Girls Aloud - Chemistry

nothing would be an ace bananarama title. they are not good enough when we have albums like this one imminent.

Did anyone see Simon Cowell invite GA on the X Factor tonight after they said no-one on there had any talent? The smarmy tone in his voice seemed very odd given they're easily the biggest thing to emerge long-term from those shows. Their chief weapons aren't their voices, which are pretty good, but Xenomania who seem to be a never-ending supply line.

Oh wow. The thought of Girls Aloud rerecording The Great Escape in its entirety just gave me a braingasm.

Swinging London Town
This sounds suspiciously 90s Blur-ish too!

As I said to Swygart, why does this give me visions of Mean Girls?

It would be even better if "It's Magic" were a Pilot cover.

Girls Aloud are not hot. That cover is awful.

What exactly is your standard of hotness? The three Girls Aloud on the bottom row are all particularly hot, imho. (Sorry, I love their records, but haven't bothered to learn their individual names).

very interesting to hear that they hated the shoot for "No Good Advice", since that (video) was what originally blew me away (plus the song).

LORNA

XX

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/Steveweiser/GAChristmas.jpg

OMG NICHOLA IN MAID'S OUTFIT HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Disc One

1. Intro
2. Models
3. Biology
4. Wild Horses
5. See The Day
6. Count The Days
7. Watch Me Go
8. Waiting
9. Whole Lotta History
10. Long Hot Summer
11. Swinging London Town
12. It's Magic
13. No Regrets
14. Racy Lacey

Disc Two

1. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
2. I Wanna Kiss You So
3. Jingle Bell Rock
4. Not Tonight Santa
5. White Christmas
6. Count The Days
7. Christmas Round At Ours
8. Merry Xmas Everybody

So I can only spot the one, excluding the Xmas CD. And goodness knows how that's gonna wind up sounding.

Wild Horses: http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0UU1N8J2877YW0CZNLDLBEJ8NC

More to come in a short while, possibly.

Waiting: http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=27GBGOZYBU5X72NYY6VQ1R394X

Swinging London Town: http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2NIBD7V520V6M332PQFD5C4DQM

But Whole Lotta History... that would be the sound of the 'top-drawer ballad' duck being broken.

"Models" is still on repeat. Can't wait for the rest.

Racey Lacey: http://s61.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3S9BX0I1845OC0M4Y31AWQ1VEO

Intro: http://s61.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=201YJKMZYIQWQ1YN2SGUUDDRO4

My "No Regrets" d/l has died and the generous slsk-er has gone. Bugger.

cheryl=vicar

Alex, I KISS YOU. You too Shane. BLISSFUL GLEE HAPPY HAPPY!

As mentioned above, does anyone have the cd-rips of long hot summer and biology? If so, can you send them my way? I have lots of B-sides that I don't always see passed around that I would be willing to share.

The Betty Boo rap on "Watch Me Go" is terrific, too.

chemistry

just a zip of the tracks on this thread + the other two (the full tracklist)

Well I guess it is time to start, then.
Girls Aloud win, simply because no one else sounds like them, at least in western countries. Should Chemistry be filed under j-pop, then ?
Compared to this, "Come and Get it" is just a nicely produced piece of generic modern pop (and that doesn't mean it's not a very good record).

Vastly better than the overly smug and underwritten last album.
Better than Robyn while I'm at it.
'Biology' wasn't a fluke.
Ballads not so hot, 'See The Day' excepted. Sugababes and Shortwave Set can sit pretty on that one (and on having the better albums this year). And yes, Edward, CB's 'Amplified Heart' is also better than any of the GA ballads.
Humungous 80s echoes of Vanity 6, SAW and Kid Creole and The Coconuts abound. But remade for the late 90s breaks and big beat scenes.
Nothing as grand as 'Red Dress' or 'Crazy Boys'.
Still getting a mid-90s Kahimi Karie vibe from it, minus all the French and Lolitapop affectations. I'd agree with snowballing in that it's very much a UK J-Pop record (it might hint at the genre-blending and SFX but it remains very much British in style, and I doubt it'll sound as good on headphones as Japanese records do) and I'm obviously correct about Brian H's music tastes ;-), though he's clearly gone out of his way to not make it sound too specifically like, say, Plus-Tech or Capsule, and a little more like The Fat Of The Land (but nothing here really says "Out and out Prodigy" to me, not even 'SLT').
It's likely better than, say, Come And Get It by virtue of being more excitable, though CAGI seems to have a stronger song-base (see also 'Red Dress', which is as much stronger for smooth writing as it is for Sugababes being greatly better singers than any other chart act).

I'm giving it 7/10 to start with and it is nice to like a GA album for the first time since I thought I liked the first one.

'watch me go'= best GIRLS ALOUD track ever?

Here's hoping for the Christmas CD to be leaked!

It's kind of like, if WWTNS? was a bit solid precision pop singles goldmine "Parallel Lines" for the noughties (I can't remember who came up with this idea but it was someone on here), this is tangy-er and bizarrer and I suppose kitschy-er and more like a Cristina record or something. I think it does beat Rachel, for the reasons that snowballing mentions.

But we'll see.

(And "Whole Lotta History" = tear-inducing. The best "song" song, if you will.)

The whole thing really puts me in mind of Devin Dazzle, now.

I am not that keen on "Models" which surprises me because so many other people think it's a standout. The next "banger" single really has to be "Wild Horses", maybe the "butt" rap on "Watch Me Go" is a little too bold for single-ness.

Liking it more with each listen, the only other song that hasn't quite stuck is "Waiting".

The percolating, gurgling bassline of SLTown = a little bit like MARRS' "Pump Up The Volume"?

'No Regrets' is the "Kahimi Karie Song", far's I'm concerned. It's also better than 'Whole Lotta History'.

I have decided that "It's Magic" is the backbone of the album; in terms of sparkly shimmering textureish awesomeness Xenomania have perhaps always come second to Rich X a little bit, but no longer.

Nah, I don't think this has changed. But this does lead to something I noticed pretty much immediately - Xeno here are doing the opposite of what Kish Kash was about - they're using pop to show off their chops as "bona fide dance producers", which is perhaps why it's so top heavy with upbeat breaky tracks (the recipe for hi-speed J-Pop of course). Chemistry doesn't have the kinds of catchy melodies seemingly every Japanese pop writer knocks out in their daydreams, but then, who in the west would?

I re-evaluated the first album earlier this evening and there are 5 really good songs (none of which are the singles) on it that play to the girls' vocal strengths a lot more than the subsequent records have. 'Some Kind Of Miracle' is practically a top flight Sugababes song.

Could someone make the album version of 'Biology' appear here, please?

!!

Ach, all this YSI temptation. I was planning on waiting for the CD to come out. Maybe I'll just get one song...

I have only been able to play the album in full once so far as my back-button tends to get plenty of exercise when See The Day pops up. I shall subject my long-suffering, pop-hating colleagues to a full-run of Chemistry today (and possibly forever).

I skip the ballads a lot, 'See The Day' excepted, so this likely won't be a top 5 contender just yet, unless I'm gonna start referring to it as 'Chemistry EP' (and there is too much Nadine, and not in the "That's not so bad" too much Keisha-way that Taller... has). I still don't like the intro or 'LHS' and 'SLT's opening rave riff is naff, but 'Models' has just blossomed into a punky bad-ass (The "Why don't you caaaallllll?" bridge is excellent).

I think the album title/concept are secretly derived from Tim Finney's assertion that the Chemical Brothers mistakenly make all their pop songs indie. I mean, they could have done the likes of 'Models' or 'Watch Me Go' anytime between '95 and '02.

:((((((

I hate being without internet.

i kinda felt this a bit earlier this year already when i saw that dancehall's chief perfect world poppers t.o.k are actually a gold record outfit in japan! mad.

the key i spose wd be to erm try figure out how far j-pop is world-pop or rather how j the j in j-pop is, and whether girls aloud etc are english e-pop or er, pop. or j! or breakdown what that Those Crazy Japs Eh factor is.... and i'm rambling now.

Although from a sonic standpoint, there's a clear J-pop influence - and much of the stuff I can hear in this album (and the last) has been released in the UK anyway; I can justifiably claim 'Grafitti My Soul' as a rewrite of Plus-Tech's 'Test Room' (although a lot of it's actually old/new Shibuya-Kei, or at least the majorly electronic/genre-blurring stuff that eventually formed most of the West's exposure to it) - none of it is as sugary/cute or as manic as your basic J-Pop tune (or at least Western perceptions of J-Pop tunes generally).

