Pixie Lott

Part of Pixie Lott's appeal is that she is indeed pixie-ish. She's cute, impish, and girly, her exuberance compensating for the high polish of her productions. Her eponymous 2014 album, the third to her name, does attempt to tone down her girlishness, going so far as to offer an interpolation of Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man" (titled "Kill a Man," naturally) as it attempts to ratchet up the good old-fashioned Motown/Tamla quotient. Ultimately, this winds up sounding a bit like Natasha Bedingfield copping beats from Amy Winehouse, but this is where Lott's puckishness saves the day. Try as she might, Lott can't run away from her ebullient instincts, and that sprightliness is why Pixie Lott is an enjoyable piece of high gloss pop. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine