Olly Murs has been climbing his way to the top of the charts since he came second in 2009’s X Factor, having released 2 commercially successful albums (self titled Olly Murs and In Case You Didn’t Know) which have spawned umpteen hit singles; he’s been doing pretty well for himself. It’s hard to believe he came runner up to Joe McElderry. Right Time Right Place is Olly’s third full length album, and it has topped the UK album charts for the past 2 weeks, and you can see why.
The album is everything his fans want, catchy songs, high profile collaborations and anthemic Take That-esque choruses (I was honestly surprised that I didn’t see Gary Barlow’s name in the list of songwriters!). Lead single, ‘Troublemaker’, has already been a huge smash; you can’t turn on the radio or TV without hearing it in some form, and of course the high profile collaboration with Flo Rida has done nothing but help the huge success the song found. Album opener, ‘Army of Two’, really shows Murs taking influence from Take That (and you can see why the constant comparisons to Robbie Williams happen). The use of full orchestration adds drama to the song and creates a great opening track. The album then passes through ‘Trouble Maker’ and to ‘Loud & Clear’. This is the first ballad on the album; and is every cliché of a pop song. Electronic strings, a chanted bit after the chorus and piano. It shows Olly going back to X Factor style performances, which is a shame as he’s shown he can perform in ways that are far more classy than going back to the X Factor gimmicks.
‘Dear Darlin’ sounds like ‘Oh My Goodness part II’, but then comes the album namesake ‘Right Place Right Time’ which is great. It sounds like old school The Wanted (not meant in a bad way), and although it’s a simple song it works. ‘Hand on My Heart’ could have easily been missed off the album and nobody would’ve noticed, it didn’t add anything. A couple more mediocre songs come and go including ‘Cry Your Heart Out’; these tracks are just filler. The album closer ‘One of These Days’ is one of the most monotonous; an odd choice to end the album as there are some good songs on this record but this track doesn’t make me want to listen again.
There are some great songs on the album and all loyal Murs fans will love it. I just feel that it’s too long, and there are a lot of tracks that could’ve been missed off. The tracks will undoubtedly do well commercially; but they’re all very clichéd and it’s nothing new and striking on the pop scene. A solid effort, but nothing groundbreaking.
5/10
