Albums

Remi Nicole - My Conscience And I

Paul Cook 13/12/2007

Rating: 0.5/5

'Rock 'n' Roll' isn't terrible, the rest of the album is. This just about sums up Remi Nicole's debut car-crash of an album 'My Conscience and I' with its ridiculous over-complication of genre and style where clearly very simple, common talent is all there is on offer is a contender for worst album of the year.

Previous single releases 'Go with the flow' and 'Rock 'n' Roll' are bearable and at times catchy with a novelty, fun factor that lures the listener into a false sense of security before disappointing them with the remaining ten tracks. The low point has to be 'Na Nighty' with its cringe-worthy, cliché lyrics “I'm the type of girl who likes to kick a ball around the park/I sometimes like to skateboard with my friends through London in the dark.” The instrumentals on the track, like nearly every other on the album are so poorly constructed, offensively commercialised and terribly clichéd that it has to be one of the poorest albums of 2007. Where fellow indie-pop girl Kate Nash's 'Made of Bricks' at least had a lasting novelty value and Lily Allen's 'Alright Still' had an ounce of credibility for being slightly original, 'My Conscience and I' is an embarrassingly futile effort at capitalising on a warped taste in contemporary music.

Remi Nicole as a singer/songwriter, in the loosest sense of the term, is so desperately commercial that 'My Conscience and I' might as well be a poorly written rant about urban, ethnic, musical and gender stereotypes. Every song has a terribly obvious social commentary which distracts the listener from perfectly catchy indie-pop riffs. This is especially true of 'Rock 'n' Roll' in which Nicole explains “They said why you like to wear a shirt and tie? Now that's a bit bizarre/I said I like to look good when I go on stage strumming my guitar.” Then immediately after she sings “I like to sing my songs about real life things like good times and romance.” The lyrics in this song are offensively annoying trying far too hard to be “real” and “contemporary.”

The album ironically and embarrassingly boasts “All songs written by Remi Nicole” on the back whilst the music itself remains a testament that not everyone can write good lyrics. 'Tabloid Queen' is another commercial slap in the face for the listener beginning with “You're in Heat magazine.” This track tries simply too hard to criticise the “cult of the celebrity” and in doing so actually makes you question whether Remi Nicole would in fact like to be snapped in Heat herself. Disappointingly, after an average attempt with 'Rock 'n' Roll', Nicole's debut album is an awfully written, passenger of the indie-popstress band-wagon.