Like many others, I was kind of flabbergasted when rookie singer Huh Gak grabbed the crown on this week’s M! Countdown ahead of KARA & Davichi, then capped it off by topping the Gaon charts over BEG. All I knew about the bloke was that he beat that American Idol-reject (John Park) in some Korean reality show, so like all other singing contest victors I assumed his music would be generic pap, all style and no substance.

In some ways that statement is kind of true, depending on your mileage for the morose ballads that dominate the Kpop market - you know, the type that sounds like it was written for someone’s dead mother. Assuming that you’re fine with that, the songs found on First Story are actually above average on the whole, tugging on the heartstrings and setting your heart soaring with their sugary-sweet melodies.

What does set Huh Gak apart from all the others is of course, the vocals. That’s one thing I can give to reality show contestants - even if they have as much artistry and writing skills as an elephant trained to balance peanuts on the edge of its trunk, they sure can sing the hell out of whatever song’s thrown at them. Most of them, anyway (let’s just assume the UK X Factor never existed!)