nikka costa: pebble to a pearl (2009)

Nikka Costa is to soul music what cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks is to any civilised social gathering. Proving that the old ones are the best, Miss Costa embraces her influences of timeless artists – some going back to the ’60s, others to the ’90s – in generating an energy only delivered by someone that truly loves what they are doing. Free from the restrictive force of her former label Virgin, Costa set about creating her own imprint with the telling title Go Funk Yourself Records and, in a true display of self-motivation, Pebble To A Pearl was created in what was essentially three weeks of live recordings, retaining the charm of original soul music, warts and all.

This inspiring reinvention resulted in a dream offer from the newly relaunched Stax Records, who co-released this enthusiastic collection digitally in the UK late last year. This month saw a somewhat overdue physical release with a bonus cover of The White Stripes’ 2005 single ‘The Denial Twist’, a pleasing enough addition that ought to attract a few new fans. Drawing on the inspirational songwriting of the Motown era, each of the dozen original tracks is upbeat and sassy, often with a positive lyrical message full of self-esteem that can’t fail to spread some joy.

An infusion of funk and acid jazz adds a more modern feel to both the title track and ‘Cry Baby’, though the latter is somewhat reminiscent of the Brand New Heavies in their heyday. Similarly, ‘Keep Wanting More’ and ‘Loving You’ emulate a feminine sensitivity beamed from years gone by, sexy yet submissive. But while these songs deftly show that Costa can be just as soulful as Amy Winehouse (without the misdemeanours), there are enough missteps to perhaps prevent her from matching the success of her contemporaries. Most notable in the latter camp is the oddly dark ‘Bullets In The Sky’, which stands out from the rest of the album for all the wrong reasons; the progressive, heavy guitar and hip-hop beats are in stark contrast to the otherwise classic-sounding offering.

Songs like this are possibly in place to satisfy the cynical critic, to whom the point of this album may not be so clear – who needs to recreate what has already been done so well? – but paradoxically serve only to make the album seem more dated. Confessing to only wishing to please herself, that opinion won’t matter to Costa, although her approach can only work to some extent. Still, it seems more than enough to satisfy her existing fans who will no doubt agree that, when sticking to what she does best, Ms Costa has indeed polished up nicely.

[Stax; May 25, 2009]

Written by: Anna Claxton

Tags: nikka costa, pebble to a pearl

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 11:36 pm and is filed under albums & EPs, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.