It's time to face the music!

Well, another year, another X Factor is finally upon us, and after tonight's dramatic Judges' Houses stage of the competition, the final line-up for this series is now confirmed. Naturally, we're sure you're all clamouring to hear what we think of the final 12, so here we go.

THE BOYS (Mentor: Dannii Minogue)

We'll let you all in on a little secret. Dannii Minogue is actually our favourite X Factor judge, purely for her ability to counteract Cheryl's inevitable ridiculousness with some common sense (last year's unfortunate "outing" incident was very much the exception which proved the rule for us). We therefore had high hopes when we found that Ms. Minogue was in charge of the promising, but fairly homogonous boys' group. We were hoping that she would extract from the sam-iness of the group a diverse line-up which gave her three different acts to work with.

Oh how we were disappointed. Aiden Grimshaw was her first pick and, despite interesting vocals, seems to develop a clear case of narcolepsy whenever he sings. Sure he'll pick up the teenage girl vote and "mums will love him" but he was a prime case of someone who could have done a lot better by coming back in a few years once he'd acquired some more experience. How he was picked over the sublime Paije Richardson remains a mystery. Paige's performance was absolutely brilliant, and, for us, was the first time that we really got what he was all about. I hope he comes back next year and gets that spot on the live shows. 

Next up was a little bit brighter, as the diva-esque Nicolo Festa brought the unbridled arrogance on his version of Paloma Faith's brilliant New York. Whilst Nicola's confidence is undoubtedly going to turn him into this year's Rhydian, there's just something very appealing about his unashamed self-belief and I think he's going to create some fantastic TV on the live shows.

Finally, Matt Cardle deservedly earned his place in the final, although at times his rendition of If I Were A Boy bordered on the downright bizarre. Nonetheless, he's got a brilliant vocal talent, and crucially, the glimpse we got at the end indicated that Dannii and the team have unleashed the stylists on him so that he's now miraculously hot rather than someone who might be selling weed on street corners.

On paper, it's a very strong line-up, but the three are a bit too similar for our liking. Paije in particular could have really helped broaden this group's appeal and, whilst the three of them all bring enough to the table to be strong competitors in the competition, I have a horrible feeling that Dannii's playing it safe could really come back to bite her.

Overall choice: 6/10

One to watch: Matt Cardle and/or Nicolo Festa

THE OVER 28s (Mentor: Louis Walsh)

Let's be honest, Louis drew the shortest straw imaginable here. First of all, he could have saved that by putting through the amazing Wagner (seriously, we absolutely loved him. His almost complete lack of a viable singing voice was very much by-the-boy once his neckwear was brought into the equation). Personally, we're really not fussed about Mary "have I mentiond I work in Tesco" Byrne, particularly since we can't really see how working in Tesco is in anyway a suitable sob story, and I thought her rendition of Fix You was awful enough even without her forgetting the words. On a plus point, I loved that they've decided to turn her into a Dawn French lookalike. Amazing.

Similarly Storm "His name's not Storm" Lee is about as dull as ditchwater and has only been put through to piss off Simon. Which is fine, but for our money he really doesn't have "it" and I expect him to be booted off fairly early on.

There is a glimmer of hope for Louis, however, in the form of John Adeleye. We picked him out early on as a possible contender after his beautiful rendition of Ain't No Sunshine in the auditions. He's the only one who brings the attractiveness to this category and his song choice of Billionaire was absolutely inspired. A stunning voice and I think if he survives past the first few weeks he could be a real contender.

Mary is probably the one who is going to get the furthest in this competition, but until she starts bringing something impressive to the table which we just haven't seen yet. We really have our fingers crossed for John in the meantime, though.

