Remi Nicole: 'Standing Tears Apart'

Remi Nicole has spent much of her career batting away accusations that's she's an inferior version of Lily Allen or Kate Nash. She may have shown plenty of spiky attitude in interviews and her friendship with Amy Winehouse attracted tabloid interest, but sadly her debut album My Conscience And I was a half-baked concoction clogged with hackneyed lyrics and distinctly beige tunes. With traditional singer-songwriter types sounding very old hat in 2009's electropop-dominated landscape, is anyone going to have time for poor old Remi?

Judging by this comeback track, the answer would appear to be in the negative. Adding a hefty chunk of '60s girl-group pop to her usual acoustic guitar-strumming, 'Standing Tears Apart' feels more than a little 2000 and late. Remi trills along toothlessly, sounding lost and as fed up as the listener by the one-minute mark. The lyrics are dull as dishwater ("Let's stand inside this empty room and we won't leave until we're through"), the lilting melody verges on the sickly, and don't even get us started on the children's choir backing vocals! The whole thing is about as exciting as an afternoon at a National Trust park with your granny.


> Click here to watch the 'Standing Tears Apart' video