Aiden Grimshaw - Misty Eye

Aiden was a castoff on X-Factor UK and from the moment I saw him audition I knew there was something special about him. He is surely not a pop star in the current pop market of tarts and queers. He's more akin to the credible side of music, where bands like Radiohead and U2 reach lofty heights.

Sure, Misty Eye is a pop record in the strictest sense of the word, but at the same time it's difficult to envisage the symphonic title track or beat-laden 'This Island' receiving the karaoke treatment any time soon.  Lana Del Rey collaborator Jarrad Rogers was tapped to work with Grimshaw on Misty Eye and that was a great call for everyone involved as the album has a sound and a feeling that breathes life into the songs with emotion and desolateness that can wring you of all power while listening.

Athlete's Joel Pott and Steve Rushton - formerly in Busted off-shoot Son Of Dork - also make cameos as co-writers here. Pott's contribution, the Alex Clare-like 'Is This Love' falls under the weight of its own expectation trying to catch the dubstep gravy train. Rushton's efforts veer between the sublime reflective tones of the orchestral title track and atmospheric lament 'Poacher's Timing', to the closing number 'Curtain Call', which briefly strays into Williams territory via Andreas Johnson's (remember him?) 1999 hit 'Glorious'.

'What We Gonna Be' is one of the few moments that see Grimshaw fall flat on his face as he apes Tinne Tempa's "Written In The Stars". The song is almost laughable and really derails a good album. Grimshaw's subdued take on Sia's 'Breathe Me' also suffers from piano-ballad-by-numbers syndrome, while self-referential slowie 'Be Myself' wins first prize for stating the bleeding obvious ("I gotta be myself, no one else...").

Aiden's intense stage persona oozes through his deeply fervent lyrics of heartbreak and despair. "Behind my eyes I'm terrified/ Now you're gone," he admits on "This Island", before declaring that the solitary space is "suicidal". It's painfully hard stuff, but refreshingly honest. His chances of winning The X-Factor UK may have ended criminally early, but Misty Eye is beyond a winner's album. It's interesting, it's daring and, most importantly of all, it's Aiden's.