Cher Lloyd throws catchy 'Stones'
Cher Lloyd is great at being a brat.
The English singer's debut album, "Sticks & Stones," works best when it's spotlighting her cheeky pop humor. First single "Want U Back" is a perfect example. Pop earworms often border on annoying, and this one is no exception. It's silly, flirty and irresistible after a few listens. Lloyd slides her way up and down the verses with a knowing wink. Even the grunts that punctuate the end of each line - "Uh!" - are ridiculously perfect.
The single has already shifted more than 1 million copies, and the full album is online and in stores today. It's already made Lloyd an overseas star. She finished fourth in the seventh season of "The X Factor" (UK), just behind One Direction.
This is an aggressive, brashly commercial pop album, capitalizing equally on its heavyweight team (Simon Cowell, producers Max Martin and RedOne) and Lloyd's personality. She's like a one-woman Spice Girls by way of Nicki Minaj.
Second single "Oath" miscasts her, slightly, as a wannabe Rihanna, devolving from promising rap verses into a standard, sing-along chorus. Better are the lip-curled spirit of "Grow Up" ("I'm a princess, I don't wanna be the queen") featuring a campy Busta Rhymes cameo; and midtempo "Behind the Music," which showcases a gentler charm.
"Swagger Jagger" pinpoints the album's love/hate dynamic. It's really a terrible song, all shouty raps over a riff on folk ballad "Oh My Darling, Clementine." (Really.) But Lloyd throws herself entirely into the sentiment, and it's hard not to admire her commitment. The song was voted most annoying in a 2011 BBC poll, despite hitting No. 1 on the U.K. charts. "Swagger Jagger" refers to someone who steals another person's style or ideas. (Lloyd also used it as a strike against nonfans, who harass her via social media.)
"Playa Boi" makes decent use of late-'80s hit "Buffalo Stance" as a sample and a lyrical blueprint; and "Superhero plays like a Coldplay B-side. A few of the songs bleed into each other, and she's less successful on gushy ballads ("End Up Here," "Beautiful People") at odds with the rest of the album's neon energy.
To be sure, some of these songs are designed to drive a person crazy. But you'll probably be singing along for weeks.
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