You shouldn’t give too much credence to pre-release hype or soundbites. That way madness lies. But, listening to Pixie Lott’s third album, it’s impossible to ignore the 'Motown' elephant in the room.
Boasting not a drop of the impishness of her breakthrough hit, Mama Do, or the dancefloor rush of All About Tonight, this self-titled effort is remarkably one-paced, with Lott running through a string of competent R&B facsimiles without ever notching up anything truly convincing. The Motown line becomes a millstone.
Next to the sophisticated pop of La Roux, or Slow Club’s recent foray into modern soul on the brilliant ‘Complete Surrender’, ‘Pixie Lott’ curiously lacks both subtlety and any real fire.
Nasty, the record’s lead single, is neatly executed but burdened with some grating vocal histrionics, something that also haunts Break Up Song, where a snatch of Soul Man guitar leads in a ballad that never gets under the skin.
There are further cues for the listener dotted around - see Heart Cry’s vinyl pops or the rolling Hammond and beat of Kill A Man - but it’s difficult to ever see them as more than window dressing. Similarly, Bang’s glib references to looting and shooting are awkward bedfellows for the song’s glossy message.
Champion, with its playful Rocky Balboa/Apollo Creed chorus and biting shots at a rival, is far better but nothing to get too excited about, while Lay Me Down survives an onslaught of Ibiza-ready keys to provide the record’s best effort at combining Lott’s modern pop sheen with something approaching the ballroom soul of the ‘70s. It’s the best of a pretty average bunch.
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