Album Review

Niko – Hate & Love

• 8th Jun 2012

Hate & Love isn’t just an album, or perhaps to be more precise, it doesn’t appear to be just one album.

In fact it is very hard to tell if Niko is afflicted by the modern music world’s fickle nature or if she will thrive because of it.

Whilst half the album seems to present her as an Icelandic based cocktail with equal measures of Bjork and Sigur Ros (with perhaps a splash of Zero 7 for flavour) producing lush, ethereal music that eases the senses like a lullaby, the other half takes cues from a number of other disparate sources.

Recent single, You’re So Boring is indie with a twist of Santigold, The Daddy Remix is an old-skool hip-hop head nodder with guest rappers and I Can’t Get Enough Of You sounds like Goldfrapp tailor making a track for Kylie.

And just the same way that the album is fractured, I myself am torn between whether this proves to be a strength or a weakness.

The schizophrenic nature of the music’s very own identity crisis keeps the listening experience fresh, yet it never seems to be cohesive and work as a whole.

Perhaps Niko could have released two, more consistent, EPs from these 10 tracks to showcase her diversity, or perhaps Niko is the perfect pop star for the Shuffle generation.

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