Stolen straight from the Popjustice forums, which in turn took it from his official site:It's been ages since we heard news from Shayne Ward, but, as if I wasn't excited enough already for his third album, he's just revealed he's been recording with Quiz & LaRossi and Xenomania.
Amazing news. Add that to the fact he was working with Taio Cruz (I'm imagining him doing something like Avenue's original version of the Taio-penned "Set Your Body Free" or Taio's "Come On Girl") and it seems like he's headed in the right direction for his new album. While on paper I should have loved his last album--and in reality it was good, certainly better than the reputation it has--it didn't quite stick the way I wanted it to (though "No U Hang Up" took the title of my second favorite single of 2007 in my countdown). I'm not entirely sure why; maybe I felt like it was missing any bite or edge, though by "edge" I don't actually mean edgy, boundaries-pushing sounds necessarily but rather more music with a bit of a hard edge to it. I loved "No U Hang Up" and "Damaged," though, and both of those had a super-polished, cuddly, rounded-edges sound that apparently didn't bother me, so I'm not entirely positive that that's the right explanation.
Anyway, based on the collaborators for this new album (which also include Future Cut, the Underdogs, and Karen Poole), it's looking like if that was indeed what I felt the album was missing, that could be remedied here. I'm equally excited about Quiz & LaRossi, who've been on a roll recently, and Xenomania, who, short of the Pet Shop Boys, we haven't really heard work with male acts for quite some time. I still think Shayne has (here comes this phrase again) real popstar potential, so I hope he's taken in the right directions this time.
(This feels like a good time to revisit that album and see if I love it any more after some time has passed.)
