‘The X Factor’ UK review: Four of Diamonds, Freddy Parker, Relley C take on Motown songs
Your Saturday night starts right here! Well, it at least starts in front of the television set watching the latest episode of “The X Factor” UK. We’re going to have a chance to see Motown music from all of the remaining eleven acts, and that includes the epic return of Four of Diamonds after being previously eliminated. Were it not for Louis Walsh losing Brooks Way due to some controversy outside of the show, they wouldn’t be getting this chance.
As you would expect, we’re going to have updates throughout the show as to how all of the remaining acts fare this week! We’re hoping to see some big things, but we figure in the process there’ll be a few who struggle to keep things going within this theme.
Freddy Parker, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Good start to the show. Really nice energy, and he seemed to embrace the long and its lyrics well. The one thing we’d change for him is not moving around as much. Given this particular song choice, we would’ve just let him be stationary at the mic stand, using that almost as an anchor. While not vocally incredible, he got the job done.
Emily Middlemas, “Stop in the Name of Love” – We do think that Emily has a rather solid voice, but pairing her with this track was a tad too dreary. We still prefer her with her guitar creating something personal over something that utilizes the huge production around her. This was good, but it could’ve been great.
Matt Terry, “Heard It Through the Grapevine” – We’ll start this off by saying that we don’t really love this as a singing-competition song. Yet, this is about as soulful and as alluring a version of this song as we’re going to get. This was very impressive, and easily the best performance of the night to date.
Relley C, “Ain’t No Sunshine” – She totally nailed the dramatics of the song. While we do think she strained on a few notes as the song went along, we didn’t mind it as much given that so much of it seemed to come from a place of passion as opposed to desperately trying to impress viewers.
Sam Lavery, “Hello” – With all of the times in which the judges praised Sam for her “rock” voice, we’d love to see her move even further into doing something within that genre. This was very good and she conveyed the lyrics of the Lionel Ritchie song; we just still think she could do even more moving forward.
5 After Midnight, “Get Ready” / “I’ll Be There” – This was a really good mash-up with strong vocals, great dance moves, and plenty of charisma. While Matt may have had the best vocals of the night so far, this is the best performance of the night so far. These guys could actually win it on Louis Walsh’s team.
Ryan Lawrie, “Superstitious” – Poor Ryan. He performed after 5 After Midnight, he got swallowed by the music at times, and his vocals were a little all over the place in terms of pitch. Based on what we’re hearing from him at this point, he’s not ready for the big leagues.
Honey G, original rap with a Motown twist – This was basically the same thing as last week, except not as good. The biggest problem with Honey G as a rapper, beyond just the questionable talent, is that there’s no message to her music other than “look at how amazing I am.” We liked Honey G last week; this was the tipping point. We’re over it now.
Gifty Louise, “Rockin’ Robin” – We don’t really love the song choice for her (it’s a little hokey), but we do think that, like Matt, she made the absolute most of the choice. Good energy, great stage presence, and her vocals were significantly better than what we saw last week.
Saara Aalto, “River Deep, Mountain High” – Saara continues to put everything into her performances. The one thing that we continue to wonder if it’s almost too much, and to some viewers out there, maybe they want her to dial it back. Occasionally she did go so hard with the notes here that her pitch went all over the place.
Four of Diamonds, “Keep Me Hanging On” – It’s great to see the four ladies back on the show again, given that they should have been here in the first place. This was good, but at the same time they have a disadvantage with this being their first performance in that you don’t really get a sense of their sound. They’ve got potential, but they need time to grow.
Now, we turn this over to you: Vote for your favorite below!
Want to see where we ranked everyone before the show began? Then be sure to head over here! We’ll be back tomorrow with some more news on the results. (Photo: ITV.)