The only Girl Aloud

The only Girl Aloud - at least, on my iPod - is Nicola Roberts. Long dismissed as ‘the ginger one,’ to me, she always seemed edgier than her predictable pap princess band-mates. Kinda stylish in a kooky-awkward way, she has a certain je ne sais quoi. The ‘quoi’, it emerges, is a quirky punchy electro-pop album in the form of the sparkling Cinderella’s Eyes. Listen to it and weep Ms Nadine Coyle - for whose solo effort the Great British public's appetite proved ultimately less than Insatiable. Typical of Nicola’s album is hooky single (Gonna Be My) Lucky Day. Sounds about right, based on this showing. On ‘I’, she worries about ‘waking up one day to find that my bubble’s burst.’ Hon, you’ll still be going strong when Cheryl’s retired to raise Ashley’s bairns in Newcastle, the one gig I suspect the nation's troubled sweetheart would most relish. 

Hear the single here: http://tinyurl.com/3dul4hl

Mercury Rising

With its seemingly insatiable appetite for production line boy-bands (One Direction, JLS) and pappy pop princesses (Cher/ Cheryl), if the Great British public awarded Michelin stars, would KFC have a maximum three above its portals? How refreshing to see 2011 Mercury Prize winner PJ Harvey’s fine concept album, Let England Shake, shoot up Amazon’s chart to number two, just behind the deserved global phenomenon that is fellow Mercury contender, Adele. I may question the inclusion of certain past nominees - U2, Spice Girls, Keane, Kasabian - but any platform that helps bring a wider audience for the likes of Anna Calvi, Everything Everything and Metronomy (whose track, The Look, is a slice of sublimely infectious pop) is a positive. Even if that audience is more likely to currently own a P J and Duncan CD than any of PJ Harvey’s.