Trollheart

Young foolish happy --- Pixie Lott --- 2011 (Mercury)
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What? What? Run that by me again... Pixie Lott? Jeez, for a moment there I thought you said … wait a minute! You did! Pixie Lott! Are you insane?

Well, quite possibly, but it has yet to be proved by a court beyond a reasonable doubt, so I remain at large. Yeah, there are some albums I can't wait to review, some I'll never review, and some I think I'll never even listen to. But the odd time it's just the old male urge that pushes me to listen to something that's recorded by such a stunner. Hey, sometimes it works though usually not, but I have to admit I'm floored by this girl's looks, so am I going to dissolve into a huge lump of mush and tell you all that her album is brilliant if it's not, just cos I think she looks sexy? Oh no way! If this album is as terrible as I fear it may be, Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott is going to get a good spanking (sadly, only verbal!) from me, and no mistake.

Oh, and just for the sheer fun of it, here's a gratuitous sexy picture of her from Wiki!
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But let's give her a chance --- hello? Hel-lo? That's better. Now pay attention please, I don't write these reviews for the good of my health, you know! --- and see if she's more than just a (very) pretty face. This is her second album, and she's already been ranked alongside such luminaries (ahem!) in her field as Rihanna, Adele and … well, I don't know that many more, you understand, but she's seen as one of the bright new rising stars of pop. Does she deserve that title? Well, the album certainly sold well, but then you'd expect that with the demographic she's reaching for. But is there any substance to her music, or is it just generic pap for the teenage girlies to shake their little booties to …. er, excuse me for just a moment: did it suddenly get very hot in here?

Right, enough of this pseudo-sexual innuendo. Let's get down to basics and see if her music is as good as her looks. Is there anything underneath that young, pulsing, nubile --- STOP IT I SAID! Humph! That's better. Behave yourself: children may be reading this! Okay, one rant before I begin. Why is it that so many of these “pop” albums need armies of producers? I mean, there are fourteen tracks on this album and twenty different producers! Like,why? What's wrong with letting the one guy --- or girl --- produce the lot? And we're not even counting engineers, mixers, and so on. Well, on the bright side I see that Pixie co-writes all the tracks herself, so at least she's able to put together a song or two. Are they any good though?

Opener “Come get it now” (ooh yeah!) starts as a pretty generic dance track with a little soul infused in it, and I have never ever heard Pixie Lott up to now, so I have to say she has a nice, mature-sounding voice which from the off reminds me of Sam Brown, though nowhere near as strong (but then, who is?). The track is generally carried on synth and keys, as you would probably expect, with a certain nod to seventies disco on the keyboards, though as to who plays what I couldn't tell you as the band is not credited, be they session musos or her actual backing band. “All about tonight” was the lead single from the album, and went right to number one. It does nothing for me, an annoyingly sub-Kylie dance track with bleating keyboards and handclap drumbeats. Not impressed so far. Oh, big surprise, I hear you gasp!

At least the songs are all short, as again you would probably expect with music of this type. It's snappy, quick, to the point (if there is one), the longest track being just under four minutes. A rap courtesy of Pusha T on “What do you take me for”, another single, does not help my mood, but hey, I knew what I was (probably) getting into when I started this. Hell, it's good for dancing, but I'm a bit old to shake my little booty, and anyway, I listen to music for more than just a decent beat. Oh, how awful to be old! Nah, seriously, even when I was in my teens I never liked this type of music. I'm a rocker at heart, and I'll die a rocker, proud of that. So she gives Rihanna a run for her money (probably) on this track, her voice seeming to be cracking a little: perhaps not quite able to hit those high notes she thought she could?

Much better is “Nobody does it better”, with a very laidback seventies motown feel --- no, it suddenly changed into a jungle-type dance track with bubbling keyboards and a funky guitar line, so scratch that comment at the opening of this paragraph. I thought this was going to be a lot better, and the title belies the originality of the song. Bah. Pass. Next! More dance nonsense in “Kiss the stars”, which apparently will be the next single. Can't wait. Oh, hold on: I can! More pulsing synth and funky bass, more handclaps, more of the same, blah blah, kids these days, wouldn't know proper music etc etc...

Would you like some magazines to read while I complete the review? I certainly would. Wake me when it's over. Oh come on now, let's be fair. You said you'd give her a chance, so let's do a proper review, make an effort and at least try to approach this professionally, okay? Oh-kay? Better.

