Album Review: Pixie Lott – Turn It Up
With so much critical attention on newcomers like La Roux, Florence and Little Boots, it’s a miracle that an eighteen year-old popstar like Pixie Lott has made the breakthrough she has. She’s the only female soloist in history to make her chart debut at Number One without first winning some form of TV show, she now holds the record for biggest jump to No1 (‘Boys and Girls’ vaulted 73-1); and now, after four years of preparation and two hit singles, she’s finally unleashing her debut album.
‘Turn It Up’ is probably what would happen if you locked Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Rhianna and Natasha Bedingfield in a studio and told them to get writing. Vocally, Lott is like a breezier Adele; restrained when needed but effortlessly capable of handling the various vocal acrobatics. Next single ‘Cry Me Out’ for example, complete with the brilliant opening line “I got your e-mails, you just don’t get females”, is an almighty break-up ballad that finally lets Pixie’s voice prove what all the fuss is about. And impressively, through all the soaring choruses and glass-shattering finales, she always sounds believable. On the amazing ‘Gravity’ she successfully plays the emotionally battered girlfriend, and on the heart-breaking ‘Nothing Compares’ she really sounds genuinely crushed.
The album packs a punch with the up-tempo tunes as well. ‘Here We Go Again’ doesn’t sound that different from any other RedOne collaboration (it even begins with “RedOne! Pixie!”), but it’s a danceable stormer nonetheless; ‘Jack’ is a ridiculously catchy ode to a past love and the brilliant title track is an optimistic break-up song about realising you’re better off as friends after all. With only one song that even comes close to being a misfire (‘My Love’), it’s a breath of fresh air at how consistently strong this set is.
‘Turn It Up’ won’t change the world, and it’s unlikely to attract the same calibre of acclaim as La Roux and co, but this is nonetheless a perfect forty minutes of refreshing contemporary pop. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another four years to make the follow-up.
[...] is easily one of the best tracks on the ‘Turn It Up’ album (look, we reviewed it and everything), and for the video – unlike with ‘Cry Me Out’ – artsy fancy [...]
[...] indeed, actually – perhaps her best to date. The song itself, a pretty catchy track from the rather good LP, has been given a fancy new radio edit which also provides enough excitement for the 500,000 owners [...]
[...] 22-track collection will feature the 12 original songs from last September’s release (we liked it), which has now sold more than a million copies and spent two weeks short of a whole year inside [...]
[...] did impressively well considering it was the fifth single from a year-old, double platinum-selling album; peaking at No11 after a four-week climb and becoming a radio airplay favourite. A remarkably [...]
[...] Lott – whose debut LP sold approx 1 million more copies than anyone realistically expected – has kickstarted her [...]
[...] never judge a book by its cover – ‘Turn It Up‘ was perfection so let’s sit tight and see how good the music [...]
[...] I bloody loved Turn It Up but I’m not sure about these snippets. Only about half of them sound promising, but guess we’ll have to see how they pan out in full… [...]
[...] really expected to make an impact went on to sell more than a million copies of her debut album Turn It Up, keeping it in the UK album chart for a ridiculously good 96 weeks and spawning six radio-invading [...]