Joe McElderry: Wide Awake - review

If The X Factor's female winners have comprehensively outperformed their male counterparts, it's because the men are often less endowed with promising raw material. Last year's victor, Joe McElderry, is a case in point. Eight months in the making, his debut album aims for the sparkling disco insouciance of the Scissor Sisters and Mika, but is stymied by McElderry's perfectly characterless vocals. He's been pitted against layers of hissy synths and chattering drum machines, which only make the whole thing more anonymous, and on Until the Stars Run Out, Auto-Tune has been added for good measure, ensuring he sounds like everyone else who's made a pop record in 2010. On the plus side, current single Ambitions is catchy enough; even better, there are almost no ballads – his Christmas hit, The Climb, is included to remind us that the combination of tremulous teenage voice and slow-paced "inspirational" tune should never be allowed.