The other important aspect is the ravey hardness of the production, which some would find "experimental", at least in (UK) chart pop terms. I think it's only natural that Xeno are going back to Britdance's roots and trying to revive the late 80s/early 90s Beatmasters-Prodigy-Shamen-Urban Cookie Collective scene in the post-electroclash '00s chartpop scene and therefore have effectively brought their sound closer in line with happy hardcore-loving Japanese producers. The other obvious example of recent times is 'Push The Button', though that's a more subdued but insidiously catchy version produced by an American, but 'Ugly' can also stake a claim - it wouldn't sound out of place on a Puffy AmiYumi album.

The grab-3-hooks-and-run of Biology is perhaps Xenomania production genius but it doesn't follow that J-pop with every random turntablism middle 8, every Morning Musume kitchen sink fiesta is wall to wall pop genius. Not that that's what is being claimed but I am thinking the J-pop similarity has more to do w/ conditions (post-mashup? post-shame? other vagueness?) yielding a process/production-style than w/ explicit cues from Japanese studio wizards. I'm not sure this has any qualitative correlation to the-state-of-pop-as-we-know-it, mileage will vary.

It makes a really large difference that the GA girls are feisty and sexualized in a way that Kahimi/Puffy/HaliCali/Ayumi/etc/etc never sound. If there are structural similarities, there is still this encompassing 'Western/English thing' to a Japanese 'J' child/cute/sugar thing (source of many if not all "those crazy Japz wtf" reactions). That's bigger than production tics I'd wager, though who can say.

Well yeah, the arrangement isn't very Blur at all, but the song and lyrics are!

-- monkeybutler (pdenniso...), November 10th, 2005.
and we want bananarama to cover "january" ?

BONUS CHRISTMAS DISC:
1. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
2. I Wanna Kiss You So
3. Jingle Bell Rock
4. Not Tonight Santa
5. White Christmas
6. Count The Days
7. Christmas Round At Ours
8. Merry Xmas Everybody

I'm liking: 'Models' (although not as much as I expected; it's very Devo). 'Biology' (As someone said on the Popjustice Messageboard, this one redefines the term "grower". Best track of the album and maybe even song of the year). 'Watch me go' (this one in particular sounds VERY early 90's, it reminds me of many things but a couple I can mention are Cathy Dennis (oh ooh ooh oh) and St. Etienne. The 2 raps at the end are brilliant), 'Whole Lotta History' (At first I hated it. It thought it sounded like a mediocre 'Britney' ballad. But a few subtle things have made it grow on me: the guitar twang, the background synth, the vocals on the first part of the second verse. Who is she BTW? ), 'Long Hot Summer' (I've always thought it's great) and 'It's Magic' (another very early 90's track. I get a New Order vibe from it, maybe Electronic would be more precise. I bet if you put Bernard Sumner's vocals in it, it would fit nicely on Electronic's first album.)

Undecided: Wild Horses, Swinging London Town, Racy Lacey.

Meh: See The Day, No Regrets.

After relistening to Boomania last night, I'd say all of them ;-).

"Waiting" is a long, loooong way from meh, my friend.
-- Matthew C Perpetua (perpetu...), November 30th, 2005.

OTM. It's easily in my top 3 on the album and it kind of supports the Shibuya-Kei theory that a relatively modest, jaunty indie-pop song amidst a sea of showy, wacky pop songs will turn out to be one of the best tracks on the album (it also neatly echoes one of my favourite Beta Band songs, 'Round The Bend').

'Models' (although not as much as I expected; it's very Devo).

Heh, I've started to think that if you split 'Le Roi Soleil' (which samples Devo in its intro) into two and then rewrote and extended some of it's elements for the UK pop massive, you'd likely get 'Models' and 'Biology', which sit side by side on the disc anyway. Definitely two of the year's best songs (but even if I can accept 'Biology' beating, say, 'Push The Button' in a singles poll - mine or anyone else's - there's the likes of 'DARE', 'Switch', 'Be Mine' and '1 Thing' to get past).

The ballads are what prevents this album equalling Taller..., but CAGI and Anniemal appear surpassed to me right now. 'Intro' and 'LHS' have grown on me, though I think the latter has some of the most irritating lyrics, singing and harmonising of the year, as well as being pretty much a rewrite of 'Where Are You Baby?'.

Barms, are you me? Heh.

It is the bestest thing ever. The hilariously over the top "Whoo-HOOO" backing vocals make me smile every time I listen to the track. Which is sort of the point of pop music.

Packed full o'great lyrics:

"I Make angels in the snow / I Like that funny feeling when my bum gets cold / and I like getting in a snowball fight"
"Bish bash bang whoo / we'll be loving Christmas Day / oh, when we're 80"

It's the "bish bash bang whoo!" bit that'll be zinging around inside your head all xmas.

Loving "Christmas Round At Ours" as well. But their version of "White Christmas" isn't to good I'm afraid.

Can't see Alison Clarkson's name anywhere in the credits.

allied to the frankly substandard singles so far and the petridish rapture (always one album behind the real excitement!) this means i am contemplating not buying this today.

(oh who am i kidding of course i'll get it! but aargh hopes have been lowered quite a lot)

but if you think 'biology' is substandard you must be insane.

i will be buying this but i expect not to be as wrapped up in it as i was in wwtns

(not wanting to go over what is and isn't britpop BTW)

the only songs on wwtns which are worse than biology are the two bonus track ballads.

i like pulp but even they are not a band anyone let alone girls aloud should be taking inspiration from in 2005.

what the fuck, lex? who 'should' people be taking inspiration from?

the only songs on wwtns which are worse than biology are the two bonus track ballads.

rrrriiight.

Tho' to be frank, seeing as I didn't like WWTNS?, my personal barometer is "Which Chemistry tracks are better than 'Wake Me Up' or 'The Show'?", which quickly garners responses in my head (bettering 'Love Machine' is a harder task for Chem, though I think 'Waiting' is practically there).

And I liked Britpop.

but anyway i have purchased and listened to chemistry and it's nowhere near as bad i was fearing. i don't like the way half the tracks seem to be great electro songs mistakenly being played on real instruments BUT they are great songs nonetheless. 'racy lacey' is nothing like blur cos the lyrics are funny and - crucially - the girls are much less irritating singers than allbran. 'see the day' is RIDICULOUSLY over-the-top and completely magnificent! the first song i loved instantly until 'swinging london town' arrived and pwned my world.

Still, there are at least six absolutely monstrously good songs on this, and what's not monstrous is at least interesting. "See The Day" is perfectly good, though the hate on it seems mild around here compared to the vitrion on Popjustice - PEOPLE GET YOUR OWN OPINIONS PLZ.

But it's still not as good as the last one.

you're impressed, but you don't see what's so great?

I'm not feeling "Christmas Round At Ours" tho' I think some here might like it a lot. Ditto "Count the Days".

The covers are all a bit pathetic.

I missed this. What was the "concrete reason"?

I also hated Britpop & promise not to speak about GA on this thread :)

The Show vs. Models -------> The Show
Love Machine vs. Biology -------> Biology
I'll Stand By You vs. Wild Horses -------> Wild Horses
Jump vs. Dee The Day -------> See The Day
Wake Me Up vs. Watch Me Go -------> Watch Me Go
Deadlines & Diets vs. Waiting -------> Waiting
Big Brother vs. Whole Lotta History -------> Whole Lotta History
Hear Me Out vs. Long Hot Summer -------> Long Hot Summer
Graffitti My Soul vs. Swinging London Town -------> Swinging London Town
It's Magic vs. Real Life -------> It's Magic
Here We Go vs. No Regrets -------> Here We Go
Thank Me Daddy vs. Racy Lacey -------> Thank Me Daddy

And the winner is...

