So my wish got fulfilled, a chick won The X Factor US and she's one of them big-piped powerhouses and despite this fact they're not doing the lullaby album thing, this could actually turn out to be pretty damn good if we get some Roc Nation writers on this...I started trying to get all the iTunes versions of the performances yesterday, a lot of the tracks aren't all that special, he gave some boring ballads a harder beat of course if nothing else but a couple of them are awesome, like remixes of the original tracks with Claude bgvs on some tracks etc...I'll box the more interesting tracks some time when I've got all of them but if you wanna check this chick out due to Christmas boredom, give her version of Adele's Someone Like You a listen, you won't regret it, it's like an Alexandra Burke cover produced by StarGate & Sandy Vee and oozes Claude as well, I'm guessing that's the direction for the album...

Unfortunately Melanie does have a slight tendency towards Bitchoncéism at times, but has also at least shown she knows how to hold back, and S&K don't usually allow too much oversinging so that might not be a problem. Her tone is actually closer to Whitney Houston's overall.

Also, if you wanna hear some more...Soul did way more than I thought he did [I thought he only did LA's acts], I don't know if he did literally everything as some of them are pretty straightforward remakes of the original tracks and it's hard to tell but it's definetly a lot...anyway, these are the best I've heard so far :

Chris Rene - Love Don't Live Here Anymore...he's a horrible singer [and he's white and also raps, he's 28 and has the tackiest sound, how he ever made it as far as he did is a mystery to me...his song for the finals was Avril Lavigne's Complicated for crying out loud] but the beat is awesome, soulful music but a much harder beat than their mixes of the original track...

Drew Ryniewicz - Just A Dream...no idea whose track this originally is but I doubt it sounds much like this version, she'the young Rock chick with a Country background [she's 14 I think], this is one of those Apologize-esque tracks that has basic piano & guitar [and some great Guy Sigsworth-esque bassines] but with synths & a heavy beat...

Josh Krajcik - We Found Love...guitar-driven [but still dancey even though he's like the old hairy rock guy of the show] and no annoying synth/sample/whatever it is, replaced with a cutesy StarGate-esque string section like Lay Up Under Me, wish we'd gotten this as a proper remix cause I do like the song in general and as far as cutesy dance tracks go it's real good...

Marcus Canty - PYT, very current-sounding version with tons of Claude...he's also not half bad, sounds like he could use some more practice performing, he often sounds consistently flat throughout the entire song or something, like he's in a fraction of the wrong key but I think he'd do fine on a proper studio track...you'll also like what Soul did for his his version of MJB's I'm Going Down...

Rachel Crow - I'd Rather Go Blind...she's the little girl [well not so little, but 13] that threw a tantrum over not winning, she fell on her knees and cried to her mama screaming why and saying her mama promised her she was gonna win etc...apparently her mother is a crack fiend like you and she was raised by hick relatives...anyway she could use some refinement [but not lose the accent lol!] but she's got potential if she steers clear of Beyoncé-esque antics, give her Priscilla & Dean tracks and she should be fine...but apparently she's been approached by Disney for acting, which probably means Mickey will force her to sign to them as a singer as well, and she'll have an album full of Dapo written by Drew Ryan Scott and Rock Mafia tracks...athough Dapo does work with Dean & Priscilla, there's some hope yet lol...

OMG no way I had NO IDEA S&K had such a big input on the productions on the show I saw Claude helping the contestants the other day but that's AWESOME that they have such a big input into the performances/arrangements etc I will definitely check them out

And SO glad we got another singing diva with big names seen as poor Pia Toscano seems to be stalling before she's started despite 'This Time' being such hot shit!

My guess is Karlin took a nice 3 month break lol with maybe a session here and there...

I now know Matt Squire & Kool Kojak also did music for the show, a lot of the rockier tracks are obviously Squire, they seemed a bit weird [as Soul tracks] to me so that makes sense, some of the electro-poppier tracks are Kool Kojak obviously, I think I've figured most of them out by now. I have all the iTunes versions so I can up 'em all some time, I'll just make a general X-Factor folder in the SoulPower one for now and up some stuff as long as I feel like it, def check out Someone Like You, We Found Love & PYT though...

It seems doubtful to me that the whole album is gonna be Soul/Karlin/Hurley/Biker, would be a really odd decision but I wouldn't complain

O/T but did you listen to that Claude demo "Nasty Girl" that leaked a week or 2 ago? Guessing it's for Chris Brown and S&K...it's kind of your generic current SG & SV / Guetta-esque beat so I'm not sure why I think it's S&K but there must be something to make me think that [lol]

Ooh awesome I never thought I'd be this excited about live X-Factor tracks LOVE the way they've reinvented it and finally got people who know MUSIC onboard

Nope I'll download it though sounds good