Want a guaranteed hit record? Who doesn't! Well, you could try the same tactic as Alexandra Burke has employed with new single Elephant, and take a whole load of popular hits and cram them into one song. Genius, right?
From the similar repeating chords of The Wanted's Glad you came; the build up, fade outs and dynamics of Rihanna's We found love; a little bit of JLS' She makes me wanna; and vocal styling harking to Kelly Rowland's Down for whatever, Elephant is all kinds of things but original. Being derivative isn't always a bad thing though, especially if it has that something special about it, but this track doesn't. Sounding overall neither terrible or brilliant and ultimately more disappointing than anything else.
With a voice as resonant and powerful as Burke has, it's annoying that she would waste it on material like this. However, assuming the rest of the new album allows for her vocal chops to shine unimpeded by electronic distortion and auto tune, I'm willing to give Alexandra Burke a pass for Elephant.
Verdict: D-
