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.

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