The Show vs. Models -------> The Show
Love Machine vs. Biology -------> Biology
I'll Stand By You vs. Wild Horses -------> Wild Horses
Jump vs. See The Day -------> Jump (though I like "See The Day")
Wake Me Up vs. Watch Me Go -------> Wake Me Up
Deadlines & Diets vs. Waiting -------> Deadlines & Diets
Big Brother vs. Whole Lotta History -------> Big Brother
Hear Me Out vs. Long Hot Summer -------> Hear Me Out
Graffitti My Soul vs. Swinging London Town -------> Swinging London Town
It's Magic vs. Real Life -------> Real Life
Here We Go vs. No Regrets -------> Here We Go
Thank Me Daddy vs. Racy Lacey -------> Racy Lacey

But that's 'cause I think "Real Life" is much better than people say it is ("It started as a drink that pretty soon became a waterfall" is one of my favourite GA lyrics), and that "Hear Me Out" is the best ballad they've ever done. So 8-4 to WWTNS.

Actually, the fade-out thing is a problem on quite a few WWTNS songs too (specifically: Deadlines & Diets, Hear Me Out, Here We Go in terms of it, maybe the Achilles Heel of Xenomania is that they don't generally do great endings, with the notable exceptions of "Graffiti My Soul" and "No Good Advice").

all you people who liked britpop, now i have a CONCRETE REASON to treat your taste with suspicion.

Like I trust someone who said Mutya didn't know who her babydaddy is.

Speaking of, here's another expression of disappointment as to 'Red Dress's lack of an ending (same applies to 'Wild Horses').

I've decided it's not as J-Pop influenced as Britney tho' (but it is almost as good as In The Zone).

Barima - I'd be interested in hearing some of the WWTNS songs with the Chemistry production in vice versa, that would be odd but kind of good.

Biology (single of the year)
It's Magic (imperfect diamond but listen loud on headphones)
Whole Lotta History (their best ballad?)
Watch Me Go (naughty fun)
Swinging London Town (album track centerpiece)
Racy Lacey (Beatlesque)
Wild Horses (handbag Smile)
No Regrets (Windmills Of Your Mercury ocean)
Long Hot Summer (good but still a step down singlewise)
Models (whole lotta energy, not much tune but amusing)
See The Day (sonically good, video good, but cover can't compete with Xeno)
(Intro)
Waiting (cliche GA for rockers, waiting ...for it & lyrical horrors to end)

overall their most consistent album, but a bit Sgt Pepper's for better or worse
and Neighbours is still in the game.
Girls take the single, Revolver-esque Rachel takes album.

"Waiting" sounds more to me like a Motown homage.

And the winner is...

-- daavid (dvdmontie...), December 5th, 2005.
we're the winners.
and 'girls on film' was great too.
hte dvds are specially nice but not as raunchy as kimberly's fishnet and black guy G-A-Y experience.kim got her bum grabbed and got on top.

this is *really* starting to niggle with me now! why so many shitty lazy superfast mid-lyric fades? shy so many obviously premature cuts? it's getting close to fucking up my enjoyment of TEH POP.

wtf? it feels substandard to me.

11.Models
12.It's Magic (I honestly can't remember how the tune to this goes)
-- edward o (edwardo...), December 6th, 2005.

oh, now i get it, ur insane.

in order of greatness:

1. SWINGING LONDON TOWN (discoraveboshing 4eva, this is the 'graffiti my soul' of chemistry)
2. watch me go (have we mentioned yet that this appears to have been co-written by jc chasez? and that it is like an even saucier version of the ska one on his album whose title slips my mind? the "quarter past one!" section makes me giggle with glee, as do the TWO raps)
3. wild horses (the transition from school assembly choir into banging chorus-chorus-chorus is the most wtf moment on the album outside of 'swinging london town')
4. no regrets (really very un-girls aloud; it's not really a pop ballad at all. it reminds me a little of some of the better songs off the great expectations soundtrack from a while ago - 'life in mono', 'besame mucho', 'siren' - for some reason. brilliant lyrics)
5. waiting (the most fun to dance to! contains lyric "all men are dogs so baby throw me to the wolves"! this is totally totally not meh)
6. models (great concept, great execution apart from the vocals possibly being mixed too low. should have been called 'girls girls girls')
7. it's magic (there is no song, really, anywhere in this, but it sounds ace - ie and omg it is KET-HOUSE GONE POP, this reminds me of those reverso 68 mixes of the juan maclean and manhead but in a girls aloud context)
8. see the day (RIDICULOUSLY over-the-top!)
9. racy lacey (not as annoying as i was expecting. very funny)
10. whole lotta history (this i fully expect to grow on me a lot more, i haven't really paid attention to it yet)

all the above i categorise as Very Classic.

11. biology (it's grown on me quite a bit but i still can't stand that out-of-sync percussion which doesn't let up at any point apart from the bluesy section)
12. long hot summer (even at the time it was only ok, and diminishing returns are happening)

Also, "Life In Mono" is such a great refernece point for "No Regrets", the melody anyway, the production's rather different, more French cocktail bar, even though the singer in Mono actually WAS French and GA are not...

Nice that the thoroughly Britpop 'Waiting' has been voted Alex's "Most Fun To Dance To".

'waiting' isn't britpop, 'wild horses' and 'racy lacey' and 'long hot summer' strike me as more in that vein.

jeff, i have just seen yr offer, but i can't get into my gmail account right now and can't remember yr email address to use in my hotmail.

No she wasn't. I made an interview with them (omg was that 10 years ago ?...), and it was in english. And Btw what happened to them after Mono ?

if not they should be, and that is what i shall be singing.

u know it's agony looking at that trying to work out which way it should be but..yeah you're right. *just*.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0007LXHDE.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

ditto!

*** Waiting ***

_(Nadine:)
The candy lady said "knock-knock-knock
who wants to come in my candy shop?
I'll give you something to take back home
to give you shivers that you didn't even know

_(Nicola:)
but listen honey it's drop-by-drop
the stuff I'm selling it's hot-hot-hot
Mr Magic is not some toy
he's gonna separate the men from the boys

_(Nadine?:)
every guy's a dog and baby throw me to the wolves
I'll never get to heaven with my glass half-full

_(Nadine:)
I've been waitin' all this time for you
and I've been hating all this talkin' baby black and blue
cos I've been prayin', what's a girl to do?
cos it's been hard not trying to bite you with the things I do

_(Nadine:)
hey there buttercup you're like a piece of ice
I'm-a going to heat your body up, it's lady luck it treats me good toni-i-ight

_(???:)
hey boy saddle up, don't have to twist my arm
I like it when you lift my body up, just enough to send me to the sta-a-a-a-ars
all night - been looking at - your hard-earned - six-pack
all night – I'll take you back – it feels like...

_(Nadine:)
I've been waitin' all this time for you
and I've been hating all this talkin' baby black and blue
cos I've been prayin', what's a girl to do?
cos it's been hard not tryin' to bite you with the things I do

whap-bap the boy can do
don't stop the rhythm cos I'm comin' thru
whap-bap the boy can move
back-track the rhythm til it in the groove

whap-bap the boy can do
don't stop the rhythm cos I'm comin' thru
whap-bap the boy can move
back-track the rhythm til it in the groove

_(Nadine:)
The candy lady said knock-knock-knock
who wants to come in my candy shop?
I'll give you something to take back home
to give you shivers that you didn't even know

_(Nicola:)
but listen honey it's drop-by-drop
the stuff I'm selling is hot-hot-hot
Mr Magic is not some toy
he's gonna separate the men from the boys

_(Nadine?:)
every guy's a dog and baby throw me to the wolves
I'll never get to heaven with my glass half-full

_(Nadine:)
I've been waitin' all this time for you
and I've been hating all this talkin' baby black and blue
cos I've been prayin', what's a girl to do?
cos it's been hard not tryin' to bite you with the things I do

whap-bap the boy can do
don't stop the rhythm cos I'm comin' thru
whap-bap the boy can move
back-track the rhythm til it in the groove

whap-bap the boy can do
don't stop the rhythm cos I'm comin' thru
whap-bap the boy can move
back-track the rhythm til it in the groove

Incidentally, love the lyrics.

5 out of 5 stars 3 is the Magic Number, December 4, 2005
Reviewer: partyross from UK
Ok....Im righting this reveiw on the 4th of December and tomorrow is the day this album is released. So what can we expected, well so the songs they have released from this album are;
Long Hot Summer
Biology
and See the Day is out in 2 weeks. So if the album is anything like the latest singles and their last album (What Will the neighbours Say) then this should be a cracking album with hit after hit on it! Also buy the Limited Edition album cu you get a bonus disc with the girls singing your favourite Christmas songs (eg: I Wish it could be Christmas Everyday) and some new Christmas songs (eg: Not Tongiht Santa!)

