Engaging in deeply un-cool activities like acting in Miss Marple and debating education reform on Question Time ought surely seal the kiss of death on any successful pop career. And yet Will Young’s managed both (and had the temerity to don a leotard in the video for latest single ‘Jealousy’) with no visible dent to his popularity. Regardless, he’s counterbalancing these crimes against credibility on fifth album Echoes, bagging some very cool collaborators in the shape of Goldfrapp-producer Richard X and co-writer Andy ‘Groove Armada’ Cato. The result is synth-pop so slick, he could probably now admit to a train spotting fetish and still go triple-platinum.