Battle of the Electro Glam-Bot albums 2005: Goldfrapp vs Sugababes vs Rachel Stevens vs Girls Aloud

the Rachel album's got the most pop thrills so far and feels freshest to me, maybe cos Sugababes and Goldfrapp have more past classics to compare against.

"Biology" 's prob fave track of the lot so far cos I root for the Girls

Generally I'm in the Rachel camp, because her fallibility is accepted whereas GA can release "I'll Stand By You" and turn it into a massive, world-endangering hit. But "Biology" trumps both of Rachel's last singles. I'll probably sort through "Come and Get It," but if GA don't release it as a single, I won't bother.

I really dislike Sugababes. "Hole in the Head" was catchy, but so was "Hole in My Heart" by Extreme. 'nuff said.

And Goldfrapp, well, they're really the only "album artist" in your list, don't you think? As has been noted a million times, "Ooh la la" comes off like a watered-down version of "Some Girls" -- all the style with none of the oomph. I've only listened to the album once so far and nothing's grabbed me yet.

Go buy Ladytron.

Why do you say that? I think "What Will The Neighbors say?" not only featured some terrific singles, but also worked as an album. As a matter of fact, I'd say Xenomania have so far proven to have a pretty good grasp on what it takes to make a good album, on how to handle the individual songs and how they interact with each other, not only here but also on Kylie's "Giving You Up/Made of Glass" (yes, there's only two songs there, but they go way too well together!)

"...vs Robyn?"

...vs tATu! (but I'm afraid the only ones who could be labeled as GLAM without second thoughts are rachel and goldfrapp..)

I still haven't listened to the retail version. I like the idea of NGATG sounding more similar to the Alexis version, although what I miss is the original chorus.

That's actually part of what I loved about the Alexis version. I hope my copy arrives soon, I'm really curious now. BTW do you know which are the songs that Xenomania wrote/produced?

I think Rachel Stevens > Sugababes > Robyn >>>>> tATu >>>>>> Goldfrapp, so far.

Goldfrapp > Sugababes > Girls Aloud > Rachel Stevens >>>>>>>>> tAtu

but I can't really make up my mind between Sugababes and Girls Aloud. That Sugababes video was just so hott with the blonde one pushing around and dominating the hott librarian boy. Which shouldn't make a difference, but that song was such a grower for me.

anyway I heart the t.A.T.u. a great deal, but the Sugababes is their best since their first. I honestly don't see what ppl. dig so much about the GA single still, despite the repeated threads and all.

Everytime they say "wicked games" i think of that other track. I find all sorts of little things obnoxious about it actually.

Meanwhile, Push The Button is immaculate.

i am equally baffled why I said never again hasn't been to number one on every planet and imbalanced entire economies that then have to convert to a system based on the cd single.

push the button is good by sugababes standards, but beyond a quick bit of catchiness i find it a bit dreary

http://www.girlsaloud.co.uk/photo.php?photo=large30.jpg

nonetheless. the middle part just makes me want to hear No Good Advice -- with the "here we go" part, and the "hold me, squeeze me" bit is just the bridge from Tainted Love. I mean not that I'm dissing on lack of creativity here, but the combination doesn't do anything special for the parts -- the only thing it has going for it is reminding me of other things i like better.

also, the sugababes are trendier and cooler than most of us will ever be.

from a piece I was just working on today: "The Emma Peel to J. Simpson's Daisy Duke, they [the sugababes] offer perfect seduction music for your latest international ingenue.

t.A.T.u., meanwhile, are disturbingly bloodied Charlie's Angels that one either flaunts or conceals."

well done girls, you have made the right fashion choice for this autumn.

begone, dread puffballs.

Where GA really flop for me is the speed that their tracks fall apart for me. Half the time, it's like listening to a bunch of signifiers stuck together with melting chewing gum that just drips messily everywhere. The rest of the time, I'm cold and unimpressed. Even 'NGA' wore off after January's Club FT. 'Love Machine' is still very badass, tho'.

Having listened to all 4 Suga LPs over the past week, I am more than happy to refute this alleged singlesism. Some of their best tracks aren't singles, and as opposed to the 2 from Three and none from One Touch and (eventually), Taller (well, maybe one, but we'll see - nevertheless, this would match Sterling's assertion of it being the next best since the Siobhan days).

Rach's album is lovely, if a little unrelentingly electro and, subsequently, repetitive beyond necessity. Some very good songs persist in my mind, thankfully.

