In the three years since American dynamo Nikkole’s last release, her sound has clearly evolved.
The vocal dip, high-energy tracks and ecstatic sounds are showcased on this album “Hallucinations”. Her knack for delivering heart-swelling choruses shines through on a set of uplifting songs you might play while winning a marathon. The flexible singer has always been diverse and experimental about her style; styles including Indie Pop, R&B, Dance and Pop. Now, we have arrived at Nikkole’s breakthrough album “Hallucinations, which finds her fully immersed in Pop music once more, but this time interwoven with a bombastic world appeal. The album produced by multi-platinum British-Pop producer Derek Bramble, let’s Nikkole breathe freely and conquer new terrain with the greatest of ease.
“Hallucinations” contains some of the year’s most stirring pop songs.
“Walking On The Sky” opens the doorway into the album and it’s a behemoth of a song with its ‘I can do anything’ feeling of euphoria. There’s triumph in her littlest tics, like the echoing ‘this time I know I’m gonna get it right’ on the choruses of “Gonna Get It Right”. You are whisked away on a beachy sabbatical of the sweetened Caribbean rhythm of “My Beautiful Man.” “Zero” is another explosive track that has expressive strength and will punch the hardest of dudes with its straightforward message of coming correct before you get dropped. Nikkole showcases power in her voice that she has never showcased before on any of her previous recordings.
“Naked On The Inside” is a gripping, Pop/Rock ballad that speaks about the release of being able to feel vulnerable and human with that particular someone. The various sonic layers continue to reveal themselves as the song progresses.
“Hallucinations” demonstrates how truly powerful Nikkole’s vocals can be; the agilities are simply out of this world. Which begs the question, is the album title “Hallucinations” a metaphor for her life and how we perceive this ever-evolving chanteuse.
Nikkole looks like a super model on the cover art, and sounds like a superstar on the album. This is both commercially appealing and artistically enticing. “Hallucinations” shows us that there will be some very interesting times ahead for us all.