Nicki 'reloads,' misfires

We love Nicki. We love her head-spinning verse on Kanye West’s “Monster” and the possessed pop of “Super Bass.”

We should expect something special from “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” her sequel-of-sorts to 2010’s “Pink Friday.” If you saw her Grammy performance of album opener “Roman Holiday” — overflowing with kinetic energy and darting from one musical spasm to the next — you might even have high hopes.

That song’s theatricality and vivacious verse-chorus promised an album’s worth of deranged pop. Unfortunately, Nicki’s trademark half-crazed flow disappears early in the album. The first six tracks feature delicious raps, seismic beats and well-placed guest verses.

Nas, Drake and Jeezy light up “Champion.” From there, “Roman Reloaded” dedicates itself to conventional pop Nicki thinks she can pull off.

The tonal shift isn’t exactly disappointing, but after the explosive opening of “Roman Holiday” and its lunatic successors, the album feels vanilla. “Starships” isn’t a bad single or a bad song — it’s just not a good Nicki song. Is she trying to rebrand herself? Prove she can do pop as well as the other women? Give us a new reason to love her?

We love her because she projects masculine verve previously unavailable to most female pop stars. On “Come on a Cone,” she triumphantly spits, “I’m not masturbating, but I’m feeling myself,” before mockingly mimicking Top 40 Gaga pop. It’s a shame she spends most of the album performing exactly the bland pop she implied she was above.

The record’s bloated, too. There isn’t nearly enough memorable songwriting to justify its hour-plus runtime. “Roman Reloaded” doesn’t pack punches like her earlier work. You should never have to search for songs that sound like Nicki on a Nicki record.