Nicola Roberts, one-fifth of Girls Aloud, didn’t make as much of a splash on the fickle world of British pop earlier this year with her Diplo-produced debut, Dance To The Beat Of My Drum. This is her second go at selling some records.
It carries that same vein of ‘can’t be bothered to belt out some chords’ vibe which she seems to be carving out to be her sound. She was always the underdog in the Girls Aloud-do-solo-projects race, but she’s being the most original so far. I approve.
I know, a lot of people will look down on this single but for what it’s worth, this is about as edgy as mainstream pop is in the UK right now- and it’s actually a lot of fun. Produced by Diplo and Dimitri Tikovoi. She was always the odd one out from Girls Aloud, and this single is pretty left field compared to what the other girls have done with their solo stuff. And dare I say, I see small hints of Robyn in there too. Check out here.
One of my favourite new artists of recent months, Alex Clare played The Lexington tonight in London and was really good. Championed by Diplo, every song played tonight was crafted with precision and Clare’s rough, soulful voice gives it an edge that’s just so cool right now. I didn’t expect him to be so shy, and the way he smiled kept reminding me of an old friend. I want more. Again, apologies for the shit quality of the pics- I think it’s time for a new camera…
This song originally featured in Robyn’s first Body Talk album. I have to say though, this whole M.I.A VHS-retro mashup video thing is maybe a couple of years out of date now in my opinion. But song is good!
I got a bit excited when I heard this – best of British! ‘Up All Night’ just sounds so so good. Produced by Diplo and Switch. Check out here.
I love Robyn. I have done since I was at school (in the 90’s), which is kinda embarrassing to admit to, as she wasn’t always very cool! She ditched a big recording contract and an already successful career back then because she wasn’t happy with how her label was selling her. So she went her own way and paid for her huge 2005 album ‘Robyn’, which had all those big hits like ‘With Every Heartbeat’.
A sampler for the first album called Body Talk Pt1 is here. You can here a snippet of her first single, Fembot, on that link. So far, I’ve heard Dancehall Queen which is pretty sweet (produced by Diplo- I can’t find a link for the full clip!). Looks like it’ll be a fun summer when the first album is released in June!
