Still Sounding Good (The Sound Of Girls Aloud - Girls Aloud)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	The Sound Of Girls Aloud - Girls Aloud
Date:	13/01/07 (567 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great pop tracks

Disadvantages: Some limp cover versions

Given the fickle nature of the pop music industry, especially where singers made famous by reality TV shows are concerned, this is an album I never thought I would be listening to. If someone had told me when Girls Aloud had just won “Popstars: The Rivals” and were celebrating their first number one that they would still be going and still be successful four years later, I’d have laughed.

But that is exactly what has happened. Where so many reality TV acts have failed, Girls Aloud have succeeded. Most reality TV act starts with a number one single, even now, but only Girls Aloud had thirteen Top 10 singles, all of which are featured here. Indeed, Girls Aloud is the first reality TV act to have their longevity celebrated in this way; a feat even more remarkable when you think how quickly their corresponding boy band One True Voice vanished.

Having survived so long by not being a cliché, opening a “Greatest Hits” album with the debut single is very much a cliché. “Sound of the Underground” actually sounds a little dated now, given how Girls Aloud have moved on in terms of sound over the years. It’s still a decent guitar led pop tune, though, with a driving dance type drum beat and even four years on, it’s fairly clear why this would have appealed to enough people to make it a chart topper as it still has the power to get the foot tapping.

“Love Machine” is possibly my favourite of all the Girls Aloud tracks here, as it’s a full on foot tapping pop song that doesn’t try to be any more than that. It has all the hallmarks of a great pop tune, with a catchy chorus, a jaunty beat and a foot tapping rhythm. Admittedly, it may be the thought of Nadine singing “I need a squeeze a day/Instead of this negligee” that makes this my favourite, but it would still be a great fun track without that thought being possible.

When I first heard “Biology”, the first single from Girls Aloud’s third album back in late 2005, I thought it had all gone wrong and they were on the way out. Although it doesn’t annoy me as much as it did first time around, it still sounds like three songs inelegantly welded together. There’s an old style rock and roll verse, a typically Girls Aloud dance pop middle eight and another techno-pop song for a chorus. One of the parts is up to the usual standards of the band and, fortunately, this is the greater part of the song, but the rest does get in the way a bit, spoiling what could have been a decent dance-pop tune..

It’s back to the early days with “No Good Advice” and a return to the more guitar influenced heavy pop sound that the band started with. This track isn’t quite as effective as “Sound of the Underground”, although it does work on quite a similar vein, with a guitar lead and a dance style drum beat over a pop vocal that bounces along quite happily.

One thing that has characterised Girls Aloud is that their cover versions of other artists’ songs usually seem to be a little limp. “I’ll Stand By You” is a perfect example of that, falling way short of the Pretenders version, as none of the girls have quite the same power in the vocals as Chrissie Hynde. For those who don’t know the original, this is a sweet pop ballad, well written and well performed. But for those of us who do, it’s a weak version of a decent song.

One of the few cover versions that the band did well was their version of “Jump”, from the film “Love Actually”. The original was a pop-disco classic and that fits in perfectly with the kind of sound Girls Aloud had at this stage. It’s a great, bouncy pop-dance track with perhaps a slight addition of a mild techno edge and whilst you can tell the difference from the original, both versions are great fun tracks, so the differences aren’t important. This may not be the best track Girls Aloud have done, but it’s definitely their best cover version by some distance.

“The Show”, like “Biology”, is another song I didn’t take to immediately and, 2 and a half years later, still haven’t. It’s got more of a techno edge to their usual dance-pop sound and this does tend to overshadow the rest of the song. There is certainly a decent enough pop song buried in the bridge and the chorus, but the beat over the top is intrusive and doesn’t give it enough opportunity to shine. The single that followed this one was “Love Machine”, my personal favourite, so I guess that proves only that I’m as fickle as the rest of the record buying public, although as both made number 2 in the charts, perhaps I’m in a minority in not liking this one.
There’s another weak cover version up next, with Dee Cee Lee’s “See the Day” getting the Girls Aloud treatment. Although this is meant to be a pop ballad, it seems to have no life to it at all. It’s a harmless enough pop ballad, but it goes pretty much nowhere and never seems to properly get going.