“Stevie on the radio” at least seems more like soul than pop, with a sort of Gladys Knight vibe to it, the vacuous, empty pop melodies removed to allow a decent song to shine through finally. See? I knew if you persevered … Don't get me wrong, it's not brilliant, but at least it's a move away from the generic diva-pop we've heard so far. And on this song you can hear that Pixie does have a good voice, if she just lets it have its head. Now, shut up! I said no more sexual innuendo! This song is a tribute to the great Stevie Wonder, and the legend himself pops up with a fine harmonica solo near the end of the song, so that's something to mark it out as special. Also the fact that she could be bothered paying her dues, and that she even knows who Stevie is, lifts her in my estimation.

Where do they get the names for these producers? Mr. Hudson? Captain Hook? The Invisible Men? The Matrix? Holy …. well, anyway, there's a really nice piano ballad next in “Everybody hurts sometimes”, even if the title is lifted directly from the REM hit. Some effective violin on the track too, though again I couldn't tell you who's playing it. Pixie's voice is very soulful on this track, very strong and passionate. It's just a pity she doesn't do this sort of song more. I could probably listen to tracks like this and the previous a lot more than the dancefloor rubbish that seems to make up the bulk of the album. Oh well, the kids get what the kids want, I guess. Great to be young.

Speaking of the young, no doubt they all know who Marty Jones is, but the name is unknown to me. At any rate, he guests on the next track, “Dancing on my own”, which I have to admit is not bad at all. It's a sort of semi-ballad with a nice strings arrangement via the synth, and although Pixie again indulges in that annoying habit these divas all have of routing their voices through a vocoder, so that they all end up sounding the same, her voice is strong enough to stand apart from the pack. This song is okay, really, and that's three in a row. Do I sense a seachange in this album? Dare I hope?

Well, maybe. “Love you to death” is another ballad, with some nice piano and decent percussion, but then “Birthday” brings us back to banal pop territory, with a reggae beat and lots of silly singalong “Oh-oh-oh-oh”s. Give me strength. Tinchy Strider teams up with her for “Bright lights (Good life) Part II” --- don't ask me where part I is, if it exists. It's okay, mid-paced but still yer basic pop fodder. Not breaking any new ground here, young lady! “Perfect” is exactly not that, the kind of melody you hear in a thousand clubs, with something of the tune of Cat Stevens' “Wild world” swimming around in there, somehow. I can just see scantily-clad ladies dancing in smoky clubs to this while gangstas do deals and compare bling, or whatever they do in those sort of places. Generic with a capital G.

Which leaves us with two tracks to go. Is it worth finishing? Well, there's a sweet piano intro to “You win”, then it gets a little funky with some soul, some nice strings/keyboards carrying the melody and Pixie again stretching her voice as she can do, but just doesn't do enough, at least on this album. Again, it sort of harks back to the cool disco/funk of the seventies, and the strings really help to recreate that atmosphere. Just wish there were some credits so I could tell you who it is arranging, or playing them. I mean, they can credit a score of producers, but no room for guitarist, pianist, drummer? Come on people: priorities, priorities! If there's no band to make the music to produce, what use are producers then? Credit where credit is due. Or not, as the case may be.

At any rate, we close on a rather lovely ballad, entitled “We just go on”, which I was all ready to slag off as being the way Pixie approaches her music, but hold the phone: this is really nice. Well-crafted, well-played, with a lovely turn by someone on the mandolin, soulful piano and Pixie at her most fragile and broken, yet determined and passionate. Quite touching, and a very decent closer to an album which has certainly got its moments.

Look, I'm not going to become a Pixie Lott fan, there's no doubt about that. Oh, I'll be happy to drool over pictures of her on the web, sure, but I'm not going to be rushing out to buy her albums, and it's very unlikely that I'll be spinning this again anytime soon, but for what it is, and what I expected it to be, “Young foolish happy” is not a terrible album. It's not my kind of music, but that's ok: not everything is to my taste, nor should it be. But as a second album this has its own strength, and let's face it, Miss Lott is not going to be sitting in a corner crying her eyes out over a bad review in some unknown journal out at the unfashionable end of the World Wide Web, now is she?

TRACKLISTING

1. Come get it now
2. All about tonight
3. What do you take me for
4. Nobody does it better
5. Kiss the stars
6. Stevie on the radio
7. Everybody hurts sometimes
8. Dancing on my own
9. Love you to death
10. Birthday
11. Bright lights (Good life) Part II
12. Perfect
13. You win
14. We just go on

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