'Waiting'... for something good (Chemistry - Girls Aloud)

Name: sirg0508

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Product:	Chemistry - Girls Aloud
Date:	05/01/06 (1219 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 'No Regrets' is half decent

Disadvantages: Manufactured - Childish - Plain rubbish

Chemistry the 2005 album from Girls Aloud is to put it bluntly… rubbish! I won the CD and glad no money passed my bank account for it. Something that really surprised me was the inclusion of advertising in the CD case to buy ringtones for up to £3 considering the market for this album would be young teens. The physical design of the product is quite plain; the booklet contains no lyrics and just pictures of each band member with a blurb for who they wish to thank for the album. Trying to fit in with the language it is written in text speak… e.g. “u r truly amazin and I am so happy we found u!” My advice would be to choose a different mascara… they all look shocked and look like hairy spider legs in the pictures.

As a Special Edition the CD includes 2 bonus tracks totalling 13 tracks. The only songs I knew from it were ‘Biology’, ‘Long Hot Summer’ and ‘See The Day’ which was their Christmassy release. This is a pop album but in a very manufactured way. Girls Aloud originated from Pop Stars the Rivals and of course none of the material is theirs. The whole album is very childish, repetitive and girly in a ‘Spice Girls’ composition. They sound quite similar vocally.

The 42 second intro is really a short into track two as they both follow the same style. With a drum and bass intro the vocals are almost in rap form but instead of spoken words they tend to almost sing. It sounds very repetitive and with no definitive ending has to be combined with track two to make it sound complete. Listening through headphones the ending of the into moves from ear to ear – like when you have a cold and can’t hear properly. The second track ‘Models’ sounds quite dated but almost Barbie like. The vocals are very manufactured here – nothing is raw – they have been altered. It is also quite an American track – about ‘malls’ which just proves that the band themselves have had to adapt just to fit in. Imagine the keyboard from the track ‘Don’t You Love Me Baby’ by Human League and it follows a similar style but with a strong drum beat and a strange space type effect accompanying it.

Ewwww track 4 ‘Wild Horses’ is hideous. Girls Aloud are young – the previous tracks had manufactured vocals but such a dramatic change happens here. They sing with clear pronunciation in more of a theatrical choir style which is badly harmonized… if at all before erupting into a pop song similar to the Spice Girls ‘Spice Up Your Life’. In a more acoustic style the vocals again are altered in places. It’s a very average track with nothing really to grab the listener but sounds rather childish at the same time. ‘Watch Me Go’ returns to the previous styles of the first few tracks. Much more pop orientated the vocals again are not really sung but spoken… this isn’t music! The song is a diary… what someone did at each hour of the day. Something I really couldn’t care to know. ‘Quarter past 3 I was in the shower’…?! This again has been Americanised singing about gasoline – it’s called petrol!! There are short ‘rap’ sections or course badly done. ‘Waiting’ is upbeat and has a quicker tempo but very sharp beat. Not really singing again it is obvious there is a problem near the start getting the vocal right. A word is spoken each beat which didn’t really give the song a melody. An electric guitar does join in but again follows the beat. At least the vocals here aren’t altered much so it does compliment their vocals – perhaps they can sing?

‘See the Day’ is a good change but still a horrible song. In more of a ballad style with a lonesome piano to begin it sounds ok but the lyrics tend to ruin it. A subtle bell gives it a wintery feel. The chorus is not strong and could be much more dramatic – with a surge of vocal and instrumental power it almost stops and starts again but doesn’t really amount to much. What I can never understand is what they are on about… ‘Good love will always come from me’… what is ‘good love’? Does that mean there is bad love? This seems like an introduction to a ballad for a young teen – as you grow you learn there is much better out there. ‘Whole Lotta History’ again is pretty horrible. An attempt at perhaps more of a pop ballad it doesn’t work. The opening sounds dated in its instrumentals. In an attempt to make ‘history’ rhyme with ‘miss me’ it becomes ‘histry’. The vocals are not used to their full potential – it is obvious they would have benefited from a higher range but they seem to have been suppressed into a certain volume… just open up the vocal chords! The opening sounds too low and throughout smoky from not being able to open up. The rest of the tracks instrumentals are good and can’t really be faulted. There isn’t much changed through it – the steady drum beat and electric guitar are constant and keep the tune.

‘Long Hot Summer’ is a pop track in quite a remixed way. The vocals are too high and very manufactured which makes it sound very girly. They do begin to shout before the chorus. This was also a single release from the girls but one of the songs at the bottom of my list (not that I have many I like). It sounds very reminiscent of something Steps would have released. ‘Swinging London Town’ sounds like something from the Prodigy! The vocals however are no where near similar. It is harder to distinguish what is being sung – the instrumentals overpower the song (gladly) and with the vocals remixed in a very strong way they are indistinguishable. They do sing something about getting so drunk the hangover reminds them of where they have been. They also tend to whisper ‘Do you really know me?’ a lot… no I don’t! ‘It’s Magic’ follows in a similar style to the previous track in instrumental terms with the remixed voices. It could actually be a good track if the vocals were removed! It’s more of a subdued ‘Long Hot Summer’ It’s more of a dance track but GA turn it into a pop track. Again the instrumentals take a more prominent roll than the girls so it does have to be listened to carefully to understand the lyrics.

‘No Regrets’ is a much better track. I love the instrumentals. With a prominent acoustic guitar it has an Italian ambience. One of the other ballads on the album the only thing that ruins it is the keyboard in a really whiney tone which sounds completely out of place in this track (any other it would be fine). There is only one vocal on this track which I am guessing is Nadine. It does have its fault in the way of the keyboard but this has to be the best track on the album.

‘Biology’, the second single release from the album is a pop track with a steady drum beat. Again the vocals are manufactured. It is quite catchy in the sense that the majority of it rhymes but it gives it a repetitive sound which can get annoying. ‘Racy Lacy’ sounds quite similar to ‘Biology’ but with quite risqué lyrics: ‘I know this girl she’s not too bright but she’s educated in bed alright, she’s made seduction a work of art, a PHD with her legs apart’. The lyrics tend to follow along the same lines throughout and really not what you want to promote to kids. There is nothing good about this song. It is very average with nothing catchy – even the chorus sounds quite repetitive with very little range in notes. The chorus is also repeated several times to drag it out even then it is the shortest of the main tracks. The end is very badly done – it just ends abruptly.

Well… it is pretty much a disastrous album. Nothing much in there I liked at all that would convince me to listen to this album over and over again. The whole thing is manufactured – few times are the vocals in their raw state. Most of the time they have been altered to make it sound as though they are in harmony but just proves that work has to be done so they can create an album. A lot of work still has to be done but out of the bands around today Girls Aloud (especially with this album) are at the bottom of my list. I won’t be listening to this or any of their other albums unless I get it free again hehe… I only listened to this to clarify that it was as bad as I expected.

Stars: 1 / 5
Price: £7.50 from Amazon Marketplace (New)

Summary: A pretty rubbish album from a rubbish band