Nor are we feeling good about poor Ms. Lott, who, after being reviewed six times, has yet to average above five…
[Video]
[4.86]
Alfred Soto: Written for Christina Aguilera in part by Cee-Lo Green, and it’s obvious. While Aguilera has not put over a persuasive horn-driven statement since 2006’s “Ain’t No Other Man,” Lott’s restraint is the wrong approach. She’s not nasty — she’s suggestive.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Imagine a world where this was Xtina’s big cross-promotional hit rather than “Moves Like Jagger.” Probably the same world the unfairly maligned Burlesque might’ve carried it. Pixie Lott is no Xtina, but I always thought this sound went out of style too fast; if we must have vaguely-soul-vaguely-sexy joints, might as well make them fun.
[6]
Anthony Easton: I always figure a song that advertises its nastiness should, I don’t know, be nasty, or at least aware of the genre. (Nothing Eartha Kitt does in “I Want to Be Evil” is actually evil, but she sells the fuck out of it.) Pixie doesn’t even bother with that.
[4]
Scott Mildenhall: It’s heartening that Pixie Lott is still hanging on in there, and doing so with something so subtly odd. It’s easy to not even notice it’s there, never mind how it starts with a man going “do it, do it” and ends abruptly with the sound of a rubber duck, yet in between there are so many gaps. There are spaces in the backing track (which incidentally sounds a lot like the Trisha theme tune) and between it and the vocals, yet the result is something so unified, there’s no discernible verses or choruses. It sounds like it might be meant to sound like a few things on the radio, but in effect it stands alone.
[7]
Patrick St. Michel: “Nasty” has been bogged down by sample clearance issues ever since it was first recorded by Christina Aguilera for the film Burlesque, but Pixie Lott and her team managed to ram this one through. Seems like kind of a waste — the samples don’t really add anything except a forced old timey sheen, and the rest of the song has a swing to it but seems to lack any sort of urgency… just sort of going along. Or maybe the original just sounds so much more forceful, this take seems like scraps.
[4]
Brad Shoup: Well, shit. “Dance Across the Floor” is kind of a sacred text for me, so this just got a head start. Still, the sample’s running against the wind, and Lott’s uptempo R&B flexing isn’t exactly built to interlock with the TK groove. The minor-key middle eight is especially painful. Since “Nasty” lasts almost exactly as long as the single version of its forebear, there’s lots of time to consider how this could be done right.
[6]
Rebecca A. Gowns: This would have been a great breakthrough pop single for a new artist around 2000-2002. Coming out today, I’m waiting for her to spell out A-P-P-L-E-B-E-E-‘S in the chorus, followed quickly by a voiceover letting me know the latest steak specials.
[3]