Nicole / NIKI / August 12, 2022
- Joshua Yoo
- Sep 13, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2022
A simple first-name album title typically indicates a dive into personal identity, a reflection of who the artist, deep-down, really is. For NIKI, it means a flashback to her past both in topical focus and actual songwriting, incorporating real pieces of her memories and early YouTube videos into a sophomore album that unapologetically embraces the beginnings of her career.
As she’s indicated, the album splits evenly with re-worked studio versions of her early uploaded songs on the back half, and brand new material to supplement on the first half. All together, it paints a interconnected picture of a romance from start to finish, full of high-school diary entries (“High School in Jakarta”), lovesick confessions (“Take A Chance With Me”), and bittersweet goodbyes (“Oceans & Engines”) laced in-between. NIKI’s emotional intimacy is warm and inviting, a comfort to hear a gifted songwriter in her earlier stages of life and artistry, and the straightforward nature of the arrangements capture their clusters of ideas neatly.
By the same token, there’s also a sense of undeveloped potential with a lot of the songs featured here. The simplicity of the underlying song structures, especially some of the ones pulled from her vault, bargains some of the creativity, variety, and maturity that NIKI has developed as an artist since the time she first wrote them. Adding studio flourishes sharpen the instrumentation, but tracks like “Milk Teeth” and “Anaheim” still feel like hollow shells of potent song ideas.
Regardless, long-time fans will surely appreciate ‘Nicole’ for the space it gives NIKI to re-work the magic of some of her first songs, as well as show the personal storytelling that paints a larger picture of her journey. It won’t convince many new listeners, but there’s still flashes of musical gold buried beneath the album for those willing to search.
Highlight(s): Take A Chance With Me, High School in Jakarta, Oceans & Engines
Lowlight(s): Keeping Tabs, Facebook Friends, The Apartment We Won’t Share
SCORE: 5/10
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