It's an unwritten rule - enter a TV pop show and you may get fifteen minutes of fame, but you can kiss any chance of a long-term career goodbye. Well, Will Young is determined to be the exception to that rule - and two years after he won Pop Idol, he's proving to be far more resilient than most critics had predicted. On the best moments on Friday's Child, you can hear why: Young has a genuinely great voice, a throaty pop-soul croon that has a real emotional punch. Unfortunately, the album also demonstrates that Young's songwriting still has a long way to go, and his choice of cover versions (e.g. Crosby, Stills and Nash's 'Love the One You're With') is often alarmingly dodgy. No matter how hard he tries, it seems that Young just can't help sounding like a watered-down version of someone else, with George Michael, Craig David and Simply Red being his most obvious role models. Considering his origins, Young deserves real credit for lasting this long - but without a major re-invention, his time may soon be up.
