Matt Cardle returns next year with a new album the Great Escape out April 10th, great to see him releasing again.

Lead single is Drinking Dreams which i have listened to a few times now and its really growing on me as initially i wasn't sure.

Hopefully the album does ok for him as he really does get so overlooked.

CelebMix

Matt Cardle Announces Long-Awaited Comeback With New Albu...

British singer-songwriter Matt Cardle has announced details of his first full-length studio album in seven years, ‘The Great Escape’.

Love the title of the album.

Title is good and he looks very different without the curls in the pictures in the article.

Hopefully he can do fairly ok promo when the album comes out and even some multi formating to help.

I do like a bit of Matt Cardle, genuinely one of my favourite X Factor alumni. He released a couple of pretty good singles in 2021, 'Purple Crayon' and 'We're The Butterflies', I wonder if there's any chance they'll make the album? I hope so, but I'm guessing not.

Edited November 30, 2025Nov 30 by Mangø

One of the strongest X Factor alumni both as a winner and overall contestants but Syco never fully invested in him.

Tbf it was the year that one direction booked the trend and went stratespheric, Matt and Rebecca both got lost in the shuffle

54 minutes ago, 777666jason said:

Tbf it was the year that one direction booked the trend and went stratespheric, Matt and Rebecca both got lost in the shuffle

Rebecca less so. Her album outsold his.

What Matt needed on that first album (well, they all do really) was creative control. A big part of releasing "Run For Your Life" as the lead single was because Gary Barlow wrote it and he was on X Factor that year as a judge - but it didn't allow him to hit the ground running which is what he needed.

He was a bit older than 1D so was probably not going for the same audience anyway but it didn't allow him to make his mark.

Gary Barlow wasnt part of the judging panel the year Matt won, i think he joined the year after so maybe that why they interlinked Matts lead been wrote by him.

Run for your life i actually really like but it probably wasn't standout enough for what was his first single outside the winners single.

There was definitely potential for Matt to do far better than he did and i had hopes that he could do a James Arthur and get a second lease of life at success at a later stage but it just never happened but its great that he is still releasing music.

1 minute ago, Padamic_Tension said:

Gary Barlow wasnt part of the judging panel the year Matt won, i think he joined the year after so maybe that why they interlinked Matts lead been wrote by him.

Run for your life i actually really like but it probably wasn't standout enough for what was his first single outside the winners single.

There was definitely potential for Matt to do far better than he did and i had hopes that he could do a James Arthur and get a second lease of life at success at a later stage but it just never happened but its great that he is still releasing music.

Yeah that's what I meant re: Gary being on the judging panel in 2011.

I guess it was not the first time that runners up got ahead of the winner with their first proper single but it can't have helped.

I took thought there would be a lane for him somewhere. James Morrison and James Blunt aren't a million miles away from him stylistically but they've had some sustained success when it comes to shifting records.

Yes, Matt couldn't unfortunately sustain the success after his winners single, i know his debut album went platinum but it took some time for it to happen and the singles apart from run for your life barely did anything but i think his win was overshadowed by One Direction who just exploded.

I always thought Matt have taken other reality tv routes to boost his profile such as Celebrity Big Brother or the Jungle but so far he hasnt but you never know it might happen yet.

16 hours ago, Padamic_Tension said:

Yes, Matt couldn't unfortunately sustain the success after his winners single, i know his debut album went platinum but it took some time for it to happen and the singles apart from run for your life barely did anything but i think his win was overshadowed by One Direction who just exploded.

I always thought Matt have taken other reality tv routes to boost his profile such as Celebrity Big Brother or the Jungle but so far he hasnt but you never know it might happen yet.

I've always gotten the sense - even during X Factor - that he's never been particularly interested in the personality side of things and is far more interested in the music. I'm not sure if he'd have enough to carry him through those other shows and in the interviews he's done since XF he seems to be one of many who aren't keen on playing the "telly game" so to speak.

Which, by the way, is a completely valid stance to have.

It's a shame X Factor didn't expand its definition of success to include those who went on to do West End stuff, because there's been so many of them, probably just as many individual acts that got #1 singles and albums.

I agree, he was definitely behind the music side but wasn't great at putting himself out there doing press, interviews etc and never really had that big press attention after the hype of the show died down, he always comes across as a fairly shy reserved kinda guy and sometimes that can mean getting forgotten about in an industry like the music industry which is often about personality as much as it is about music.

9 hours ago, Padamic_Tension said:

I agree, he was definitely behind the music side but wasn't great at putting himself out there doing press, interviews etc and never really had that big press attention after the hype of the show died down, he always comes across as a fairly shy reserved kinda guy and sometimes that can mean getting forgotten about in an industry like the music industry which is often about personality as much as it is about music.

It's a bit of a shame because I do think he's one of the most talented acts to have come out of the X Factor and he clearly had so much public support on the show. It's a shame that wasn't able to be translated into continuous support afterwards.

His last album stalled a bit, charting at #28. I'm hoping he can do a bit better than that this time.

8 hours ago, Hassaan said:

It's a bit of a shame because I do think he's one of the most talented acts to have come out of the X Factor and he clearly had so much public support on the show. It's a shame that wasn't able to be translated into continuous support afterwards.

His last album stalled a bit, charting at #28. I'm hoping he can do a bit better than that this time.

I don't think he will sadly, I don't see what fanbase he has left really? I can see him doing something similar to what Blue did with their last album.

On 11/12/2025 at 20:10, Spiceboy said:

I don't think he will sadly, I don't see what fanbase he has left really? I can see him doing something similar to what Blue did with their last album.

If he does the same as Blues last time he will chart slightly higher than his last album.

Id love if he could at the least get back into the Top 20 albums again but he will need multi formats and some promo to have any chance of doing it.

Nice if he would do some signings to pick up sales.

On 11/12/2025 at 11:19, Hassaan said:

It's a bit of a shame because I do think he's one of the most talented acts to have come out of the X Factor and he clearly had so much public support on the show. It's a shame that wasn't able to be translated into continuous support afterwards.

His last album stalled a bit, charting at #28. I'm hoping he can do a bit better than that this time.

Tbf as with most people on theses talent shows especially after 2010s the people voting never really translated to people actually buying the music even more so past the first single/album

I am such a hardcore stan of his. I think he is my #1 act on my LastFM now who ever appeared in a British Casting Show.

I cannot wait. His last album was a 10/10 btw.

OK I checked, my British Casting Show faves:

01 - 11,478 streams - Niall Horan
02 - 7,319 streams - Calum Scott
03 - 6,744 streams - Zayn

04 - 6,742 streams - Will Young
05 - 4,116 streams - Olly Murs
06 - 3,775 streams - One Direction

07 - 3,140 streams - Harry Styles

08 - 2,643 streams - Matt Cardle

OK, him not having released much in the past 7 years has hurt him on my LastFM. I didn't realize this.

The gap since his last release will lilkely hurt unless we get even a little surprise and he manages to do slightly better than we are expecting.

Is this a good label for him to be on?

Absolute Label Services signs Ma...

Absolute Label Services signs Matt Cardle

Also, random one - I am 99% sure I saw him walking through Birmingham City Centre last week. I heard him speaking to someone on the phone and was even more confident.

Eventually I googled to find out he was doing panto at the Birmingham Hippodrome. 😅