The Frapp get it pretty badly from me because I hate Felt Mountain, but they have their moments, 3 times an album anyway.

Sugas>>Rachel>>>Goldfrapp

no trendy person would be afraid to admit liking the sugababes, but i doubt they're 'trendy'

So is it only American ILMers who are obsessed with these artists? Do UK music fans perceive them to be as lightweight as say, Justin Timberlake or Ashlee Simpson are perceived to be in the U.S.?

I still listen to a lot of the usual contemporary indie suspects - the Killers, Interpol, Bloc Party, etc., but to me Girls Aloud, Rachel, the Sugababes, and Goldfrapp are hands down are the most interesting artists in pop right now. And not because of some "this is so kitsch it's good" camp aesthetic, but because no one else is turning out such gloriously catchy pop records.

i am equally baffled why I Said Never Again hasn't been to number one on every planet and imbalanced entire economies that then have yet to convert to a system based on the cd single.

I am equally baffled why no one in Rachel's camp thought to release Nothing Good About This Goodbye earlier in the process instead of say, So Good. I'd like to know on what planet Nothing Good About This Goodbye would not have hit number one had this been the case. Sadly, it is now probably too late for this to happen if Nothing Good About This Goodbye is released as the fifth single off of Come and Get It after it has already leaked and been officially released. I'll still do my part by purchasing absurdly overpriced import copies of CD1 and CD2, but still, what could have been . . .

So is it only American ILMers who are obsessed with these artists? Do UK music fans perceive them to be as lightweight as say, Justin Timberlake or Ashlee Simpson are perceived to be in the U.S.?

Actually, I'd say The Sugababes are the one 'trendy' people would admit to liking (they did have that 'rocky' single, and the electro-mashup one). Girls Aloud, Rachel Stevens would definitely be in the 'lightweight' category. Just look at the cover art ffs!

anyways....i know a ton of british indie kids who love girls aloud.

I think this is my problem - those contemporary indie suspects sound so DULL to me (even though I've traditionally been indie/alternative) that I genuinely think that Sugababes, GA, Goldfrapp etc. are actually making more interesting and challenging - not to mention catchy and melodic - MUSIC (let alone pop) than any of the current crop of NME/Carling Indie.

(x-post)

So is it only American ILMers who are obsessed with these artists? Do UK music fans perceive them to be as lightweight as say, Justin Timberlake or Ashlee Simpson are perceived to be in the U.S.?

I still listen to a lot of the usual contemporary indie suspects - the Killers, Interpol, Bloc Party, etc., but to me Girls Aloud, Rachel, the Sugababes, and Goldfrapp are hands down are the most interesting artists in pop right now. And not because of some "this is so kitsch it's good" camp aesthetic, but because no one else is turning out such gloriously catchy pop records.

ILM != trendy, and ILM != the mass of music buyers

UK ILMers take these bands seriously, for the most part, but while UK music fans will buy lots of sugababes albums (not rachel stevens, though -- she's weirdly less successful than the more consciously 'alternative' goldfrapp) they aren't really trendy. they do 'edge' in the same way stevens does 'classy', but they aren't edgy.

-- fandango (fandango7...), October 17th, 2005.

um, don't see your point. GA (for 'the show' atany rate do knowing pastiche, rachel stevens looks coked out (on 'ISNA (BHWA)') and hoxtonified, and the sugababes look vaguely moody. they don't look conspicuously trendy to me.

-- fandango (fandango7...), October 17th, 2005.

um, don't see your point. GA (for 'the show' at any rate) do knowing pastiche, rachel stevens looks coked out (on 'ISNA (BHWA)') and hoxtonified, and the sugababes look vaguely moody. they don't look conspicuously trendy to me.

top shop isn't trendy -- but it's not naff, neither, and while rachel stevens can afford not to go there, i'm sure she'd speak enthusiastically about it (cf. anything, really, she's a positive person). sugababes might be more h&m, yeah.

that's better than tatu, anyway!

(an aside: all the people raving about the tatu album are mentalists. the obvious singles aside it's all dodgy european soft-rock and boring power ballads. nowhere near as start-to-finish magnificent as their first album.)

it took me a while to get that joke stevem. god i hated dodgy!

the thing with the sugababes is that they're the token pop group for a whole bunch of people who usually disdain pop - the indie kids, the hip hop kids, &c &c.