BRING ON THIS FAB GIRLS ALOUD ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was this review helpful to you?

-- snowballing (snowballin...), December 6th, 2005.

She formed a duo (Violet Indiana) with ex-Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie. Don't know what happened to him (Martin Virgo).

are the rest of the album's lyrics anywhere on the internet?

here (with permission) is Christmas Round at Ours

10 Reasons To Love GIRLS ALOUD !

1. best thing EVER to come from Music Reality TV, Girls Aloud were formed from the top 5 female finalists on 2002 UK show Pop Rivals, which was a contest within a contest: the Top 5 girls became a girl group (Girls Aloud) who went head-to-head with boyband formed from Top 5 male finalists (One True Voice) for the 2002 Xmas #1 single. Girls Aloud's Xenomania-written/produced "Sound Of The Underground" massacred the boyband, who quietly disappeared... 3 albums and 10 Top 10 singles later the Girls are still going strong:

chart peak:

#1 (Dec 2002) Sound Of The Underground

#2 (May 2003) No Good Advice

#3 (Aug 2003) Life Got Cold

#2 (Nov 2003) Jump (Pointer Sisters cover – featured in the movie Love Actually, though not on U.S. version of soundtrack)

#2 (Jul 2004) The Show

#2 (Sep 2004) Love Machine

#1 (Nov 2004) I'll Stand By You (Pretenders cover)

#4 (Mar 2005) Wake Me Up

#7 (Sep 2005) Long Hot Summer

#4 (Nov 2005) Biology

2. writer/producers Xenomania, for whom Girls Aloud are the showcase group, got their start when mainman Brian Higgins struck bigtime by co-writing Cher's mega-hit "Believe" and put together a stable of talented producers/writers/musicians, including Miranda 'Moonbaby' Cooper, Lisa Cowling, Tim Powell, Nick Coler, Giselle Sommerville & others.

Xenomania means an openness to and love of all cultures and influences! an apt description of the team's eclectic sound, which fuses glam rock, Motown soul, and pop - with the odd bit of punk and electronica thrown in for good measure. Higgins: "I always loved guitar music, like the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols, as much as I did electronic music like New Order and Depeche Mode, so it's natural for me to look for combinations of both in the music Xenomania creates."

Xenomania have also scored hits with other artists, particularly Sugababes. this year in addition to Girls Aloud they produced "Red Dress" and "Ace Reject" on the Sugababes' album, "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" and "Funny How" on Rachel Stevens' incredible album, plus 4 cuts on the Texas album, and more!

3. "Sound Of The Underground", Girls Aloud's UK 2002 Xmas #1 was a daft combination of drum'n'bass beats, surf guitar, ridiculous lyrics and for the video, the girls decked out as tough go-go girls in a cage.

4. 2nd single "No Good Advice", co-written by Aqua ("Barbie Girl") -singer / Swede toughchick Lene Nystrom, upped the ante by welding together "My Sharona" and The Stooges' "Gimme Danger"! for the ultimate badgirl loose-on-the-town anthem, with lyrics like "here I go, pumping stereo / I'll flick a finger to the world outside / shut your mouth because it's my show!" and "I don't need no good advice, I'm already wasted!". the incredible video featured the Girls like a pit crew in silver jumpsuits lounging around a hot car, while anonymous (head out-of-frame) dude on the car roof plays surf guitar solo. by end of the video, the scene transforms with blue flames into the best Bond-meets-Barbarella finale ever, better than any actual Bond film since Connery left!

5. lead-off single for their 2nd album, "The Show" rode a hard sexy electro riff and a bracingly innovative chorus melody, while the video featured the girls as beauty salon employees dishing out the treatment to men(!), relishing in the abuse, waxing chest hair (OUCH!)...!

6. "Love Machine" and "Wake Me Up", 2nd and 4th singles from second album What Will The Neighbours Say? (3rd single, the Pretenders cover went to #1), showed continued mastery of the single and video form. "Love Machine", a bizarre mix of "Love Cats"-esque funky ska-jazz and woozy electronic breakdowns, with a video shot as entertainers at a men's club, featured a series of funny/silly lines like "lady you're damn right, you can't read a man's mind, we're living in two tribes and headed for war" [spot the Frankie AND Rivals references!], "we're gift-wrapped kitty-cats, we're only turnin' into tigers when we're forced to fight back" and "let's go, eskimo, out into the blue" (exploited to perfection as magazine cover captions on the picture for part 2 of the single). "Wake Me Up" rode a heavy guitar riff (like The Prodigy at their most metal) and the sizzlin' video featured the Girls as bikerchicks blazing across the (fake) desert-scape!

7. Britney Spears – "Toxic"...! what? you say... yes, it's true, your (only?) fave Britney song is directly influenced by Girls Aloud. Xenomania were set to collaborate with Britney, but the song they submitted, "Graffiti My Soul", with the lines "spike heels and skintight jeans, I've got a fistful of love that's comin' your way, baby" was deemed inappropriate (as one reviewer noted of that song, released on the Girls' 2nd album, it seemed like someone [songwriter] was trying to see how much they could get away with). instead, Cathy Dennis wrote "Toxic", whose production is almost a direct rip of "Sound Of The Undergound" (& "No Good Advice"?).

8. far from anyone's image of posh girls, Nadine - Cheryl - Nicola - Kimberley & Sarah are mostly all smalltown / rough'n'tumble girls with THICK accents. versus Spice Girls, Girls Aloud are ALL hotter, and if compared to Desperate Housewives they're all at least as hot as Eva Longoria (and almost as hot as Terri Hatcher! :). Cheryl is regularly voted best-looking woman/hottest babe in the UK!

9. after producing 3 hit singles for the first Girls Aloud album, The Sound Of The Underground, Xenomania were asked to produce the whole of the Girls' 2nd album. What Will The Neighbours Say? was received with instant acclaim as even music critics agreed that the Girls Aloud/Xenomania team had brought fun and style back to music, producing a great modern pop album that was highly listenable all the way through (a rarity today). the new album Chemistry, goes even further in that it's conceived as a theme album, roughly: the life of a single 20-something girl in London. as such it sequences as an ALBUM album and Xenomania play with song-form, resulting in radical departures such as the A-B-C1-C2-A-C2 form of "Biology". Chemistry calls to mind both the glory days of brit pop and the sixties peak of album form as practiced by The Beatles, The Kinks and Brian Wilson/Beach Boys (c. Pet Sounds and Smile).

in the spirit of Phil Spector's Christmas album, for Chemistry Xenomania have produced a bonus disc of Christmas songs which includes several originals as well as covers of UK classics by Slade and Wizzard plus old chestnuts like "White Christmas", mostly done in a fun glam-rock or synthpop style.

10. if Dec 19th release "See The Day" goes Top 10, as it probably will, Girls Aloud's 11 consecutive Top 10 hits will beat The Spice Girls' record!

so if all the above makes you wanna get some Girls Aloud in your life – hear the songs and make sure you also see the videos! (easy sign up on www.girlsaloud.com)

(the 'apt description' line's not mine - comes from the article I got the Higgins quotes from)

Now, I love Xenomania but I completely disagree with this. One surf guitar used ocasionally thrown in in similar instances does not qualify as a "direct rip". Toxic is a fantastic track on it's own.

thanks for the compliment on the piece - it wasn't for print, but for retail - that's why it's so chart-stats heavy. I mean I didn't even get into their personalities like the whole freaky Ginge thing - which is such a part of the mystique.

I think Brian Higgins has a bee in his bonnet about Cathy Dennis because (in my opinion) she nicked his style wholesale for Britney Spears' Toxic. He's a brilliant bloke, more pop-conscious than anyone I've ever met, and I guess he felt a bit cheated.

I don't quite agree, I see it very much as consistent with what Bloodshy & Avant, and other Murlyn-peripheral outfits, had been doing pre-Xenomania making an impact anyway, Cathy really only wrote the lyrics and actual vocal melody.

music critics agreed that the Girls Aloud/Xenomania team had brought fun and style back to music

Well, British music anyway.

Also, the "woozy electronic breakdowns" of 'Love Machine' are, as much as I love the song, incongruous crap.

