New Release: Joe McElderry - Last Christmas

December 19, 2011 Critic Jonni 0 Comments

I was struggling for what to do for New Release, since it's my Christmas week Special, I needed a new release that coincided with Christmas but which also had a music video. I wanted to do Stacey Solomon's "Driving Home For Christmas" however there isn't a music video for it, which is quite worrying,, so after looking at all the others I didn't have a clue what to do, since some doesn't have a link with Christmas, whereas others did but didn't have a music video. This one was a last resort, due to the fact that this is quite short, so probably doesn't count much as a music video, and also hasn't made the iTunes top 1000 downloads as of yet, so could this suggest that this song isn't going to chart?

Joe McElderry won The X Factor back in 2009. His competitors, who have also managed to release songs and become quite known were, Olly Murs (second), Stacey Solomon (third), Danyl Johnson (fourth), Lloyd Daniels (fifth), Jedward (sixth), Jamie Archer now in band Archer (seventh). Joe McElderry has gone up against his former competitor Stacey Solomon this week to see who will get the highest chart position, and if iTunes is anything to go by Stacey Solomon has totally won. After just one album, Joe was released from his contract with Syco, and was then launched into Popstar to Operastar, which he won. Now, under Decca Records, Joe has released 2 albums, one of which got to Number two on the UK Albums chart, which is his highest album chart position to date.

This song is a cover of Wham!'s well known single "Last Christmas". Joe is not the only artist releasing this song this week, as a matter of fact, The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) cast has released this single too (and their single is in the iTunes chart, so where is Joe?) The song was written by George Michael, and has been covered a number of times, including Cascada, Billie Piper and The Crazy Frog. It doesn't look like Joe has a chance of getting into the chart this week, which is unfortunate as he is a really good singer, which is why he has won two singing competitions so far.

The music video is quite short, would I call it a music video? I'm not sure, it is short and I bet the song on "Classic Christmas" or even on the single, is much longer than this. It suggests that this could merely be an advertisement for his album, but for the time being we're going to presume it's a music video.

It's got a lot to do with Christmas, and I like the use of the snow, it makes it even more celebratory, will we have a white Christmas this year? We've had a bit of snow, so it's always possible... It also looks like Joe is having a Christmas party, but all he is doing is singing rather than having conversations with his friends and family.

There is no relationship with the song and the video, for all we know this music video could have been given to any of his songs on his album, as there is no narrative whatsoever. Also some of the time, Joe is singing and his lips are moving at the wrong time so the music doesn't quite match up. This is heightened right at the end, because what he is singing in the video and what he is singing on the track are different.

Overall this looks like a very simple music video, with not a lot happening and not much of a link to the song. It could have been a lot better, and they could have at least matched what he is saying up to the track a lot better. It's an okay music video but I really don't think it is that good, therefore my rating isn't that high.