N_RQ That was really the point I was trying to make, as a Britisher who just happened to be around when someone asked. And no, FWIW I don't consider "the indie kids, the hip hop kids" = the trendy people, but possibly people who might consider themselves to have 'good taste' maybe?

also, massively seconding Kate/Paranoid Spice's comment re: current indie bands. Almost anything seems better in comparison to those. That said I'm trying to find stuff I enjoy away from this kinda charty/NME axis at the moment*. I find this current pop-du-jour bunch wildly underwhelming myself. BUT, still better than the "contemporary indie suspects".

*Not saying I'm having much luck with it.

I may have been rash saying a few sugababes singles, One GA, some taTU & the Robyn album (if that even counts in this thread) = "better than" popular quote-unquote "indie music". I just prefer those selected highlights to the collected works of those bands.

And Edward, I would dearly love a new Lene album. I still don't get why a major label didn't pick up on "It's Your Duty", it has sure-fire hit written all over it with the right promotion.

Actually the paradigm for their rehabilitation will be that of ABBA. Simply too much fun for rockists and indie kids to admit to liking at the time, but such well-written songs that 10 or 20 years down the road all of the haters will admit "you know, they weren't so bad after all."

(http://s36.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=167L1FHJOZ59I10KKHR8HGCKR4 - Miranda Cooper's version of "Here We Go", well, most of it. I've never managed to find a version with the beginning and end intact.)

I tried looking for Moonbaby on the AMG last night but nothing came up. Were they that unsuccessful?

Fortunately, the B-side to the promo single has survived, especially because it's actually better than "Here We Go" (the MB version, Lene's version pwns MB and GA's). It's called "Kitsch Bitch Kool" and really should have some new lyrics written and be tarted up a bit as a GA B-side or something.
http://s24.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=125HCDGB0F5M111WBL3O9BTMH8

similar kind cover, similar packaging with all videos on the dvd, similar dips into electro-fied pop music ..

hmmmm

Rachel - "I Will Be There"
Girls - "Biology"
Rachel - "Every Little Thing"
Girls - "It's Magic"
The Frapp - "Beautiful"
Sugababes - "Red Dress"
Rachel - "Je M'Apelle"
Sugababes - "Ace Reject"
Rachel - "Nothing Good About This Goodbye"
Sugababes - "Ugly"

bubbling?: Girls - "Swinging London Town" (for the middle bit) , "Whole Lotta History" (funky Monday), "No Regrets" (Conrad Schnitzler meets "Windmills Of Your Mind" ?)

"It Ain't Easy"

[Verse 1]
I get so used to being alone
My choice this time I'm in a zone
Not in a place where you can't control me

Not saying i don't wan't to take a chance
Coz its all open to romance
I know it's crazy but I must say

[Chorus]
It ain't easy being me
It ain't easy don't you know
Coz I'm not the type to let
someone take over me
It ain't easy
(no)
It ain't easy
(that's for sure)
It ain't easy
(Oh oh oh ohhh)
It ain't easy
(no)
It ain't easy
(ohhh ohhh)
It ain't easy
(oh oh oh ohhh)

[Verse 2]
Wanna have you back down on your knees
Can't give you too much coz I know
Gets to the point where I can't control you

It's like a rush straight to my brain
Feels like I'm driving you insane
In every way coz I can't be contained

[Chorus]
It ain't easy being me
It ain't easy don't you know
Coz I'm not the type to let
someone take over me
It ain't easy
(no)
It ain't easy
(that's for sure)
It ain't easy
(Oh oh oh ohhh)
It ain't easy
(no)
It ain't easy
(ohhh ohhh)
It ain't easy
(oh oh oh ohhh) [x2]

[Verse 3]
Constantly reminded of the place I used to be
Gave up so much energy but now its all about me

Oh oh oh ohhh
Oh oh oh ohhh
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
Oh oh oh ohhh
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
Oh oh oh ohhh
(It ain't easy being me)
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
(It ain't easy being me)
It ain't easy
Oh oh oh ohhh
(It ain't easy being me)
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
Oh oh oh ohhh
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
Oh oh oh ohhh
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
It ain't easy
Oh oh oh ohhh

I will actually try and complete the set by listening to the Frapp record this week.

Have you never watched an Usher slow jam video? Timberlake doing 'Cry Me A River' live? Ginuwine? Bueller?

that'll be Northern horns classic Tony Clarke - "Landslide"

Though actually... I dunno. The only song on the album I don't really like is the Animotion cover. It sounds kind of... antiseptic. Though I must admit I *hated* the original.

anyways, because i feel like it:

"Biology" > Rachel Stevens > Goldfrapp > Girls Aloud > Sugababes