Shayne Ward Is Working With Producer Mike Stock On His Next Album, And We’re Pretty Excited About That

Robbie Daw | September 19, 2014 11:53 am

Let’s be clear about one thing: Shayne Ward‘s sophomore album, 2007’s Breathless, is a highly underrated beacon of pop perfection. Written and produced primarily by Rami Yacoub (with some additional help from Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Savan Kotecha and a smattering of other heavyweights), the album was somewhat of UK success that spawned hits in Manchester native Ward’s home country like “No U Hang Up,” “If That’s OK With You” and title track “Breathless.”

If you’re not up on Ward (as many in the States likely aren’t), he was the winner of the second season of The X Factor UK, back in 2005, and was signed to Simon Cowell‘s label Syco. Unfortunately for Shayne, Cowell was pretty tied up with his American TV dealings, and so a good three years passed between Breathless and the release of the singer’s third album, Obsession. After poor sales, Ward was released from his label deal in 2011. Upon this, the handsome crooner tweeted, “1 door closed, A Thousand more will open.”

Following all that business, Shayne busied himself with gigs like acting on the West End stage in Rock Of Ages and showing off his fancy footwork on Dancing On Ice in the UK. He also posed for some rather provocative photos, proving that, in addition to his soulful, high tenor, Ward possesses other great assets, too.

So here we are in 2014, and Ward has now in the process of working on his fourth album with legendary British pop maestro Mike Stock. The latter is responsible for this:

And this:

And this:

And, yes, even this:

In other words, this Shayne Ward album, which is coming in February 2015, could possibly be the most mind-blowing pop experience of the decade. I’ll even go out on a limb and say that Shayne’s got the best voice of anyone Stock has worked with since Donna Summer.

Added bonus: Ward has partnered up with PledgeMusic for funding for the album…or, in Ward’s own words, “to give you and fellow fans the chance to pre-order the new album plus get your hands on all sorts of other goodies and cool things such as seeing your name in the album booklet, a personalized video message from me, a personal Skype session with me, the opportunity to come along to my next photo shoot or even the chance to take me on in a karaoke sing-off.”

We leave you now with these past gems from Shayne:

“No U Hang Up”

“Breathless”

Get an eyeful of even more pop music coverage, from artist interviews to exclusive performances, on Idolator’s YouTube channel.

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