Olly Murs returns to radiofriendly pop on ‘Grow Up’
If you ask us, Olly Murs came back with one of the best singles of his career earlier this year. ‘You Don’t Know Love’ is a powerful synth pop banger with a lot of attitude and a big chorus. If you ask the British charts however, this track was not at all up there with his most successful work to date. That is probably why Olly decided to lay off the synth pop for a while and return to the catchy radio pop he used to put out before with the new single ‘Grow Up’, also taken from the upcoming album 24 Hours, to be released in November. If only it was the good kind of radio pop…

I hate to say it, but for me ‘Grow Up’ is a big step down after the pop perfection that was ‘You Don’t Know Love’. The only thing that the two tracks have in common is that Olly is still mad at an ex-lover, this time because she behaves childishly. This time around he drowns in lyrical cliches to get his message across though. “Closer to the mirror than you are to me, oh, had to show you that door”, he sings, but it misses the same punch his previous single had. Lines like “How did we go straight from love to hate” we have heard a thousand times already and turn out to be completely unnecessary. Sound wise, ‘Grow Up’ sounds most like a Maroon 5 track after the band stopped being interesting at all. The vocal effects used on Olly’s voice do recall Adam Levine’s tone as well. Admitted, ‘Grow Up’ is a catchy song, but not the kind I would want stuck in my head the rest of the day. Having said that, it will probably do better than ‘You Don’t Know Love’ in the charts.

If ‘Grow Up’ is not out yet on Spotify on your location, you can listen to it here.