Syrupy debut for Pop Idol's Rik

Rik chickens out on the high note

By the BBC's Michael Osborn

The nation is being consumed with post-Pop Idol hysteria.

First, winner Will Young's debut single stormed to number one in record-breaking style.

Now, a whole host of other competitors who failed to grab the crown are releasing records left, right and centre.

Rik Waller came under the spotlight during the competition for having a sensational voice but critics said that his large size precluded him from becoming a fully-fledged Pop Idol.

Waller made it to the final ten hopefuls despite this but had to pull out with a voice-killing sore throat.

Refusing to see his dream shattered, he secured a big-label record deal, and stood defiantly against a legal challenge from Pop Idol's makers to release his single.

The singer has plumped for a cover of Whitney Houston's power ballad I Will Always Love You, itself a rendition of a Dolly Parton penned track.

This gutsy track needs to be handled by a huge voice, and Waller takes it on with ease, showing why he defied the critics to advance so far in Pop Idol.

But the song's musical arrangement sounds tacky and hastily put together - some of it wouldn't be out of place trilling away in a lift or supermarket.

Whitney Houston's version is renowned for a pivotal note capable of soaring over rooftops, but Rik chickens out and has a chorus of old-style female backing singers chiming in with him.

Waller's release follows the post-Pop Idol pattern. This rash of high-profile cover versions that are hitting the shops seems to indicate there has not been enough time to write some suitable, original material for these fresh performers.

Rik may have defied the critics, but this opening effort is nothing to write home about. Let's just hope this doesn't emulate Whitney's performance, topping the charts and staying there for a seemingly endless 10 weeks.

I Will Always Love You by Rik Waller is out now on EMI Records.