads on the album but they aren’t very exciting.

Alexandra’s personality is bubbly but safe and that’s the general feel of the album. It’s not brilliant but it’s enough to keep us interested and with the right choice in singles then Alexandra could do really well. We just hope that she doesn’t need to release one of the ballads to crack America.

Hear Dumb here.