(agree with everyone singing bloodshy & avant are v different to xenoamnia, if nothing else 'toxic' is all about the high-end and 'sound of the underground' all about the bass)

(btw i like 'biology' now)

Funk guitar - check.
Hip hop breakbeats - check.
Stuttered female* vocals - check.
Danceability - check.
Soft/rough dancey sounds - check.

*Gender not important, tho'.

I don't remeber burning you the first PSB album, but OK.

(btw i like 'biology' now)

About time.

ha! you are Marcello (see The Frapp). (but on the basis of "Waiting", so am I...)

i shall be playing this tonight, along with...*thinks*..."It's Magic" or "Watch Me Go". i'll count the seconds before the promoter threatens to throw me out for not playing indie...

this is quite a large umbrella! (you burned me the plus-tech album on the same cd as the shortwave set one - i like the shortwave set quite a bit but they're too mimsy for me to really love.)

i may like 'biology' - mostly due to hearing it on cd quality - but it's nowhere near as great as people have been suggesting.

'Biology' is mainly overrated by people who find the concept of stitching 2 (not 3. I mean, where IS the mythical 3rd?) songs together revelatory (in a country where 'Round Round', featuring a lot of the same people, went to no.1 3 years ago, not to mention being somewhat ignorant (unknowingly or otherwise) of the long established work of The Dust Brothers, The Beta Band, Cornelius and others) and people who stretching out the lead-in to the chorus is indicative of world-class genius (yet fail to acknowledge the same, by the same, in 'Ace Reject', which came out at the same time). What's better about this approach than other songs which omit 2nd verses or have long instrumental passages after a 2nd verse but before the second chorus etc, anyway? If it had been done badly, there'd likely be no shortage of backlash.

sonically, deceptively, yes
but those lyrics are some of the most downbeat ever

Andrew Shortwave appears to be a stronger pop songwriter (in the classical sense) than Xeno, and he's far better at breaking hearts and identifying the modern malaise, including that of the single London girl/relationships gone wrong - 'Slingshot' and 'Just Goes To Show' trumping 'Wild Horses' and 'SLT' in these cases.

why not dig up the likes of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" or "Cabinessence" if you wanna go back?
the point with Chemistry is now the non-traditional songform approach is the pretty much the norm for Xenomania, wheras Neighbours felt like less of a departure.

stitching together disparate songs is not the radical element here - practically everyone's done that for years (Oakey admits it of "Love Action"). bypassing earlier verse and chorus bits on a regular basis for pop songs is what's drawing comment, even this too has existed in many artists music - just not girl group pop on a regular basis. (cue everyone reaches for their Dreambabes comps to see how many examples they can find...)

-- The Lex (alex.macpherso...), December 8th, 2005.

'toxic' is ALL about the bass!!!

'Biology' is mainly overrated by people who find the concept of stitching 2 (not 3. I mean, where IS the mythical 3rd?) songs together revelatory (in a country where 'Round Round', featuring a lot of the same people, went to no.1 3 years ago, not to mention being somewhat ignorant (unknowingly or otherwise) of the long established work of The Dust Brothers, The Beta Band, Cornelius and others) and people who stretching out the lead-in to the chorus is indicative of world-class genius (yet fail to acknowledge the same, by the same, in 'Ace Reject', which came out at the same time). What's better about this approach than other songs which omit 2nd verses or have long instrumental passages after a 2nd verse but before the second chorus etc, anyway? If it had been done badly, there'd likely be no shortage of backlash.

this is a formalist account, frankly, and as a longstanding beta/dust bros fan i totally don't know what you're on about. you may as well ref side two of 'abbey road'. you can like 'round round' and still think 'biology' works better (the weave is better, it doens't feel like a "omg we just dropped random slow bit in to fuck w. yr brane"). 'ace reject' is simply not as good.

This doesn't necessarily hold up across the entirety of the album, tho'.

this is a formalist account, frankly, and as a longstanding beta/dust bros fan i totally don't know what you're on about. you may as well ref side two of 'abbey road'.

Yes, 'Biology' totally doesn't change genre within song, what was I thinking?

you can like 'round round' and still think 'biology' works better (the weave is better, it doens't feel like a "omg we just dropped random slow bit in to fuck w. yr brane"). 'ace reject' is simply not as good.

This is implied by my use of the phrases "What's better about..." and "If it had been done badly, there'd likely be no shortage of backlash". But obviously, it's all opinion and I never made any statements as to which songs were better either.

Nice try, tho'.

Saint Etienne?

dom i think the kids these days have much better taste than the kids in 'my day'. they like hip hop and grime and r&b as opposed to britpop.

I'm so glad I disowned you.

Paul, I hear Keisha wrote the chorus, so I'd like to know who had what input. Heidi's part is the fucking best, and has one of the album's best lines to boot.

"Yes, 'Biology' totally doesn't change genre within song, what was I thinking?"

genre isn't a rigid enough concept these days for this line to fly--what 'genre' is 'toxic' or 'sound of the underground' (or i dunno, 'virginia plain') anyway? 'biology' switching between 'blues riff' and 'housey bit' isn't actually *that* amazing in itself -- which is why i said the prob with yr account was its formalism--and the narrow frame of ref. the dust bros are not a unit apart from hip-hop as a whole.

they're too busy singing along to eminem, roll deep, sean paul and 'gold digger'.

who is this hot new 'eminem' talent the kids are down with? things move so fast.

there were some boys rapping along to 'ass like that' on the bus the other day :(

OK, to placate yer ego, let's substitute "style" for "genre"; either way, "groove", for example, isn't gonna work, even if I was actually Tim F.

Next, 'SOTU' and 'Toxic' deliberately blend styles simultaneously over the course of an entire song. 'Biology' makes a deliberately cosnscious switch-up. Spot the difference?

"Genre" may be more fluid in 2005 - as it's been for years anyway - but it's hardly dead.

'biology' switching between 'blues riff' and 'housey bit' isn't actually *that* amazing in itself --

Congratulations, you just realised my point. Also, that's more of a 'disco bit' than a 'house bit' - I've not compared it to Sparks for nothing.

which is why i said the prob with yr account was its formalism--and the narrow frame of ref. the dust bros are not a unit apart from hip-hop as a whole.

Actually, you're failing to point out any such formalism, esp. as the DBs and TBB are very clearly more than a hip hop production outfit and an indie band, respectively.

Furthermore, Beck's chart success in the 90s from Odelay onwards (not to mention Cornelius' smash hit status in Japan with Fantasma, which paved the way for his international cult following. St Etienne and Pizzicato Five likely play a part for their countries too), and the full-on return of disparate elements strung together *more openly* in pop very obviously are a continuation in part of the "blur the lines" traditions of the 60s, which was then passed over for the disco, synth pop etc of the ensuing decades (Beck fancying himself at the time as more Schooly D than Silver Apples doesn't change this point, btw). This sort of approach didn't really touch the mainstream again until the late 80s - see indie-dance (esp. Primal Scream, MBV and Cornelius' old band, Flipper's Guitar, all of whom contain noted psych overtones and strung disparate musical styles together - the latter borrows openly from the former two's albums) and Prince Paul and The DBs, whose psychedelic and disparate leanings in 3 Feet High and Paul's Boutique were cottoned onto immediately. De La were tageed hippies and there are at least 3 Beatles samples in Paul's. Primal, MBV (who I mainly bring up based on their innovative, and subsequently influential, status rather than any 'blurring') and Flipper's all helped filter through punk's old "anything is possible" ethos during the early 90s. Hip hop, with its sampling techniques, obviously helped lots too, and alongside Beck we also got the adventurousness of Bjork and DJ Shadow.

The only real anomaly here is Prince, but his work at the time was mostly critically divided into "funk" and "rock" (and that's without touching the arguments about whether he had more white or black fans).