There’s a pop techno influence on “Wake Me Up” as well, although it’s combined with a 1980s synth-pop type sound over the verses. Strangely, despite me not being a fan of the sound, I do prefer the chorus as the verses sound a bit weak by comparison. Overall, though, this is another up tempo pop influenced track that is always likely to get your feet moving.

“Life Got Cold” was the girls’ first attempt at a ballad, back when they were still trying to be a heavy pop act. This does mean that the music is a little at odds with the sweetness they’re trying to put into the vocals and because it’s still new and a couple of them hadn’t quite settled in, the constant switching between vocalist on the verses is a little distracting. It’s not a bad effort and it’s a decent enough pop ballad, but there are better examples of the art, one on this very album.

There’s another pop-techno type intro to “Something Kinda Ooooh”, which fortunately isn’t a particularly reliable indicator as to what it to come. This is a very up tempo dance-pop track, though, if not quite as in your face as some of the earlier ones. It is kind of a shame that this song appears here on the greatest hits album, as it is a good one and would encourage existing fans to buy this album for it, which has never seemed quite fair, but which I guess is the whole point of putting new songs on a Greatest Hits album.

Next up in the “better example of the art” of pop ballads I mentioned earlier. “Whole Lotta History” is to Girls Aloud what “2 Become 1” was to the Spice Girls. It’s a sweetly performed pop ballad with just the right amount of emotion to make you believe they actually mean it and, three years after “Life Got Cold”, they’ve grown as singers as well. This is definitely Girls Aloud’s best ballad, if not one of the very best.

Next up is the group’s lowest charting original song, “Long Hot Summer”. I’ve never understood quite why this should be, as it’s far from being their worst song. There’s a bit of a dance-pop influence, but it’s still an up tempo pop number designed to get your feet tapping and it does what it promises.

There’s another new track up next. “Money” starts off as another techno-pop influenced track, but then there’s a almost Latin influenced brass section which makes it sound more like something Basement Jaxx have done (“Do Your Thing” comes especially to mind). However, it does slow down in parts and, a little like “Biology”, it doesn’t always feel like all the parts here were designed to go into the same song.

Given that Girls Aloud have produced some wonderful original tracks along side some rather disappointing cover versions, it’s a shame that the album should finish with the latter. “I Think We’re Alone Now” should work quite well, as it was a 1980s straight pop tune. However, Girls Aloud try to put a bit of a dance beat over it and the attempt at harmonies have pulled some of the edge out of the song. If you’ve not heard the original, it’s a pretty decent dance-pop song, but if you’re a child of the 1980s and remember Tiffany, this is another weak cover.

At 15 tracks and 55 minutes of well crafted pop music, this is definitely an album to have if you’re into this kind of music. If you’ve only got one or two of the band’s albums and like them, or if you’ve heard songs on the radio and enjoyed them, this is perfect and given that you can pick it up for as little as 99p from eBay, definitely worth taking a chance on.

However, as is so often the case with Greatest Hits albums, there’s really very little on offer for the existing fans. If you already own the three studio albums to date, all you’ll get here is three news songs, two of which can be bought as a single and all three of which should be available to legally download more cheaply than it would cost to buy the album, especially with most places asking around £8.99 for a new copy.

What would have been better for the fan is a special 2 CD version of the album which was deleted on the day of release. This had a few additional and unreleased tracks on a second disc, which really offers extra for the fans. Sadly, this is very rare and the only copies I have seen on eBay frequently sell for in excess of £30.00. As much as I like Girls Aloud and as good as they can be, I wouldn’t recommend paying that sort of money for any of their albums.

With a new studio album supposedly due later in 2007, this is an album which will soon be superseded and come down in price. For now, only buy if you’re a huge fan of this kind of music, but not of the band in general. For those who already have the Girls Aloud albums, best leave this for now, pick it up very cheaply later and put your radio on for the songs you’ve missed.

But if you’re a fan of pop music, definitely listen out. This album is as good in parts as it is unexpected. No-one really expected it, but Girls Aloud have earned a Greatest Hits release and they are here to stay. That’s not a prospect that makes me unhappy. Now it’s time to see if the Greatest Hits can be followed by something even greater.

Summary: The album no-one expected proves to be as good as expected.