Review: Nicola Roberts Releases "Engine Room Sessions."

Finally! I've been waiting for this since we saw the "I" performance on NME. This package was released along side the CDM for "Yo-Yo," her third single. No word on if there will be another single from "Cinderella's Eyes," but Roberts is recording her second solo album already.

Nicola has this careless, effortlessness about her. Sometimes she misses a key. Sometimes she overshoots a high note. Sometimes her vibrata doesn't come out, perhaps, the way she wanted... but it all works so perfectly for her sound. It boosts the emotional impact of her music and lyrics, along with the way she grits and sings through her teeth. It's real, unpolished, raw emotion.

The setlist for this session is pretty much the top selection from the album. She, of course, chose two singles to perform, "Lucky Day" and "Yo-Yo" but aside from that, she performed the two most hard hitting songs on the album, "I" and "sticks + stones." "I," as I've said 100x, is the greatest pop song of its kind to be released since Alanis Morissette gave us Jagged Little Pill. The lyrics are leagues above anything another world-famous pop star is singing about. The meaning of the song is extremely deep, but she doesn't try to dress up the lyrics with fans words and metaphors. No thesaurus needed. It's just her listening off all of the bullshit this world has to off. Then there's "sticks + stones" which the national anthem for anyone who's ever felt out of place in the world. In both of these performances, Nicola adds a little extras "umph" that we don't get to hear in her ironed out studio vocals. It's almost like she's hearing the lyrics herself for the first time. 

As a little bonus gift, Nicola offered up the demo version of "sticks + stones." It's clearly a rough cut, filled with incomplete lyrics and mumbles, but it's a nice addition for anyone who has an interest in song development. It's really a completely different song. Nothing is the same but the piano. There's also a rehash of a Girls Aloud b-side, "Memory of You" featuring only Nicola's vocals.

Bottom Line: If you're new to Nicola, you haven't missed the bus. I'd probably check out Cinderella's Eyes before I'd suggest you hear this just so you can appreciate her artistry and get the full emotion from this. For anyone who's been listening to Nicola since her solo debut...every second spent not hearing this is a second wasted.