Nicola Roberts: Cinderella's Eyes

She does have a great voice, for ballads and the likes. This is a nice way of making that irrelevant.

yeah i guess - should've said a weak voice, i couldn't imagine it carrying an over-stuffed banger and it doesn't

Nicola has a great voice. And this is very good!

I'm really, really not sure this is what she should be doing. That pre-chorus.. it doesn't sound like the melody and the music behind it even remotely fit together.

It sounds a little awkward, that bit, but I can see how it can easily become less so after a few listens. The only part I don't like is that hyper-reverbed bits (it doesn't even sound like a drum anymore) in the last chorus, it just sounds like unfiltered noise.

I think the shouty chorus is fine, but the reverbed drum noises you note are indeed dreadful. Too many effects, too busy, not enough hooks.

Oh the video just got uploaded. Hmm. I think Nicola's heart's def in the right place but she hasn't quite got the hang of showing her new-found inner confidence outwardly yet. A bit awkward, like she isn't quite used to it all, and I don't just mean the new teeth...

She has always been a bit awkward and self-concious, and I think that's part of her appeal. But yes, the lyrics suggest some sort of transformation that's not quite apparent yet, and maybe it will never be. I like it, though. I think there are way to many pop stars who are either too confident or project a vulnerability that's too calculated. Somehow Nicola's unintentional awkwardness is endearing to me.

sing it baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_BG3n1q5KU

I like it a lot. There's something about the clashing rhythms and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production that puts me in mind of aggressive Korean pop. Sounds a bit like a hybrid of Yelle and After School's Bang.

mildly unconvinced by the song, wildly unconvinced by the production (youtube caveat), intend to watch the video multiple times and think about smelling her hair

backing sounds like Pop The Glock tbh

If this sounds anything like Uffie, the Ting Tings of K-pop I'm just not going to bother.

The chorus sounds more like Daphne & Celeste, which is obviously the best bit.

actually Matt's accidentally right, the chorus kinda sounds like the Ting Tings "Shut Up And Watch Me Go," if that's the title, and indeed by them.

song completely rules; whatever

Yeah I like this single a lot. The other new songs sound really good too, Lucky Day sounds like it should be the next single.

in with a bullet at number 27 :/
supposedly there's no physical release yet because of this whole 'on air on sale' thing. confusing innit.

I like the song a lot but I have to kind of avert my attention from the song while this bit is going on.

That pre-chorus.. it doesn't sound like the melody and the music behind it even remotely fit together.

That bit just doesn't need to be there.

B-side >>> A-side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajp3IrNS1SE

I prefer the single but that B-side is really great. I really hope she does well, I'm looking forward to the album so much.

for me nicola was easily the best thing @ t4 on the beach yesterday.
a setup that i would never have expected to find myself at a few years ago, but hey, someone has to be the designated driver for the teenkid.
never again though.

the intro/middle 8 makes the bside sound better than it actually is.

Poor Nicola. The director of her next video put a rough cut up on Vimeo. Now the song is all over the web more than a month before it's due to release.

Assuming you're talking about "Lucky Day," I've only heard a snippet...but the fact that it's a Dragonette composition (and, perhaps, production) is reason to cheer.

I like it a little bit more than "Beat of My Drum", having heard the whole thing.

lucky day is amazing, my pop song of the year so far by miles

anyone know what the next single is set to be?

Anyone heard the album yet?

I read that Yoyo was going to be a future single, not sure if it's the next one or not though.

I do like Lucky Day but around the two minute mark I find myself struggling with her vocals a bit which is odd as I've always thought she had the best voice in Girls Aloud.

That should be Yo-Yo by the way.

I'm also having some problems with Nicola's voice lately. I find it almost a little off-key sometimes. For instance the "...oooh, don't I make your heart go wow" bit in Beat Of My Drum and the way she sings "Daaaaay" in Lucky Day.

Where/when did you listen to yo yo, Kitchen Person?

ok what are "disco blisters"

blisters from dancing too much in non-sensible shoes?