This approach to "genre" had to be reintegrated back into the mainstream over time and Xeno are simply continuing it, albeit with significant modern forebears to draw from, of which the Dust Brothers would be the most recognised via Odelay, though I'm sure Bjork has a greater success rate. You can bring up the Beatles instead of Beck if you like, but don't do so without context.

this is all good stuff (dunno why it all has to come back to cornelius! maybe higgins mentioned him?) but this is what i meant by narrowness: the dust bros (and prince paul) don't exist outside hip-hop as a whole, they didn't just pop up in '88-9 out of nowhere. their technology made possible what a lot of earlier hip-hop had aimed at.

and i don't think you can pass over the decade c. '75-'85 by just pointing to "the disco, synth pop etc of the ensuing decades" as a non-blurry time of straight-aheadness in pop music. the songwriting in disco wasn't particularly straight-down-the-line in any case. and of course post-punk was clearly about genre-blending and experimentalism too.

as fer mbv, primals, this is fascinating, there's a lot to chew on.

but this *is* all formalist argument at the end of the day -- it's the effect of 'biology' rather than possible precedents in other eras that make it an enjoyable song -- saying 'round round' or 'ace reject' anticipate it in terms of songcraft doesn't make 'biology' any less of a great song.

all i'm saying anyway is that genre-splicing within songs has been going long time, is probably most strongly identified with hip-hop *as a genre*, rather than w. big name auteurs (though these are important), and that in the last decade it's not just trendy musicians like beck and bjork (those these are important) who've continued this.

example given: that music hall bit in space's 'avenging angels'. i'm sure there are others!

then the sly wink of the ending instru vamp

when I said the production of "Toxic" was almost a direct rip of Xeno-Girls, I didn't mean to imply that Cathy Dennis was stealing their style. cos I'm a fan of Cathy Dennis too! the correct word here would be 'homage' - after all, someone brought Britney to Xeno, so the Girls Sound is what they were originally looking for.

While this is true, you need to also take into account what they made possible further down the line ie Beck and his various inspirations. Obv, this counts more for the DBs than Paul, as it was the former who got involved with The Rolling Stones and production and mixing for various rock, hip pop, indie pop and singer-songwriter types (John King mixed 'Steal My Sunshine', and while his productions with the Brothers obviously influenced Len, I'd wager Xenomania could have done it, if they were so inclined. Just a thought. I'm planning on mixing it into 'Love Machine' someday).

Cornelius isn't really a focal point, he's just an pre-dated example and reference point. Musically, he's very much the definition of xenomania, however, and should be credited for beating some of today's hitmakers to their ideas by a matter of years, even if B&A, Xeno etc have never listened to or heard of him (and he usually gets listed as a ref or influence for J-influenced non Japanese).

I may come off as behaving that way, but I don't honestly expect others to have as wide-ranging listening experiences as I have re: pop, even on ILM. And that does work the other way too.

and i don't think you can pass over the decade c. '75-'85 by just pointing to "the disco, synth pop etc of the ensuing decades" as a non-blurry time of straight-aheadness in pop music. the songwriting in disco wasn't particularly straight-down-the-line in any case. and of course post-punk was clearly about genre-blending and experimentalism too.

The key difference is mainly instrumentation tho'. I mean, the songwriting point's good, but when I saw people praising 'The Show' for having 2 choruses (on an "innovatory " level, at least as it appeared to me - it's not as if they weren't obviously enjoyed on a lyrical level), I immediately thought of 'ABC' and 'Wanna Be Starting Somethin'', which are hardly obscure examples of such an approach.

But really, it comes down to instrumentation ie. disco played *as* punk (or as moody soundscapes, and there's something of a white/black dichotomy in here too, I think/feel); synth-pop and synth-rock essentially doing what they said on the tin and the prevalence of Linn drums and Fairlights. IOW, there's somewhat more uniformality in sound compared to before and after, mainly because there was less diversity in that regard.

Obviously, the likes of Thriller and Purple Rain endured and continue to do so because they worked in a "something for everyone" approach, not to mention top tunage. Not unlike Xeno when they're on their game, of course.

The other factor is how far experimentation gets into the mainstream (this reminds me: we've omitted Kate Bush). What was the most notable strain of experimentation to break through during '75 - '85? And how, well, experimental was it? Would it be synthpop?

but this *is* all formalist argument at the end of the day -- it's the effect of 'biology' rather than possible precedents in other eras that make it an enjoyable song -- saying 'round round' or 'ace reject' anticipate it in terms of songcraft doesn't make 'biology' any less of a great song.

Again, I'm saying it's very much about the effect (the fact that I've claimed a liking for 'Biology' should be sufficient evidence); I just dislike and oppose the opinions which hold up its approaches as revolutionary or 100% unique.

Alex has (non-specifically) cited examples that anticipate 'Biology'; I feel 'Ace Reject', which accompanies rather than anticipates it, at least in terms of release dates/net leak, is just as good, if not better: my problem isn't that others apparently don't feel this way, but that they're all too happy to avoid recognising that 'Biology' isn't isolated; the fact that the BBC's Ceefax review cites "avant-garde sounds" that GA are using to "change" pop - not to mention that this comes at the end of a review that merely emphasises how catchy the music is.

I know it's hard to innovate in these pop days, but while it's not suprising when critics hype up the recycling of pop's past in the present as new works of genius(Rock Is Back, anyone?), it's a wee bit sad when the fans do it too!

xx-posts: 'Avenging Angels' is post-Beck AND Bjork.

This is also the point where I say I need to go back to work.

maybe the crux here is the possible length of samples back then. the dust bros and prince paul seem to have had much more sampling capacity than earlier producers. scandalously i've not read up on this, but fer example didn't the bomb squad get entirely new gear between 'bum rush' and 'nation'? or maybe an analogous one: did kate bush's digital capacity increase much between 'the dreaming' and 'hounds'?
i've never been able to really commit to electro just cos that era late '70s-mid-late '80s feels like such a loss in possible sounds, restored by (affordable) digital sampling.

Same to you, Milton. The Bomb Squad is a very good example for innovation, and their part in mainstream music also resulted in the rise of the Chemical Brothers (and subsequently, the whole chemical breaks/big beat/etc scenes that're still ongoing). And I think they did get new equipment at that point. Obv., the main thrust of my point is about xenomania (the practice, not the producers) and its influence in the pop market, but the Bomb Squad still have a link to the Chems and even 'Grafitti My Soul' in these times. Weren't their sample sources also unusual for hip hop? Weren't they also sort of hailed as modern Phil Spectors or something?

I'm not up on Kate's work, really, but cited her as a popular 70s/80s musical adventurer.

Anyway...who wants to talk about what order they'd do GA in? Kimberley first, Nadine last, the others in a foursome.

Yeah...

It's a cute photo, nonetheless.

Weren't their sample sources also unusual for hip hop? Weren't they also sort of hailed as modern Phil Spectors or something?

there is some mad stuff in there -- what's the sample on 'ain't no half steppin' (also on '...bassheads'). anyway, it's post-punk.

But the changes are important here nonetheless: one area where "Biology" differs from, say, "The Show" (or any of the more breakbeaty GA tracks) is in how it mostly stays so smooth, so anti-riff, its light electronic veneer resolutely designed to be as untracky as possible... it sounds much less openly informed by hip hop or dance music or rock music than a lot of their other stuff (bluesy interjections excepted). "Long Hot Summer" already seemed to be moving in this direction, toning down the wildness of the arrangement in a bid to maximise some pure vision of pop. But with "Biology" this is both increased and undercut - the arrangement remains clearly quite schizo. So you get this weird dichotomy at work, a song which simultaneously wants to be "pop degree zero" and also this very strange take on pop.

And I think this is where maybe stuff like 80s Kate Bush is relevant, although I think it's just more a case of "Biology" sounding very 1985 - ambitious, detailed pop music that is quite disconnected from whatever is happening "on the street".

It's UFO by ESG

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

you must write for the internet.
-- Theorry Henry (miltonpinsk...), December 7th, 2005.
i think i just did.

nadine - missionary
sarah - 69
cheryl - she can pull me off.

nicole only from the back so i dont see her face.

Also, good (and way more concise than my own) post, Tim.

The Bonus Disc :
http://s57.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1HOQJHID52TEN36QDQ8V4JN7

but I had a revelation re: "Waiting"
that verse guitar riff not so much "Lust For Life" as "Tainted Love" (more rhythmically/harmonically than melodically, though it does use the same notes on the minor scale (5,7,8,10) in different sequence)

http://cookham.blogspot.com/

(not read yet)

btw Chemistry is probably going to end up my #2 LP of the year. I sense a pattern here.

lovely nineties synth washes.

everything which people criticise about 'waiting' = my feelings towards 'biology'.

