Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 12/15/2011 at 10:15 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: nicole scherzinger, the x factor

We’ll have your full X Factor recap bright and early tomorrow morning, with all the details of all the weirdness that went down last night, as well as the eliminated act (spoiler: it’s exactly who you think it is.) In the meantime, though, there’s something pressing: Nicole Scherzinger’s new song, “Pretty,” which is awesome. No, really, it is. We haven’t been as tough on Nicole as most other reviews/recappers, but we haven’t exactly been enthused about every single she’s released (i.e. about ninety-four of them). We’re enthused about this one, and here are two reasons why:

1) Nicole Scherzinger sings like P!nk before Max Martin softened her. She snarls this thing. If you heard this and didn’t know it was Nicole, you’d probably find it completely awesome. The track’s not bad, too, sort of like “Mr. Know It All” with 80% less Bruno Mars. The acoustics were iffy, that second verse needs a rewrite, and the inevitable studio version could be awesome or crap, but the problem won’t be Nicole’s voice.

2) It takes remarkable stones to perform a song a) after Florence Welch, who would outsing most people by default; b) after the Internet has declared you its scapegoat. It takes colossal stones to make that track sort of the inverse of “Pretty Girl Rock,” denouncing a dude who only ever compliments/subtly puts down girls on their looks and ending its chorus on “I don’t want to be pretty no more.” Is it a little blithe, considering that she used to be a Pussycat Doll and that her best-known song goes “don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me”? Yeah, but that was six years ago (and a cover!) We don’t want to reward any ol’ risk, but… we’re also going to.

Seriously, in Steve Jones’ words, this is brilliant, fantastic, splendid. Off you go and listen to it below. This in particular is an order.