Having such a common name as Nicole is a hindrance, especially if you want to make a name for yourself; but nothing is common about Nicole musically…or at least in mainstream Latin pop music.
The Chilean singer, Nicole released her sixth studio album this year in the US under the label, Nacional Records, which should help bring her music to a wider base of fans…new fans, because once the picky US audiences hear this album, I know that her fan base is going to skyrocket. I am one of those new fans after just a few listens.
Panal combines electronic music with alt-rock and pop. The album seems to remind me of so many people both in English and Spanish. The album starts off sounding a lot like the band, Metric with their new wave sound, but then she switches things up just a bit giving you a sound reminiscent of Julieta Venegas, then she sounds like JotDog, then Belanova. If you turn up the guitar and bass just a tad, this girl gives us something that could sound like Belinda. Now with all these sounds and styles, one could think you have a mishmash mixtape…but that is not the case. Nicole’s unique style of music keeps it all flowing in one coherent work of art.
I can see why I like it with all those sounds and her voice is so sweet you can’t help but fall in love with her. After listening to this album, I hunted down some of her other music to see how different her earlier works were and I can see the progression that she has come to. This album has made me want to explore her career more in-depth and that is going to be the consensus as Nacional Records begins to promote her here. I totally enjoyed this album.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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If you enjoyed listening to Panal, you MUST check on her 1997 album “Suenos en tránsito”, an experimental ahead of its time project, produced by Gustavo Cerati: http://www.last.fm/music/Nicole/Sue%C3%B1os+en+Tr%C3%A1nsito