Beck! yes! although the girls are (thankfully) incapable* of similar levels of smugness/irony/clever-clever 'genius', unfortunately also not that great at pop music or even emoting.

*Rachel Stevens unfortunately is quite capable, but shares the latter weaknesses in spades. Girls Aloud are simply annoying, but forgivable and actually fairly likeable for their ineptness and personal unpretension. Rachel is somewhere near loathsome.

Also, I'd like to see some reasons as to why Come And Get It is considered a better album than Chemistry by some folks (and not just because I disagree).

Popist strawman, he lives!

most of GA's songs (inc 'the show', inc 'no good advice', inc 'love machine') involve guitars.

Chemistry: cooler beat programming, more fun/energy, more anthemic, more varied, more acerbic (but in a good way), better lyrics, commendable distillation of various elements into varied pop songs, notably British while sounding internationally flavoured (a big fat melting pot!) and it's telling that one of the weaker dance tracks could have been given to Rachel ('It's Magic' if you can't guess), though the preceding 'SLT' does the job of at least half of CAGI in considerably less time.

CAGI: cleaner (not necessarily "better") production, better panning, tighter quality control only in regards to avoiding slow, unremarkable ballads, but less sprightly (ironic for a dancepop album, whereas Chemistry always has booty to shake where necessary), less interestingly written (only the singles and 'Crazy Boys' really shine in this regard) and slightly overfocused on electropop/dance tracks and sounds - 'Sweet Dreams''s only main contribution to the album's template being its rhythm/beats, oh and the guitar in 'Every Little Thing' rather than the fun bit with the horns, or IOW, where's the sonic variety outside 'Je M'Appelle'?

And if instrumentation was a barrier to terrific pop, to use an example from this decade, the Ratpure would've had no impact whatsoever.

i don't think come and get it aimed to be sprightly, really, it's more of a sleek machine. you're mapping values on it which it never sought to fulfil.

And citing 'anthemic' as a quality obviously means it's pretty inspirational, kind of like the way 'Push The Button' incites en masse dancefloor singalongs (and this is across albums, not just individual songs). Variation has been part of GA's schtick since the start and the composite sound prevents Chemistry from becoming stale too quickly.

i mean, obviously chemistry is better to dance to, just like, i dunno, ellen allien is better to dance to than kate bush. but i think that the other qualities of come and get it succeed on more levels.

what you say about the composite sound on chemistry is, for me, its downfall (insofar as an album i still love has a downfall) - it's simply not as varied as wwtns?: most of the songs are variations on one of three themes (upbeat guitar-based rollicking antics/soppy ballad/token electro banger), whereas wwtns? really did take genre-hopping to an extreme.

Mapping values etc. And if WWTNS is your ideal of extreme genre-hopping, well...

Ellen/Kate is a pretty inappropriate comparison, mind you. It's more like Schizophrenic vs Justified.

also I'm a bit fatigued by the amount of attention to and dissection of these albums now (mine and others) - there's been so much contradictory opinion (for more mindfuck see Popjustice threads too) - and I worry that I've either overlistened or become removed from the songs themselves.

if these albums are guilty of anything it's production overwhelming content, not inherently a sin but in the case of at least 3 tracks: "Lovely 2 C U", "Gotta Be Me" and "Crazy Boys" - there's a sense of underlying fatigue, partly tempo (less so on "Crazy"), partly the minimal electro hauteur (again "Crazy" has maximal chorus obv), maybe even singer disinterest, which is gussied up by effects that possibly make the song more interesting than it is beneath the sheen. I feel this in initial sonic excitment but eventual disengagement, though somehow I return. I took this as part of what Tom was referring to when he said (something like) Rachel is best when she's not trying clever or cold.

for me Chemistry is slightly disappointing because we expect SO much from Girls Aloud and Xenomania that they'd really have to deliver the unquestionable album of the year (at least they got the single). for Rachel I had less expectations, so when she did release album of the year it thrilled and stunned - and set the cogs moving: is it really? do my ears deceive me? can Rachel be this worthy? is she interesting enough? which songs hold up? etc. which all took a little time to resolve.

anyway, Girls Aloud are such a visual band they should release video albums - every time I hear "Biology" I think of that Top Of The Pops performance!

(any claims to godhead undercut by all my errors upthread including lyric misquotes!)

And I read - and decried - the same argument you made against 'Crazy Boys' for 'Some Girls' last year. I just don't buy it. Of course, I don't have to.

Oh, and I do think anyone letting their opinions of albums change or waver simply due to discussion with or from others needs a head check. Nothing any of you has said has made me re-examine my views of Chemistry, or the last one, or Rachel, or Morning Musume, or shibuya-kei or The Chipmunks or the amount of sugar in my diet or anything else and, the latter aside, I don't see why I should.

i said it upthread, but again, part of the chemistry > wwtns argument (i think it's better period but...) is the non-frontloading better-sequenced thing.

The first album is the only one that's slightly front loaded because its three best songs are the three first ones.

ah now, you know i love schizophrenic, but i have a great deal more affection for justified, probably because while half of each is filler, the best of justified is so much better than the best of schizophrenic. and schizophrenic is very overlong. anyway barima i think your insistence on classifying rachel stevens as 'dance-pop' is misplaced; it's electro-pop and takes many of its cues from dance music, but neither of those aspects necessarily mean that it aims to be dance-pop itself. anniemal is a very good comparator as another album which often gets described as a dance-pop album due to the electro sheen, but really you can dance to under half of it.

If you did a Girls Aloud POX, how many songs from each album get in? Three, five and two, for me.

ditto, i think. 'no good advice', 'some kind of miracle' and 'girls allowed' from column a; 'the show', 'love machine', 'deadlines and diets', 'graffiti my soul' and 'thank me daddy' from column b; 'swinging london town' and 'wild horses' from column c.

and i agree with ed that wwtns? isn't front-loaded in the slightest (though its sequencing IS bizarre)

1) The general conflating of 'electro' with 'dance' (worse for you as it's been practically decided that in 2005, electro IS effectively dance), not to mention that 4 of the album's songs have seen dancefloor action (the singles, plus 'Crazy Boys'), with another four that can plausibly follow ('Funny How', 'Dumb Dumb', 'Every Little Thing', 'Je M'Appelle'). It's clear that much of the album was for chartifying electrohouse in the same way 'Some Girls' and 'Train' did schaffel. Electronic dance-pop is still dance-pop by any other name and this probably brings more attention to the electronic elements on definition alone.

You're seriously reaching if you think "electro-pop that takes its cues from dance music" goes against anything I've said. I'll leave you to take a guess as to what one of the major cues for what we now know as dance music was.

2) The fact that Anniemal doesn't have an electro sheen. Or rather an electro sheen that isn't completely overshadowed by its blatant disco sheen.

also i really wouldn't bother getting hung up on 'dance-pop'/electropop thing, though i tend to class all of this stuff as the latter.

leaving out 'love machine'? and including 'big brother'? mais non! (also i like 'jump', more than 'd & d' and 'hear me out' -- but obv ymmv.)

agree w. BARMS on the 'is it electro or is it dance' non-question.

it's 50/50 really

Also, you can totally dance to "Come Together" off Anniemal! I wouldn't dance to "Happy Without You".

chemistry is practically, ahem, experimental by comparison, so admirable for that, but the results are none too pleasing to my ear.

i realise i'm poorer for this

hang on barima are you saying that rachel stevens sounds good on the dancefloor here? it seems to contradict your earlier position that that's where she fails. to be honest only 'i said never again (but here we are)' is very dancefloor-friendly on her album, through 'crazy boys' and 'every little thing' certainly have more than a passing acquaintance with it. 'funny how' and 'je m'appelle'? you're reaching there, they're too slow. (though the power of the RMX could sort that out a treat.)

chartifying which electrohouse exactly? i can see where richard x and co have taken sonic cues from various electrohouse dudes, but there's a conscious decision not to replicate the bangingness (ie dancefloor-friendliness) of eg 'rocker' or 'my friend dario' in the same way that 'train' and 'strict machine' did for another strain of electro.

ie i don't think criticisms that come and get it doesn't work on the dancefloor are particularly important as that clearly isn't the aim of the album.

lol attic moneys amirite?

that's another thing i hate about that band, the way they've turned perfectly good terminology into a reference to them

CAGI may not be the current Madonna, but I don't see why an album with dance beats and rhythms is so relatively lethargic in spots. It feels self defeating. Neon Nights did this in part beacuse it has better songs and electronic hooks overall. Comparitively, Chemistry makes no bones about its intentions to rumpshake and what both that and Taller have over CAGI is that when it wants to be dancey without the energy, at least it'll make certain to shore the track up with an actual decent song (ie '2 Hearts').

