New York (BBC): With her raunchy past in The Pussycat Dolls and her on-again, off-again, on-again romance with Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton, Nicole Scherzinger has never stayed out of the spotlight for long. Throw in her lively two-year stint on The X Factor and you’d seem to have the perfect launchpad for a sparkling solo career. But it is often hard to take Scherzinger, 36, seriously. The Dolls were more famous for their racy attire than their music, and her first solo album, Killer Love, was a mixed bag. She sets the record straight on Big Fat Lie — a frisky, enjoyable affair that makes the most of her assured, five-octave voice to forge a coherent artistic personality, albeit one that owes a lot to Janet Jackson and Prince.
The album was made in LA, but the time Scherzinger spent in London filming The X Factor has left its mark. Her admiration for the open-minded attitude that prevails in British pop gives her an edge over her U.S. peers, enabling her to deliver a cool, soulful set that steers clear of R&B cliche. She moves from big, cinematic ballads to the feelgood, summer hooks of recent Top Ten single Your Love, a song that manages to impress despite containing a verse that rhymes ‘enticing’ with ‘Mike Tyson’. If there is a signature sound, it is the jittery blend of funky R&B and electronic percussion reminiscent of Janet Jackson. Scherzinger stretches the soprano end of her voice on the Prince-like Electric Blue, before dipping into robotic Eighties pop-funk on Heartbreaker. Having swapped those skimpy outfits for something more chic, she has finally done justice to her vocal talent, too.