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Dermot O’Leary Presents: The Saturday Sessions

Dermot O’Leary Presents: The Saturday Sessions
Album Reviews

There are some beautifully intimate and heartfelt covers of chart toppers and classics.



Label: CMG
Released: 4th October 2010
Reviewer: Ben Ross
Can you ever have too much Dermot O’Leary? He presents X-Factor, hugged the King of Pop and hosts his own radio show: is there anything this man can’t do? Whilst this release isn’t actually anything original by Dermot (that’ll be the day), it is rather a collection of tracks by various artists recorded on his radio show, all very much in the vein of Radio One’s Live Lounge Sessions.

This mammoth collection of tracks - forty in all - showcases a fairly eclectic group of artists; from chart darlings Mumford & Sons to Imogen Heap to Will Young to Lily Allen and even an appearance by The Divine Comedy, it’s a vastly varied collection; a bit of something for everyone if you will. It’s a stripped back acoustic setup for the majority of the sessions too which means that there are some beautifully intimate and heartfelt covers of chart toppers and classics that ensures it doesn’t fall into the usual pitfall of a generic compilation album.

Present are some of the awkward covers that are a staple of the sister Live Lounge sessions; Biffy Clyro covering Cheryl Cole’s ‘Fight For This Love’ springs to mind, and whilst they do their best with the source material, they are unfortunately fighting a losing battle (pun intended). There are some surprises in there though; Alesha Dixon’s rendition of Dusty Springfield’s classic ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ is outstanding and manages to be both passionate and raw without being self indulgent, The Hoosier’s version of ‘Wonderful Life’ isn’t half bad either.

Whilst most of the tracks sound great in terms of recording quality a few fail to hit the mark, and are surprisingly substandard; Keane’s ‘Spiralling’ sounds less than impressive with some awkward vocal lines and several instruments being lost in the mix. Being sandwiched between great recordings and great performances makes the track stand out for all the wrong reasons; especially when compared to outstanding performances by the likes of Elbow and Kasabian.

Consistency control is spot on; it’s not a case of whack all the great and popular songs on disc one and have disc two just to fill numbers, there’s such an assortment of artists and tracks and they’re spread evenly across the two discs. This thought out organisation ensures that there’s reason to listen all the way through both discs and nearly always be entertained, it also manages to place well known acts with lesser known ones which will help with exposure and showcases the calibre of various emerging artists. The stripped back set up lends itself to being the perfect format for this type of compilation and allows one song to segue into another and never feel forced or erratic.

In terms of quantity the collection is well and truly value for money, the quality for the majority of the tracks is outstanding too, as is the selection of artists; though the choice of some may persuade more sceptical potential buyers it's all to similar to Radio One’s Live Lounge. If the diversity of what’s on offer isn’t enough, however, it’s got Dermot O’Leary’s face on the front; what more could you want? Rating: 8/10
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