Heh. Heh heh. Me too, probably.

I think you've also noted something I like about Chemistry (someone on Popjustice also did in a different way): it isn't caught up in trends and such for the most part (stylistically, 'Models', 'SLT' and 'It's Magic' aren't really songs out of time right now, but 'Wild Horses' is very 2003 if you're a Bubba Sparxxx fan but thought he needed to be more old West saloon than barndancer): it's a distilled vision of pop and pop history by producers who love it, with a particular eye on one decade (bit like Cornelius' Fantasma with its ultra-modernised 60s-isms and its overall goal to be a great pop album). And I loved the late 80s/early 90s to bits.

and only the singles have vids. i know what sarah, nicola, and obviously nadine's voices sound like. but the arrangements are quite complex, and it's quite difficult to discern them sometimes ('do you know me?'). does it matter?

also, i can't tell apart the voices of the beach boys.

nadine, nicola and cheryl have very distinctive voices. there's another voice i always recognise but i'm not sure whether it's sarah or kimberley, i suspect sarah. nicola and cheryl (the two most iconic members) always seem to get very apposite lines.

it doesn't matter anyway! part of the point of being a five-piece vocal group is singing as an entity rather than five disparate individuals! i coudn't tell the singers in en vogue apart but that makes them no less great.

I was beginning to enjoy their performance (far more entertaining than their videos), and their 'personalities' (ok Nadine is still MASSIVELY the hottest, and not my 'type' at all, but I just cannot take my eyes off her. I'll stop before I start drooling... but, despite best voice I can't see her being exciting solo anymore :( Lex probably right on this) they're all kinda kooky really...

...but for all the very evident craft and work and "adventurousness" that goes into their songs they still pass on by a whisker away from utter anonymity. And the way they grasp for attention ALL THE WAY THROUGH makes them near universally feel about 7 minutes long, good grief they just go on & on & on (a bit like me here) and it's what pushes them over the line from enjoyable fluff to, well, sort of unenjoyable.

Pop is ideally a short sharp shock isn't it? The way this group arrange songs reminds me of something else I can't quite place, I'm missing explosions, breakdowns & build ups, peaks and valleys. Instead everything feels REDLINED, and you know what? It gets WEARING. Fatigue sets in very quick. It's very juvenile in that way like Happy Hardcore or Hard Trance, and the sophistication of the lyrics doesn't rescue them. This is maybe (not that anyone gives a shit) getting to why I can't take them as "serious" or "pop".

It's interesting (kind of) to observe as a phenomenon, but yeah, I'm obviously far too old for it. I don't think all pop should nessacarily transcend age boundaries incidentally. But some _does_ for me & that's the stuff I can say honestly I like, this... isn't any good for me. It's fun, but SO disposable.

I think somehow (almost certainly the insane critical wankfest) I'd got the idea they (well, the 'Girls Aloud model & dance troupe/Xenomania project' that is) were a more pretentious Spice Girls... when they're actually far less up themselves. Feel a bit of an idiot but at least the penny dropped eventually.

I know it's a tired rockist blah blah position, but well, whatever degree of investment they DO have in it (other than getting paid). It's so hard to hear in the end product. This might be why they seemed so much more engaging/entertaining on stage despite it almost certainly being a mimed & backing track performance and no different musically.

It would be a lovely Xmas present to us all!!

Yes!

i get the impression that they're really into the music, but don't talk about it cos they're not musicians and don't really know how it works. but they also seem REALLY invested in the lyrics, and rave about them in most interviews (i believe xenomania lyricist miranda cooper likes to talk about subjects and themes with them first).

I think somehow (almost certainly the insane critical wankfest) I'd got the idea they (well, the 'Girls Aloud model & dance troupe/Xenomania project' that is) were a more pretentious Spice Girls... when they're actually far less up themselves.

oh, definitely. the music is more 'innovative' and 'creative', for whatever that's worth, but unlike the spice girls there's no massive concept or raison d'etre about them like Girl Power.

how old are you btw fandango? you say you're too old for this but i'd kind of assumed you were in your 20s.

"Whole Lotta History" has such a beautiful, lump-in-the-throat chorus.

I haven't heard all of this album yet, but what I have is putting me slightly in mind of the first Daniel Beddingfield album - a good thing in my book.

Also, the person speculating on who did the second verse vocals in Watch Me Go - it's not Nicola, it's either Cheryl or Kim. You can tell because it's piss weak. Neither of them are strong singers. Nicola has quite a distinctive voice, even if it does sound quite 'young' on record.

Doesn't Nicola have a co-writing credit on It's Magic as well?

Overall I'm gradually becoming convinced that Chemistry is the GA's best album overall. I've given it far more headspace than I ever did WWTNS for a start. Yes, Biology isn't as immediate a single as The Show, but it offers richer pleasures in return: what about the woooo-ooooohs in the background of the chorus, the perfect phrasing in the bridge? It also feels more coherent as an album - the 'Generation Heat' concept makes it feel charmily cheeky. And the Neneh Cherry / Betty Boo rapping is inspired.

"all night - been looking at - your hard-earned - six-pack
all night – I'll take you back – it feels like..."

then it's straight back into that riff - dissatisfied, hungry, searching... (4 Mr. Right)

that's probably why some people haven't warmed to the song -
it's repetitive (after you're set up by "Models", "Biology", "Wild Horses" and "Watch Me Go" to expect exciting changes) and not joyful like the other uptempos.
it's built on a guitar riff you'd expect more from nu-rock dullards - where's the WOOOSH!?
also it's smack in the middle of the album - inescapable component in the flow.

the image of flappers doing The Charleston should help its case though !

Yeah, I know I'm probably only preaching to the converted but, FFS, this and Rachel Stevens albums' are as near as dammit to pop perfection as you are going to get.

And the great unwashed go out and lap up the mundane-and-has-been masquerading as creative (did someone say Madonna??) whilst both Rach and GA's albums don't dent the top 5.

Fuck you all, great British public; you have absolutely no idea. You put Blunt at number one and ignore Rachel Stevens - for once in my long life, I give up.

As an aside I advise anyone to search up thread for the link to Marcello's blog. His Chemistry and Rachel Stevens pieces are exceptional (ditto his Kate Bush Aerial piece). Marcello - come back mate, ILX and ILM are lessened by your absence.

See, when it comes down to it, and however good Marcello's intellectual and thought provoking pieces are, the thing about good pop music is that the reaction is always from the gut (or possibly the groin).

And GA are magnificent because they hit you in the gut and the groin (and they are good enough to provoke an intellectual response) .

you can't escape the biology...

Mr Snrub - damn right. But lap up whatever you can get.

Lisa - I assume that you are taking the piss? Read Marcello's Chemistry piece: You may not understand some of the big words but...

If you are being post ironic.. Fuck it, I am so pissed off with post ironic. I love GA, not in an post ironic way but because they produce damn fine pop music.

This may be commercial but its just good pop. It doesn't have to be anything but that.

Mr Snrub - damn right. But lap up whatever you can get.

Lisa - I assume that you are taking the piss? Read Marcello's Chemistry piece: You may not understand some of the big words but...

If you are being post ironic.. Fuck it, I am so pissed off with post ironic. I love GA, not in an post ironic way but because they produce damn fine pop music.

This may be commercial but it's just good pop. It doesn't have to be anything but that.

How good would a Girls Aloud version "Valerian" be?!?

Woah! Details, please!

Friend is trying too hard. It's not there.

i love that the electrohouse dudes up there slept on the most obviously electrohouse track on the elpee!

we cannot let this moment go without reviving a GA thread, so i pick this one.
best pop band of the 00s ?
yes, 100%.
fuck you cancer.

that formed in the 00s in the UK, certainly

RIP

RIP. So sad.

Just tragic. RIP.

(searched and found that Sarah Harding, of Girls Aloud, died of breast cancer today)

have some fucking respect and say her name

RIP Sarah Harding

point taken.
sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrOL2OZGNls