Overall choice: 5/10 (mainly for Wagner's absence)

One to watch: John Adeleye

THE GROUPS (Mentor: Simon Cowell)

We take back what we said about Louis. Simon's got the biggest challenge on his hands this series with the uninspiring groups. We were surprised Husstle didn't make it through as they seemed genuinely able to bring something a bit different to the table. So in the end we're stuck with F.Y. "don't call us JLS" D. who in the early stages of their audition brought some shocking vocals to the table but managed to find some harmony somewhere along the way and made an attempt at movement. Joining them are the two manufactured groups Belle Amie (who summoned up an interesting take of George Michael's Faith even if the vocals felt very weak at times) and One Direction (who we really can't summon up any interest for whatsoever, even if the two leads have pleasant enough voices). Putting the two groups thrown together at bootcamp doesn't give an awful lot of optimism for any self-made groups who come along to audition next year, really, does it?

Overall choice: 3/10

Ones to watch: Belle Amie

THE GIRLS (Mentor: Cheryl Cole)

CONTROVERSY ALERT! We'll get right down to it: the omission of Gamu in Cheryl's final line-up was absolutely perplexing given how much of a dead cert she seemed in the auditions. And, after a brilliant performance at Cheryl's house, she must have thought she was secure of that live final place. Especially when Katie and Cher, who sis get through, couldn't even complete their songs. Nonetheless, Katie and Cher have been the talking points of this competition from the very start: Cher is frankly a licence for Simon Cowell to print money and Katie is just the right mix of talented/batshit crazy to go far. On that basis, we're not disappointed that they've gone through but for both of them to get the nod after so vividly fucking it up is a downright shame. 

Cheryl's first choice, however, was on much safer ground with Rebecca Ferguson who delivered a sublime version of Fireflies which Cheryl herself could learn a lot from. I'm not particularly sold on Rebecca's voice but I couldn't fault that performance. What we would say, though, is that it wouldn't have hurt her at all to be told to come back in a couple of years time after she's conquered her nerves. Yes, Katie and Cher have royally screwed up on the nerves front but, when they bring the confidence, they tend to hit the button. Rebecca delivers good performances but looks constantly terrified and that vulnerability will either make people fall in love with her or send them to sleep.

Cheryl's category is filled with controversy, and I think that Katie and Cher now face a real uphill battle where they didn't earlier to regain some of their credibility. I really hope they manage it because we have very high hopes for both of them to go all the way to the final.

Overall choice: 4/10

One to watch: Katie Waissel

So, a very controversial year, really, with none of the judges, for our money, getting things completely right (with Cheryl and Dannii in particular really dropping themselves in it). But, what's done is done, and let's set aside rumours of wildcard categories for now. If these twelve remain the only contestants in the live shows, which one of them do we think is going to win? Our heart holds out high hopes for Katie Waissel, Cher Lloyd and John Adeleye in particular. That said, I have a feeling this will be a "dark horse" year... To that end, The Pop Web's pick for the X Factor 2010 is...

... And they keep on coming

Ruth Lorenzo broke our hearts the other day by announcing that she had split from her record label EMI. The good news, however, is that this appears to have accelerated the possibility of finally getting our hands on some of her material. To that end, you can download the exclusive and new track Eternity from Lorenzo's official website The Raspberry Pattern.

Eternity is exactly how Ruth describes it, haunting and melancholy with none of the more divisive power-balled posturing which we loved but which we accept might not have been everybody's cup of tea. It's a well-crafted yet simple song, which certainly bodes well for future material. Certainly this is a very brave move splitting from a lucrative recording contract and going it alone. It's not a path we advocate for everyone wishing to put out an album. Yet for Lorenzo this may be the best way to go, inviting fans into the album production process and hopefully meaning that we can all get our hands on it sooner.

Why are so excited by the prospect of  a Ruth Lorenzo album? It's simple, by far, Ruth is our favourite X-Factor alumnus not to have won the competition. In a very tough year (with Alexandra, JLS and Diana Vickers as competition no less) Ruth carved out a niche and an identity by simply "belting them out" with passion and a voice which could shatter glass at a hundred paces (in a good way, obv.) And again, whilst we accept (but wholeheartedly disagree) that not everyone appreciates a diva who can belt out a power ballad at terminal velocity, we simply couldn't help feeling that Lorenzo had a voice and a aptitude for performing which was truly special. As a result we can't wait to see how Lorenzo has transferred and applied that to original material. Naturally, we'd quite like to get a full studio recording of her performance of Purple Rain (which we controversially feel is the best X Factor performance in the show's history), but we'll settle for some interesting songs and the one-woman revival of the power ballad thank you very much.

