Review - Cheryl Cole - A Million Lights (Deluxe Edition)

Cheryl Cole is a member of the British girl group Girls Aloud, and ‘A Million Lights’ is her third solo album away from the group. She has done three albums since 2008, which to some may sound like a lot, but it is just Cheryl keeping pace. Between 2002 and 2008 (when Girls Aloud went on hiatus) the girl group released five albums and twenty one singles (only one of which didn’t reach the top ten, by the way). Cheryl is used to success, and she’s not letting go of it.

‘A Million Lights’ is kind of a mix of everything that is currently happening in music. She is a sexy solo woman, and she doesn’t let you forget it. Cole sings of female empowerment and rising up, all while still showing off her softer, emotional side (and flat stomach). Some songs are the typical ballad-esque slower pop tune that surely a number of teenage girls will cling to while the rest of us hit “next”. Others show us her modern pop side – you know, when “pop” actually means dance.

Calvin Harris stepped in and made her first single <a href="http://popbangboom.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-music-cheryl-cole.html">“Call My Name”</a>, and what a single it is. Fastest selling song in the UK of 2012, it debuted at #1 and helped set this record up for a #2 debut (right behind Justin Bieber, sorry Cheryl). “Call My Name” is my favorite track, and the biggest hit the record has.

This isn’t to say that UK audiences won’t snatch up the next few singles, of which there are a few to choose from. “Under The Sun” has already been named the next single, and it will be “out” in September. The song is good and it has Cheryl actually having a moment of her own, but only UK (and European) audiences will really appreciate it. No worries, it’ll do just fine.

‘A Million Lights’ also dabbles in dubstep, as so many other popstars are doing these days. Well, not so much dabble as features it fairly prominently. Songs like “Craziest Things (ft. Will.I.Am)” (to whom Cheryl was romantically linked a while back) aren’t shy about the step. While her contemporaries use dubstep in the background or in breakdowns, Cheryl is all-out going for it. It might not come off terribly well, but she’s at least doing it.

Cole’s newest studio effort plays like so many before it – hire the right people, make a few catchy bits that hit on whatever trend is happening on the moment, fill the rest with some B- grade tunes and you’re done. I won’t say it’s bad, because it isn’t. But her last two albums had a much more distinct sound to them, a style. ‘A Million Lights’ bounces back and forth and leaves you not sure what kind of artist you just listened to.

‘A Million Lights’ is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Million-Lights-Deluxe-Edition-Cheryl/dp/B007VDNXV2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341171185&sr=8-1&keywords=cheryl+cole">out July 3rd</a>, but only as an import. Sorry guys.

Listen to: “Call My Name”, “Under The Sun”, “Mechanics of the Heart” (a Taio Cruz-produced track that might make it to a single status in her country)