1 	Your Love 	4:06
2 	Electric Blue    (Featuring – T.I.)	3:41
3 	On The Rocks 	5:07
4 	Heartbreaker 	4:59
5 	God Of War 	3:57
6 	Girl With A Diamond Heart 	3:38
7 	Just A Girl 	3:26
8 	First Time 	3:19
9 	Bang 	4:27
10 	Big Fat Lie 	3:49
11 	Run 	3:30

There’s been a series of delays, complications and a whole lot of being kept in the dark surrounding Nicole Scherzinger‘s new album and record deal status, but Big Fat Lie finally here!

‘On the Rocks’ is an emotionally driven ballad which runs at about 80% and doesn’t make the most of its full potential as it is largely under-sung. The auto-tune effect in the bridge is unnecessary for a singer of Scherzinger’s ability and it is a fairly safe and inoffensive single option. ‘God of War’ again has the potential to be something great because of the flawlessly produced instrumental but the vocals are once more underwhelming. Things only start to get more interesting in the bridge and final chorus when the emotion in her voice is heightened.

‘Girl with a Diamond Heart’ fails to capture the imagination of the listener and consists of too many “La, la, la, la, la” ad-libs and irritating high pitch waves of sound throughout. ‘Just a Girl’ incorporates elements of dubstep but is once again let down by the vocals and the spoken lyrics. It comes off as a bad imitation of a Beyoncé song. ‘First Time’ is a foray into hip hop and urban styles and is the inevitable song about sex that seems to be integral to every pop singer’s album as of late. Again, it comes of as cheap and boring given the capability of Scherzinger’s voice.

Big Fat Lie is a big fat disappointment. All of the songs except ‘Run’ were co-written and produced by Tricky Stewart and The-Dream and consequently lack any diversity or variation of style. Virtually all of the songs sound the same and it becomes very boring very quickly. As is usually the case, the lead single ‘Your Love’ is the best track on the album but still isn’t as a good as songs from her previous album ‘Killer Love’; Big Fat Lie lacks powerful anthems such as ‘Poison’, progressive and strong ballads like ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’, decent quality R&B such as ‘Right There’ and a proper dance track like ‘Wet’. If they can be called highlights, then they are ‘Your Love’, the title track and ‘Run’.

We know that Scherzinger possesses a fantastic voice. One need only watch her duet with Sam Bailey last year on The X Factor or her operatic performance on The Royal Variety Performance a couple of years ago to see what a wide range she has but she is rarely recognised for it because her songs aren’t written to showcase it. In essence, Big Fat Lie is another lacklustre pop album that won’t make a dent on the charts, which is a shame for her as a singer. We are still yet to see what Scherzinger can really do. ---AaronW, hitthefloor.com

Nicole Scherzinger to wokalistka, którą wszyscy pamiętamy z czasów, kiedy stała na czele The Pussycat Dolls, a niemal każdy ich kawałek stawał się numerem jeden. Można więc odnieść wrażenie, że kariera artystki przygasła po odejściu z zespołu.

Big Fat Lie to drugi solowy krążek piosenkarki, za którego produkcją stoją The-Dream i Christopher „Tricky” Stewart. Znane nazwiska, dzięki którym powstał niejeden hit — chociażby „Single Ladies” Beyoncé. Na myśl przychodzi jedno: będzie się działo. Odpalam płytę, a tu… no właśnie… nic szczególnego. To nie tak, że Nicole czegoś brakuje — jest świetną wokalistką z potężnym głosem, czego najlepszym dowodem są występy w brytyjskim X-Factorze, dobrą tancerką, wydaje się że posiada pełen pakiet. Co więc sprawia, że nie może znaleźć się na szczytach list przebojów? Może brak pomysłu na własną twórczość.

