Songs From The Heart

Album Review

Having emerged victorious in the 2009 third series of Australia's Got Talent thanks to a vocal presence wise beyond his years, New South Wales tenor Mark Vincent's first album since turning 18, Songs from the Heart, doesn't have to make any showboating claims of maturity. Indeed, after performing the Neapolitan classics on last year's The Great Tenor Songbook, he's already proved he's capable of tackling material associated with singers much more experienced, which perhaps explains the return to the more familiar classical pop repertoire of his first two albums on the majority of its 14 tracks. However, alongside the usual film themes (Stanley Myers' "Cavatina," Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On"), traditional standards ("Amazing Grace"), and timeless pop hits (Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), Vincent has chosen a slightly less predictable array of songs, at least proving to his naysayers that there is some sign of progression. A dramatic performance of "Till I Hear You Sing," one of the first numbers to be covered from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies, suggests that a career in musical theater awaits, a string-soaked rendition of Sinatra favorite "Young at Heart" is a convincing foray into Michael Bublé territory, while the likes of Josh Groban's "You're Still You," "Once Before I Go" (from the Peter Allen jukebox musical The Boy from Oz), and Demis Roussos' '70s number one "Forever and Ever" are all treated to Chong Lim and ARIA award-winner Guy Noble's sweeping orchestral production. While British counterpart Paul Potts appears to have been all but forgotten, Songs from the Heart suggests that Mark Vincent has the guile to extend his reality TV-assisted fame once he's outside his teens. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi