Never Been Better: Olly Murs
SONY MUSIC, Rs 599
In India, Olly Murs has quite the fan following, with his hits Dance With Me and Troublemaker making up playlists all over. His latest album, Never Been Better, has a brand new set of thirteen tracks and four bonus tracks.
The album opens with the funky Did You Miss Me? that would make anyone ask the question if we really did miss him. Listen to this album and you’ll know if he is welcome or not! He croons: “I’m here tonight and taking back what’s mine…”; a good way to show that he’s back and ready to take over the charts again.
Wrapped Up, with some neat rapping by Travie McCoy, puts the former X-Factor runner-up in a superior spot with charm and charisma. Beautiful To Me, on which Olly shows off his falsetto, is a beautiful love song about his girl never changing who she is. Demi Lovato features on the duet Up; the chorus is lovable making it a feel-good tune and a great male-female, Brit-US collaboration.
Seasons, written by Ryan Tedder, is beautiful, it has good break beats that builds a very melodic, funky pop sing-a-long. The lyrics, “Listen honey to every word I say, I know that you don’t trust me, (But) I’m better than the stories about me, Everybody messes up somedays, Ain’t got no rhyme or reason, All I know is I’m yours, yours, yours for every season…”, are to die for.
The second half of the album is a bit forgettable, but still contains some good songs. The ballad Nothing Without You shows off Olly’s voice extremely well, while title track Never Been Better is a powerful song about being confident and never stopping until your goals are reached. Hope You Got What You Came is pure pop material that sadly loses its edge midway. Stick With Me is another mid-slow piece, while the plodding, piano-led ballad Tomorrow has good moments. The folksy and gospel-tinged Let Me In is easily one of the best songs on the album. Among the four bonus pieces we’d go for We Still Love, a mish-mash of heavy instrumentation and a raging chorus, Ready For Love and History.
Melodic, upbeat British pop is what Olly brings to the table on his fourth album and from what we have heard, we quite like it. Besides song lyrics, the inlay has photos of Olly in different moods.
Verus Ferreira is a music journalist for over three decades. He is the author of The Great Music Quiz Book and The Great Rock Music Quiz Book and the founder of Musicunplugged.in
