Nicole Russo - Through My Eyes (2001)

I have been a longtime fan of The Brand New Heavies, and recently I was looking for info on them and was reminded of the one album they did later in their career with singer Nicole Russo. After poking around a bit I discovered that she had released her own album many years earlier and was curious to hear it, so I found it on eBay and voila! Pretty much all you need to know about Nicole is outlined on her Myspace page, but I'll give you a condensed version. She was born in London in the 1970s, the daughter of singer Jerry Stevens. Through her father and his cohorts like Quincy Jones, Dusty Springfield and Lou Rawls, she discovered an early love for music and began playing piano at four years old and picked up drums, saxophone and songwriting along the way. She also honed her singing voice and impressed singer Pauline Henry enough to ask her to sing back-up, which she also did for Coolio. She was offered a record deal at 16 but passed as she didn't want to be molded into a pop tart. Then in 1999 she met singer and producer Eg White, a former member of the pop group Brother Beyond and later renowned producer of acts like Kylie Minogue, Will Young, James Blunt, Pink and Adele. The two hit it off and began writing together, and her first single was their first collaboration, "You Might Be Wrong". The Telstar label took notice and signed her to an album deal. Nicole was given creative control and concocted a very soulful, funky pop album which featured her sultry soul vocals (which are similar to Nikka Costa IMO). Although her first single and album were well received by critics, the song failed to hit, as did the album. A second single was released, "Better Day", but it also went mostly ignored. Luckily for Nicole, in 2003, the management of The Brand New Heavies approached her to write a song for the group, and they were so impressed that they asked her to join as lead singer, since Siedah Garrett, the replacement for their best known lead singer N'Dea Davenport, had recently departed. They recorded the album Allabouthefunk and released the singles "Boogie" and "Surrender". The singles and album were modest successes compared to their previous work with Davenport, and after extensive touring Nicole decided to leave the group (N'Dea Davenport would end up joining the group again a couple of years later). Since then Nicole has lain relatively low, writing for other artists and working on solo material. It's safe to say that you will see a reemergence of this exceptional singer sometime in the near future.

Video for You Might Be Wrong

Live performance of Through My Eyes

Download Through My Eyes

1		You Might Be Wrong
2		Slowly Walk Away
3		Better Day
4		How D'Ya Think She'd Feel About It
5		Through My Eyes
6		Stride On
7		If You Want Me
8		Don't Wanna Let You Go
9		Phoney
10		Stop Trying To
11		Nice 'N' Easy
12		You Might Be Wrong (Full Crew Remix)
13		Better Day (Rishi Rich Remix)
14		Stop Trying To (Fathom Remix)