Not Your Average Kind Of Girl (Introduction - Alex Parks)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Introduction - Alex Parks
Date:	18/12/03 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: some great cover versions, 7 original tracks

Disadvantages: a bit samey

The first series of Fame Academy produced David Sneddon as its winner. A talented singer-songwriter, undoubtedly, but displaying little charisma and nothing to make him stand out amongst all the other pop stars of today. A year or so later, he had quit trying to get hit singles himself and turned to writing for other people.

How would the winner of the second series do? Would we be introduced to another Sneddon clone? It seemed that way when Alistair Griffin made the final two, but our winner this time was Alex Parks, something unique indeed.

The Press would not have expected such a winner initially. On paper, she didn’t fit the accepted pop star stereotype. Instead of the Rachel Stevens or Beyonce clone they probably had hoped for, they got something completely different - petite, gay, short spiky hair, moody, rarely smiling and rather quietly spoken. As one of her song titles says, she is ‘Not Your Average Kind Of Girl’ when it comes to pop stars.

However, when she sang, people forgot the image they had foreseen. Alex Parks has so many special qualities, it is hard not to sit up and take notice when she performs. Looking into the camera during the TV series, her emotion was obvious in both her face and voice and many people were moved to tears by such brutal honesty.

Suddenly this tiny woman sparkled. Unremarkable looking otherwise, her eyes opened endearingly and the viewers were drawn in. By the end of Fame Academy 2003, she was the expected winner and few questioned whether she deserved the title. But now she faced her hardest test. The public support for reality TV seems to be waning. Would her route to stardom become a hindrance, a Sword of Damocles set to cut her down?

Her first album - titled Introduction – was rushed out to try to capitalise on the success of the show. This meant that the thirteen tracks included many cover versions that she had sang so well on TV. While this often sat
isfies the fans who want a lasting reminder of how she performed on Fame Academy, it automatically provides ammunition for the critics who want to cut her down at the first opportunity.

Covering such tracks as John Lennon’s Imagine is an incredibly difficult task and it doesn’t always work as well as it did on TV. We miss seeing her eyes as she puts all her soul into each song and this means a simply aural interpretation can seem somewhat disappointing in comparison.

This is not to say it fails, as I don’t feel there is a bad track on the album, but her rendition of R.E.M.’s Everybody Hurts is nowhere near as good as it could be. On the other hand, she delivers a superb rendition of Tears For Fears’ Mad World (currently in the charts by Gary Jules) which is hauntingly beautiful and is my favourite version of this song.

Two of her most memorable performances on the show were when she sang Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful and Coldplay’s Yellow, so it is no surprise that these two are included on the album. Beautiful is a very hard song, as Aguilera’s vocal range is excellent, but Alex Parks is stunning and puts such feeling behind each line, that you can’t fail to be moved.

Despite the apparent haste to release the album to capitalise on the name of Fame Academy, Introduction still manages to contain seven tracks co-written by Alex herself. Easily the best of these is Maybe That’s What It Takes, her very successful first single. This is another emotional performance and a song which will stay with you. I can imagine still listing this as a favourite a decade from now.

Her other original songs are rather a mixed bunch, although none are so bad that I would skip them. Stones and Feathers stands out as being something a bit different, with many different shades of mood in it. At times, it veers towards rock before quietening down to almost a ballad – very effect
ive.

My least favourite track is the last one – Over Conscious. This is also on the single Maybe That’s What It Takes and I wasn’t impressed when I first heard it on there. It certainly wouldn’t have encouraged me to buy her album, if I was only judging her on this three-track single. Thankfully, her other co-written songs are much better than this one.

Overall though, it is a very good album and one I would recommend. Of course, if you don’t like Alex Parks’ way of singing, with her distinctive split-vowels, then you’ll probably find a whole album akin to the old fingernails down a board.

One criticism I have is that it does seem to be a similar pace throughout the majority of the tracks and she never really diverts from her moody image, to show a lighter side. Fans might soon tire of her angst, especially as she becomes older, but presumably, her songwriting skills will develop further and her future tracks will signify this.

For me, Introduction is pretty much an ideal showcase for Alex’s voice. Let’s hope the public and the record company are prepared to give her some time to display her talent, before writing her off. These days, people seem too willing to consign music stars into the Hear’say/One True Voice rejects bin and forget the successes of groups and singers such as Girls Aloud and Will Young.



INTRODUCTION by Alex Parks – published by Polydor.
Available from Amazon for £8.99
www.alexparksofficial.com

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