13 December 2012
How come we never have X Factor winners’ singles back in the charts every Christmas? After all, they dominated the Christmas number one spot in the UK and Ireland for the guts of a decade. Surely someone somewhere gets a warm seasonal glow of nostalgia for these soundtracks to their Yuletide ’00s and early ’10s, right? Unwrapping Leon Jackson’s ‘When You Believe’! Arguing with your family in a righteous Rage Against The Machine! Rocking around the Christmas tree to Matt Cardle’s ‘When We Collide’! If only Simon Cowell had the foresight to throw in some snowballs and sleigh bells, or even make them cover versions of much-loved festive hits – ‘Stan’ and ‘Fairytale Of New York’ and the like.
‘Impossible’ is indeed a cover – as was now the standard procedure, a cover of a lesser-known single from somewhere obscure like lower down the charts or America. Barbadian singer Shontelle’s top-thirty original has a US R&B-pop glint to it, but 2012 X Factor laureate James Arthur had an earthier tone and more plaintive demeanour. No matter: the Scandinavian precision design of the melody is pleasantly robust and characterful, giving Arthur scope to bring out the song’s melancholia. It keeps one toe in modern R&B with the EDM drum hit for requisite bigness, while the other toes edge towards the shy hand-me-down folk-pop of Ed Sheeran. ‘Impossible’ is also a rare X Factor winner’s single which doesn’t have a big climactic key change timed to the winner announcement in the video. There would never be a return to to the days of Xenomania bangers like ‘Sound Of The Underground’, but at least we had moved away from corny, blustery Westlife-ist ballads. In that context, ‘Impossible’ was probably the best we could hope for.
Irish Number Ones 