Cały album to miszmasz współczesnych trendów, czyli tak naprawdę wszystkiego i niczego. Stylistyka płyty i jakość kolejnych utworów niczym sinusoida idą raz w górę, raz w dół. Zaczyna się lekko i pozytywie. Singiel „Your Love” idealnie wpasował się w wakacyjny klimat, ale już wraz z „On the Rocks” otrzymujemy popową kompozycję bez wyrazu, której melodii nie mogę sobie przypomnieć nawet po parokrotnym przesłuchaniu albumu. Na szczęście chwilę później pojawia się „Electric Blue”, niekwestionowany numer jeden na płycie — delikatnie zaśpiewany, przypominający stylem Janet Jackson, podparty pulsującym bitem z T.I.’em na featuringu i wstawkami The-Dreama. Fason trzyma również zmysłowe „Heartbreaker” z elektryczną gitarą w tle, dzięki której wyobraźnia sama zaczyna pracować. Taneczno-klubowe kawałki („God of War”, „Girl With a Diamond Heart”) to zdecydowanie nie mój klimat, ale jestem sobie w stanie wyobrazić, że podczas koncertów publiczność będzie mogła się wykazać. „Just a Girl” to istna zagadka (czy w pierwszej zwrotce naprawdę słyszymy Nicole?), która momentami przypomina „Drunk in Love” Beyoncé. Na ostatniej prostej Nicole rozkwita nie tylko wokalnie, ale przede wszystkim emocjonalnie w numerze „Run” — aż chce się krzyknąć: „nareszcie!”. Życzyłabym sobie więcej takich utworów na płycie, uwielbiam wrażliwość w takim wydaniu. Warstwa tekstowa płyty to żadna niespodzianka — tematy damsko-męskie wiodą prym, a motywem przewodnim jest jakże dobrze znane nam wszystkim broken heart.

Big Fat Lie brakuje spójności i mocnych akcentów. Śmiało mogę powiedzieć, że album jest poprawny, ale niestety mało oryginalny i jest duże prawdopodobieństwo, że za chwilę mało kto będzie o nim pamiętał. Szkoda, bo tym razem chyba nie tak miało być. ---PILI, soulbowl.pl

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01. Poison
02. Killer Love                     play
03. Don’t Hold Your Breath
04. Right There
05. You Will Be Loved
06. Wet
07. Say Yes
08. Club Banger Nation
09. Power’s Out” feat. Sting
10. Desperate
11. Everybody
12. Heartbeat feat. Enrique Iglesias (Rudi Wells’ Open Heart Remix)  play
13. Casualty
14. AmenJena

The twists and turns of Nicole Scherzinger's solo career are proof that, in pop, nothing is predictable. What should have been a seamless transition from her status as lead Pussycat Doll seemed to have foundered before it had even set sail, amidst the wreckage of public indifference and an entirely aborted album. Yet four years later, there she is, sitting pretty at the top of the charts – thanks mostly to, of all things, her role as guest judge on The X Factor reviving interest in her.

The truth is, though, that Scherzinger has always been a sorely underrated artist; her initial failure was due more to having jumped ship too early from a band whose aesthetic was divisively trashy in the first place than because of her own limitations. Technically, she's faultless – but she's also one of the most convincing singers in pop in terms of conveying a song's essence. Throughout her career, her performances have been characterised by an ability to be permanently and ferociously turned up to 11 at all times.

It's these qualities that save Killer Love, an album that – unsurprisingly, given its tortuous gestation – plays it relatively safe sonically, with the overdriven electro pound of RedOne's production dominating proceedings. Imaginative he is not, but it works: along with Lady Gaga, Scherzinger is one of the few pop performers with the requisite power to dominate his beats rather than vice versa. She revels in the challenge: you can virtually hear her rev herself up to match the relentless dancefloor force of the title-track and the magnificently shameless Club Banger Nation.

The Scherzinger persona, too, is finding its feet. She's less girl-next-door and more Jackie Collins anti-heroine: impressive rather than lovable, and with a cold glint in her voice that enables her to play the bad girl with relish on Poison. But she's also sympathetic enough to carry off a succession of dramatic ballads: Everybody and AmenJena find the wind machines turned up to the max and Scherzinger buffeted this way and that amidst the storms of her emotions.

Killer Love is far from the album you sense Scherzinger could still deliver: at times, her personality is all that – barely – carries substandard, unmemorable songs. A duet with Sting is a particularly grim nadir – for its producers, too, the otherwise unimpeachable Tricky Stewart and The-Dream. Her finest moments remain the tense, taut crunk of Whatever U Like and the irresistibly kittenish Supervillain, two tracks recorded for her long-scrapped initial attempt at a solo album. But there's enough quality here to pass muster – and Scherzinger finally taking her belated place in the charts up is a thoroughly welcome development. ---Alex Macpherson, BBC Review

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