Album Review: Rebecca Ferguson - Heaven

Posted by Anthony - 3rd February 2012

Oh no, I hear you say, not another album from an X Factor contestant. Surely it's going to be the usual glossy pap we've come to expect from this source. Well, here's a pleasant surprise. Heaven by Rebecca Ferguson is in fact rather good and deserves its early popularity.

Rebecca Ferguson entered The X Factor in 2010 and was the eventual runner-up to Matt Cardle. She made a somewhat unlikely contestant, her quiet manner and soulful voice at odds with the brash nature of the show. I thought at the time that she would not progress far as real talent often falls at the early hurdles. But no, Rebecca made it to the final before inevitably losing out to the young girls' heartthrob.

Having signed up to Syco Music and Epic Records, Rebecca made it clear she was not going to record the pre-selected songs chosen for her. She wanted to record personal songs and insisted on writing her own material. The 10 songs on Heaven were co-written with several songwriters including Eg White (Adele, James Morrison, Duffy) and Steve Booker (Duffy). The material covers all aspects of relationships and sounds to me as though it is based on personal experience.

There seem to have been 6 producers involved with Heaven, one of them being Eg White, and they have given the album a soul/R&B/jazzy feel which suits Rebecca's voice and vocal style. You can hear the Motown, Philly and disco influences in the arrangements which are, in the main, kept understated. Likewise Rebecca keeps her voice under control and does not attempt the shrieking histrionics which many a female vocalist thinks passes for a current singing style.

The opening track is Nothing Real But Love which was the lead single. This is a strong song with a gospel style arrangement. In fact the first 6 songs are all very good with intelligent and mature lyrics and sympathetic arrangements. Oddly, the last 4 tracks are the weakest - peculiar track listing!

The best song on the album is Shoulder To Shoulder. Just sample the lyrics:

"And we fight and we cry and tell the same lies about love,
We cling to each other shoulder to shoulder against the world,
So I wanna drag you down whilst you drag me down,
And I'm gonna shout at you whilst you shout at me,
Until we realise that real love is free."

Now you didn't expect that from an X Factor contestant, did you?

All in all this is a very confident first album. A personal journey through 10 mature songs delivered with a soulful voice. Based on this first album I have a feeling that Rebecca Ferguson could, in the long run, turn out to be the most successful of the X Factor contestants to date.