Actually I've not heard Yo-Yo yet I think I read about it in a Pop Justice interview where they said it was an obvious single, not sure if it's leaked at all. There was talk of another song called Dance In The Rain being a single too but that doesn't seem to be on the album.

the zoom zoom zoom bit in lucky day is pop at its absolute best

and the mwah mwah mwah and the boom boom boom and all them. great to see dragonette finding their niche - they had the hooks but really didn't convince as a pop act in their own right. hope they've written more songs on the album

I thought beat of my drum was good but lucky day is tremendous

They should have made the Snap "bootleg" the single mix, probably.

"Sticks and Stones" off the album is pretty stunning.

So this album isn't quite the masterpiece I was hoping it would be but it's pretty enjoyable on the whole. Sticks and Stones is a beautiful end to the album but I think Say it Out Loud is my favourite overall.

"Say It Out Loud" is excellent, prob the second best (and why it wasn't the first single I don't know, that or "Yo-yo"), but the best song is surely "Gladiator".

I mean, these lyrics!

I had to call the firemen, my head was burning bridges
I'm shooting bullets from my chest, I'm Superwoman, bitches
And if my balls of steel have got stuck halfway down your pipe
I've got some KY, time to open open open wide

If only the whole album were as good as that! I mean, it's pretty good, but I'm really not feeling the Metronomy tracks, and I love Metronomy (and the song Joseph Mount did with Sophie Ellis-Bextor was fantastic) so far.

Also I'm down with Mondeo Pop in all its forms, but really, there have been ENOUGH covers of "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime" already, Nic.

Anyway, the reasons "Say It Out Loud" should have been the first single are that it bridges Girls Aloud to Nicola Roberts perfectly. Her singing on the verses is immediately familiar and reassuring, it hits the "awkward girl comes good" much more articulately and catchily than "Beat", and it sounds like radio might actually have played it.

Shame that yet another "I wanted to showcase something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT" single choice means this album likely won't sell when a few of the songs off it are pretty brilliant in their own right. I mean, Beyonce can get on the radio with "Run The World" because she's Beyonce, nobody else could get away with that in 2011 (much the same was as Madonna could put out "Justify My Love" and "Erotica" and people still bought them, but you've got to be that famous, and Nicola isn't).

"Lucky Day" came into the charts at no. 40 :( :(

girls aloud solo = so much pointlessness

cheryl cole: all the charisma, character and ability to convey emotion of a plank of wood
nicola: shrill, awful ~quirk~ inexplicably beloved of A Certain Type Of Person
nadine: did anyone anywhere give the tiniest shit?

for once i appear to be in step with the public on nicola, though bafflingly they seem to love cheryl

does nicola always look so sad, is my question

i like this album but even i have to admit that those Certain People who will say this album is the Best Thing Ever are .... uh baffling weirdos. Scary pop fanboys scare me these days... people who if they had slightly more depth would be crazy Tori Amos stans.

Scary pop fanboys scare me these days

send 'em back to poland I say

on first listen this is pretty bloodless outside of the first two singles

nicola: shrill, awful ~quirk~ inexplicably beloved of A Certain Type Of Person

― lex pretend, Monday, September 26, 2011 5:21 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i like this album but even i have to admit that those Certain People who will say this album is the Best Thing Ever are .... uh baffling weirdos. Scary pop fanboys scare me these days... people who if they had slightly more depth would be crazy Tori Amos stans.

― unskinny blap (edwardo), Monday, September 26, 2011 6:37 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

prime trolling, guys

this reminds me a lot of when the last siobhan donaghy record came out. although there's not a lot to the comparison; ginger pop singer i find attractive from pop group releases slightly 'arty'/'difficult' record, is not a success

Doesn't it have to be in a thread read by, y'know, someone, to count as trolling?

Siobhan Donaghy is a pretty good comparison actually, speaking as to why the record won't sell very well.

i like this record.

like this 1 a lot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYUmIbiYU2E

yeah I like that + say it out loud

besides the sginesl

sticks + stones should be covered by nicki minaj

this album is classic fuiud

iirc "beat of my drum" was my favorite song of 2011

song completely rules; whatever

― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Sunday, June 12, 2011 3:37 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me otm

MWAH MWAH MWAH MWAH

Queen!