Send "Nicola Roberts " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 Forgive me the smugness, but after certain Girls Aloud forums reacted to this review by trying to drag Sputnik into a flame war, I think I'm entitled. Here's the last paragraph of the review I wrote almost three years ago for Out of Control, Girls Aloud's utterly terrible fifth album.A career killer. It's their Forever, their "Tubthumping", their Neither Fish Nor Flesh, their "Earth Song", their Sgt Peppers OST. Expect solo careers soon. Hate to say I told you so.... From the group's (apparently temporary) implosion comes Nicola Roberts' Cindarella's Eyes, the fourth solo album by a member of Girls Aloud, following Nadine Coyle's already-forgotten Insatiable and Cheryl Cole's two efforts. At first glance, it may seem bizzare that Roberts is the third member to release an album, beating both Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding to the punch - she is, after all, the girl we know least about, the one that seemed happiest to stay out of the limelight, the one that would rarely fight for her chance to speak when all five appeared together on talk shows. And yet, those are exactly the same reasons why the prospect of Roberts going solo is infinitely more fascinating than any other members (sans perhaps Cole at the height of her marriage troubles). What Nicola Roberts has that the party-loving Harding and the outgoing, stage-trained Walsh don't is a sense of mystery. We simply don't know very much about her life, her opinions, or her personality beyond seeing her as 'the shy one'. And yet, she probably has the most interesting stories to tell. Being Nicola Roberts can't possibly have been easy - some of the attacks on her by the British media, perhaps in retaliation to her shyness and the fact that they couldn't get any stories out of her, has been vicious. More than one national newspaper has called her 'the ugly one', or some variation on that phrase, and fashion magazines were hardly much kinder in the band's early days - I distinctly remember an article introducing the band as 'the four sexiest women in British music (and the ginger one)'. How can that not hurt you? For years Roberts was treated as a spare wheel, as if she was only part of the band because they needed a fifth person and it didn't matter who it was. After years of suffering through being ignored, attacked, belittled, and patronized, she must have had a lot of pent-up emotions to let out on this album. It sounds like it, too. Cinderella's Eyes is unmistakably a pop album, but it's a leftfield, confessional, deeply personal one that frequently feels more like the work of a singer-songwriter than a pop star. Although it's not in the same ball-park soundwise, it echoes both the very best and very worst of Robbie Williams in the effect it has - even within one listen, you feel like you've got to know her through her songs. You might not have been expecting that after hearing the debut single "Beat of My Drum", a Diplo-produced barnstormer that sounds a little like a child got loose in a recording studio and decided to press every button and see what happens. It sounds like an absolute mess on first listen, but it just grows and grows until you realize that it's probably the best pop song of the year - and you realize how defiant it is, too. 'See how strong you've made me now.....don't it make your heart go wild, how I've turned this whole thing around?' It's an opening statement that slots nicely onto an album that deals with her personal destruction and bold rebirth at the hands of the haters (and for once, I think that word is appropriate here)....full text |
| Guardian |
| The infectiously bratty cheerleading of Roberts's triumphal single "Beat of My Drum", confirmed her as the pale and interesting member of Girls Aloud and this effervescent solo debut - on which she's marshalled the talents of Diplo and Metronomy - feels like a victory for dissenting teenage girls the country over. From the weirdness of "I", which she's called her "funeral song" - a narcotised litany of hates and hopes, set over eerie, plodding synths - to her Florence-bothering bellow of "heaaaaaart" on the fearsome "Porcelain Heart", Roberts sounds utterly self-assured....full text |
| Digitalspy |
| If we were placing bets immediately after the announcement of Girls Aloud's hiatus, truth be told it wouldn't have been on a Nicola Roberts solo album. With a troubled start in the band and limited solo spots across their 21 singles, it hardly seemed likely, even if it eventually made her a true fan's favourite. Nicola's journey from shy and standoffish to trendy solo songstress is one discussed with admirable honesty throughout her debut offering. "Baby in the corner learning quick/Keep up, keep up, keep up," she admits on the bitchy, Diplo-assisted trailer single 'Beat of my Drum', a nod to her naivety after winning a spot in the band at just 16 years old. The confessional lyrics continue throughout; from the wistful on 'Yo-Yo' ("I'm the kind of girl who likes to dram a lot"), to the quirky and conversational on the title track ("He tried to seduce me/ Off his head/ I'm allergic to dairy," she quips before unleashing her inner Kate Bush), to the painfully literal 'Sticks + Stones' ("hurt just a little") - the result is genuinely endearing rather than over-egged. Thankfully, her no-muss edge and bonkers production courtesy of the likes of Dragonette and Metronomy's Joseph Mount means Cinderella's Eyes is far from being the pity party the lyrics would suggest. In fact, between Mount's work on the moody-electro 'i' and coolly anthemic Invisible Men-assisted 'Say It Out Loud', she sounds more at ease than she ever did pre-hiatus - not that we'd want to tempt fate or anything....full text |
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