After all, this is a woman who absolutely perfected a move we like to call "the power ballad stance" (think Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance" but with bigger hair and softer lighting).

Lest we forget the X Factor alumnus who actually has a song to promote...

We at The Pop Web would obviously, along with the rest of the Internet, like to extend our congratulations to Joe McElderry for coming out just before the release of his second single at such a young age. Role model, brave, etc.

All joking aside, this appears to have been very well-handled, and is undoubtedly the best thing all round both for Joe's welfare and his public profile ahead of the inevitable intense public scrutiny which will come both from this announcement and the upcoming album launch.

That said, we don't really want to talk about Joe, we (inexplicably) want to talk about the runner up in the 2009 X Factor, Olly Murs. You know, the one who seemed to be the lovechild of Will Young and Gary Barlow. The one who, whilst not our cup of tea, had the unenviable task of somehow trying to stop Robbie Williams forgetting the lyrics to his own song. (Let's set aside for now the fact that despite this being the final of the biggest singing competition of the year, the whole thing still managed to sound no better than your average drunken pub singalong).

Anyhoos, we really didn't have high hopes for the inevitable "runner-up" career which Olly was clearly going to be launching (and not just because we were devout Stacy Solomon fans). Yet, six months have now passed, winter's schmaltzy light entertainment has given way to the hot piercing glare of a crowded Summer music scene and Olly has stepped back into the limelight with new single Please Don't Let Me Go. Here's the video. It's a bit stately.



A few points to note. Firstly, if you thought "he sounds a bit like Will Young" when he performed on the X-Factor, you'll be pleased to know that absolutely no effort has been put into disguising this similarity on this record. Oh well, we suppose that if Will himself can't crack the top 10 with an amazing single then we suppose we can't object too strongly at the presence of his vocal doppelganger having a stab at it.

Secondly, this video pleasingly contains a staircase-based dance routine. This, we feel is a highly underutilised tool in the pop arsenal and, we would further suggest, is what saved Hear'Say's Loving Is Easy from being a complete train-wreck.

Thirdly, and this is probably the most important bit. Please Don't Let Me Go is actually not bad at all. I mean, yes, it might as well come with a health warning saying "this will only sound good in Summer" as any single released by a Caucasian with something approaching a reggae beat inevitably does. Lyrically, it doesn't exactly break poetic barriers, but it does the job, which is to make Olly look something approaching a credible pop star. If you are expecting a modern day Bohemian Rhapsody, you were always going to be solidly disappointed. The fact is, that this is solid stuff, which is all it really needs to be. It's a likable, pleasant Summer single which, at the very least, is a much better introduction to a post-X Factor career than The Climb turned out to be for Joe.

Time will tell whether this is the start of a long and lucrative pop career for Murs. What we will say, however, is that it's a perfectly competent first step. And frankly, if Will Young's time in the commercially--viable spotlight is over, we could think of worse replacements.

That said, it'll probably be best all round if Olly learns his lesson from last December and doesn't return any of Robbie's calls.

More Tea, Vickers?

We're becoming a little worried now. Diana Vickers is about to launch her second single on the world, The Boy Who Murdered Love



It's bloody brilliant.

Yes, this brings the number of Diana Vickers songs which we don't dislike at all up to a grand total of 2. This already beats her total of likeable performances on The X Factor and thus far represents a 100% hit rate. Plus, they've kitted that video set out with some brilliant furniture (we particularly like the mirror above the fireplace).

Yes, Boy Who Murdered Love is essentially once with the tiniest bit of modulation on the vocals and the lyrics, but if it's formulaic, it's winningly formulaic. Diana's people are doing the important job of selecting songs which work with Vickers' divisive voice and in the process are creating some interesting pop music with a sound which is more grown up than most "Factor" alumni could ever dream of. It's certainly a whole world away from this fiasco:



And with that admission we're off to lie in a darkened room and listen to Once.