[Jords]

(of Girls Aloud)


Solo album coming out soon (produced by Diplo & Switch), and the lead single 'Beat of My Drum' rumoured released on June 5th;

Instrumental Preview:

Youtube video

Youtube video

Also working on a B Side of the lead single, named 'Porcelain Heart'.

Popjustic Interview:

Spoiler:

“So,” someone asked us recently. “Do you think you’re going to put Nicola Roberts back in the PJ Almighty?” Well the answer, as it turns out, is yes. Not just once but five times. Numbers one to five: Nicola Roberts, Nicola Roberts, Nicola Roberts, Nicola Roberts, Nicola Roberts.

Reasons for this include:

1. Her first single ‘Beat Of My Drum’ sounds like Daphne & Celeste vs Major Lazer vs Girls Aloud. It starts off outlining Nicola’s early days in The Aloud (“two left feet I had no beat, baby in the corner keep up, keep up”), swooshes into an elegantly bonkers pre-chorus (“oh, don’t it make your heart go wow, how I’ve turned this whole thing around?”) then bursts into a massive chorus of “L! O! V, E! Dance the beat of my drum! Dance to the beat of my drum!” Like some of Nicola’s other new songs it’s a bit about what happens when you lose your confidence and a bit about what happens when you get it back and decide to run riot.

2. We’ve been able to get to know six songs from Nicola’s album and they seem to be getting better with every listen. There is a depth and a humour to Nicola’s lyrical imagery, and there’s a warmth to the tunes that makes repeated listening a rewarding experience. The tunes are great and her vocals - singing, rapping, speaking, screaming - are top notch. Chuck this all together and the result is something really unique and interesting.

3. The collaborators - Diplo, Dimitri, Metronomy and so on - might suggest like a departure from Girls Aloud, but there’s more Aloud in these tracks than in any other post-Aloud solo album. A Metronomy song sounds a lot like Metronomy, of course, and a Dragonette song sounds a lot like Dragonette, but there is a really strong identity (Nicola’s) draped across the top of the whole thing. A couple of the songs sound unlike anything we’ve heard before, not in a selfconsciously odd way but in a way that feels completely natural.

4. ”Too young to buy my own bottle of vodka so I begged the driver, ‘please I need another’. How funny that I was too young for so many things, yet you thought I’d cope with being told I’m ugly over and over. I’d read it, believe it, said no to the shrink. I can fix it, I think…” THAT IS A LINE FROM A POP SONG. A POP SONG BY NICOLA ROBERTS. (Do not listen to that song with a hangover or if you’re on a comedown or you will cry a bit.)

5. One of the rap bits we like on the album reminds us a lot of that great ‘The 80s’/’The 90s’ double-masterpiece from Robbie’s ‘Rudebox’. Fast-forward to The 00s, swap Stoke for Runcorn and you’ve got “so I was just a shy girl from Halton Brook, I would write all my dreams down in my storybook, we didn’t have many pennies, used to sit round the telly, never been wrapped up in the way I look. So when I got down to London had the press on my case because I didn’t walk round with a smile on my face…” You get the idea.

6. ”I’m the kind of girl that likes to dream a lot, lose myself staring into my coffee cup.” “I don’t want them to see they’re making it hard for me, at home I cry.” “When you’ve no-one’s hand to hold, sticks and stones hurt just a little.” “I’m scared of ghosts.” “I hope that one day we’ll stop striving for perfection, I hope that everybody likes my new direction.” THESE ARE ALSO LINES FROM POP SONGS BY NICOLA ROBERTS.

7. There is a reference to the now legendary ‘rude ginger bitch’ Matt Willis feud of 2003.

So how’s this all going to pan out?

Well, beyond those of us who crumble the merest hint of “hello, did you call me”, there’s no proof that Nicola is yet quite as cherished by the world at large, so it’s hard to say whether an initial burst of excitement from the Nicorati will give ‘Beat Of My Drum’ the chartwards shove it needs and deserves. Having said all that, if the last twelve months have taught us anything about Girls Aloud solo careers it’s that you can’t take anything for granted, and perhaps the longer the odds, the more exciting the win might be. Anyway the sales and the chart positions are for someone else to worry about. On the basis of what we’ve heard it seems like Nicola’s made the album she wants to make - a really smart, confident, slightly eccentric and very British-sounding pop record - and for those of us who’ve been waiting since ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ for a Nicola Roberts solo album, it feels like everything we could have wanted.

Im really looking forward to this, Nicola's always been my favourite GA girl and I find her so attractive its bizzare Instrumental preview is sounding catchay!

Will it perform better than Nadine's 'Insatiable'?

[Rob]

Why do i get the feeling that this won't be any good......

[Z]

This was an interesting read, I've always liked Nicola, I hope it does well, it certainly sounds like it'll be worth a listen going by the description there!

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

didnt dilpo work with MIA

[Marsh.]

It sounds like the opening to a Nintendo game.

Will she be pure voice like Nadine and flop?
Or will it be autotuned and electronic to the max to ensure success (ala Cheryl)?

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Scott

didnt dilpo work with MIA

yeah, most of Kala and Arular. Also did the Major Lazer album which has got mainstream status lately with the new Beyoncé single.

[CaraRawr]

oh.

[M X]

I have a feeling it will be really quirky, really funky, colourful. Looking forward to it.

[LaLaLand]

Nicola has a great voice and I think she's gorgeous, hate how she's become somewhat of a figure to laugh at now.

If she does flop like Nadine then it proves that people didn't boycott "Insatiable" because they believed that Nadine and Cheryl had a rift (which was disgusting as Nadine's album was a solid piece of work and praised by critics unlike Cole's).

It SHOULD do well. I hope so.

[Jordan.]

She got so hot

I hope it does well but then she doesn't have a talent show with 15m viewers helping her to sell records like Cheryl.

[Tom4784]

I'm intrigued.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Jords

Instrumental Preview:

Youtube video

Has she done something with her image or does she just look really different in black and white? I hope she's different with her sound. However I expect little from her..

[Callum]

Looking forward to this! I've always liked Nicola the most from GA too and I hate all the abuse she gets for being 'the ugly one' of the group.

[Zippy]

regardless of whether she's the ugly one or not she still doesn't have much of a personality or profile. As such I really can't see her succeeding.

I like this basic old skool electro sound but can't really judge it yet until the finished product.

[Jords]

2 Previews;

Beat of My Drum: http://soundcloud.com/paganpoet/nico...comment-at-565

Porcelain Heart: http://soundcloud.com/paganpoet/nico...comment-at-188


They both sound really good, espicially Beat of My Drum!

[Z]

This'll be really interesting to hear the full thing, I don't know what I imagined Nicola to release as a solo artist but it wasn't this sort of sound, I like it though!

[Jords]

Longer Porcelain Heart preview;

Youtube video

Sounds so good! Cant believe its just a B side

[Jords]

Im addicted to ^ preview

[GypsyGoth]

Sounds better than I thought it would.

[Z]

Sounds pretty good!

[Ithinkiloveyoutoo]

she has the second best voice in GA. i wish her luck

[Matt]

Beat Of My Drum premieres on Scott Mills' Radio 1 show tomorrow between 5pm and 5.30pm, and the video premieres on Channel 4 at 12.30pm this Sunday.

Single release confirmed for Sunday too

[Callum]

Looking forward to hearing it but I'm not that impressed from the chorus that was played in one of her Vevo videos.

[Z]

Youtube video

Edit: Somehow managed to type img tags instead of YT tags

[Jords]

She looks brilliant

Cant wait to hear in full!