Matt Cardle...

During series seven of The X Factor, Aiden Grimshaw – bequiffed and possessing the earnest air of someone who wrote a lot of poetry – was one of the favourites to win, his rendition of Tears For Fears' Mad

World on the first live show displaying some semblance of star power (the Twilight-esque pallor may have helped too). But, as with any character trait that emerges on The X Factor, this natural propensity for seriousness was repackaged as caricature and by week six his dismal cover of Rocket Man saw him booted off in favour of Katie Waissel.
While Matt Cardle went on to win, it was assumed Grimshaw would join the pub circuit and nothing would be heard from him again. Well, last week he released Is This Love, the first single from his forthcoming album Misty Eye, and very good it is too. It harnesses that intensity ("there's a fiery eye in the middle of the dark sea, and it's pulling me down and I can't breathe", goes one lyric) and bolting it onto a 90s-influenced, almost trip-hop beat that explodes underneath a huge chorus to create something simultaneously intimate and epic.