Track Listing

1. Maybe That's What It Takes
2. Cry
3. Dirty Pretty Words
4. Imagine
5. Not Your Average Kind Of Girl
6. Mad World
7. Everybody Hurts
8. Beautiful
9. Stones & Feathers
10. Here Comes The Rain Again
11. Yellow
12. Wandering Soul
13. Over Conscious

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12097 in Music
• Released on: 2003-11-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 48 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Winning Fame Academy is no guarantee of long-term musical success, so champion Alex Parks wisely lays down the basis for a proper career on Introduction. By cowriting over half of the 13 songs here, she aims to be a bona fide singer-songwriter and not just some karaoke copyist. Of course, there are cover versions--market forces demand it--but they're not just grinning caricatures of the originals. REM's "Everybody Hurts" becomes a rousing torch-ballad, while a sparse, piano-led take on Tears for Fears' "Mad World" draws out all the song's melancholy misanthropy. Less successful are uninspired attempts at John Lennon's "Imagine" and Coldplay's "Yellow", and an inappropriately jaunty shot at Eurythmics' "Here Comes the Rain Again". Really, it's Parks' own tracks that work best. "Dirty Pretty Words" (copenned, like "Cry" and "Wandering Soul", with Boo Hewerdine) with its crunching, filthy guitar is fem-rock from Alanis Morissette's top drawer. "Stone and Feathers" is a storming vocal performance bound for gay-club glory, while the opening "Maybe That's What It Takes" is an orchestral feast of emotion. Parks has far higher ambitions than the likes of Will Young and Gareth Gates--she is aiming both for hits and credibility. She'll get the former, for sure. The latter will come only with time and struggle. --Dominic Wills

CD Description
This is the debut album from 2003's Fame Academy winner Alex Parks. Showcasing her unique raspy vocals mixed with her blend of contemporary rock and pop, the album features seven original tracks penned by Parks herself and six covers including REM's 'Everybody Hurts', Coldplay's 'Yellow' and Tears For Fears' 'Mad World'. Also included is the debut single 'Maybe That's What It Takes'.

Customer Reviews

Seems almost too good to be true
Alex Parks is not the typical winner or even participant of a pop talent show. (I think the two runner-up contestants were very much the stereotypical talent show hopefuls - nice singing, cute, and eminently forgettable.) I didn't follow Fame Academy from the start since I find such shows usually rather annoying, but I happened to catch her performing on one of the last shows, and was mesmerized immediately. She has such a touching and unique quality, that you almost wonder if she is too good to be true.

I sort of wish they had not rushed her debut CD, and given her (or the people surrounding her) enough time to come up with a CD of all original material. Still, this girl seems to have an uncanny ability to make a song sound like her own. When I first heard her singing Here Comes The Rain Again, I honestly had to think a bit before being able to remember that it had been originally sung by the Eurythmics. I know that sounds daft, but Alex Parks had taken over the song that much. The first single is an original song and it's a real winner.

Believe me I am not a typical teenaged Fame Academy fan, and I'm looking forward very much to how this young woman's career progresses.

Alex is a Godsend!
I teach classical music at Cambridge and have little enthusiam in pop music. But when I listened to this CD of Alex Parks bought by my wife, I was overwhelmed by its aesthetic values. The pitch and tone are flawless, her interpretation of some of the titles is sensational(e.g. Yellow.), and her emotions touched my nerves. Apart from pure academic appraisal, you can feel the unique character of this artist in a sense that she's not desparate for recognition and fame like many other young performers do. Given the age and life experiences of this young woman I don't know where her emotion comes from, and I doubt very much she has at this stage the maturity to completely realize her gifts in music (just like a 4 year old Mozart performing in front of the Prussian Royal family without knowing how shocking it was!) If she is kept in a right track, the limit of her future development is the sky! As a music lover and teacher I highly recommend this CD.

An 'Introduction' to great songwriting
This is an amazing debut album from Alex Parks. It is only six weeks since she was announced as the (somewhat reluctant) winner of Fame Academy 2003 and yet the self-penned tracks on "introduction" sound like they have been months in the making. From the completely addictive "Maybe that's what it takes" to the rocky "Dirty, pretty words" via the trip hoppy loveliness of "Over conscious", this is superb listening. Plus for the die hard Fame Academy fans, there are some wonderful covers including the brilliant version of "Mad World" and the show-closing reworking of "Imagine".

I assure you, if you buy "Introduction", you will not be disappointed: you will be left wanting to hear more