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Girls Aloud – Out of Control
So, after the surprising #1 hit “The Promise” (which I must say I loved but didn’t see coming) the new Aloud album hits the stores tomorrow.
And what’s it like?
Well, it’s lovely. Which, to be honest, is something of a mild disappointment to me, but hey. It basically lacks punch – I was hoping for a couple of tracks which were bold, brassy, punding statements of sass, but instead the whole album has taken its cue from “Call the Shots” and gone down that route instead.
You will find nothing as barkingly inventive as “Biology”. Nothing as poppers-o-clock as “Something Kinda Ooooh”, and – unlike their last effort – nothing remotely slap-in-the-face-brilliant as “Girl Overboard” or “Close to Love”.
So I’m a bit grumpy.
But… what you will find are a collection of (largely) solid, sophisticated mid-tempo pop songs. Their colaboration with the Pet Shop Boys “The Loving Kind” is an absolute gem. It’s gorgeous and it’s synthy and it features the word “disinclined” which already makes it stratospherically brilliant in my opinion.
Other highlights? Well… “Rolling Back the Rivers in Time” is about as close to a Springfield-esque 60’s soul number as they’re ever likely to get, the seven minute epic “Untouchable” is a majestic beauty, “Turn to Stone” and “Love is the Key” are gorgeous, and “Love is Pain” was an instant personal favourite (possibly for the title alone).
So that’s seven gems out of twelve tracks all told (“The Promise” benefits from the slightly longer album version by ending properly). But the rest can just cock off.
All involved in the reggae-infused limpness of “Revolution in the Head” should be ashamed of themselves. And a song with as brassy a title as “We Wanna Party” turns out surprisingly lacking in tooth.
So for all it’s brilliance – all the high spots are undoubted high spots in the Girls’ catalogue – “Out of Control” seems singularly badly named. It’s a mature, restrained album all told – not bad by any means but it’s sure wrong-footed me.
Posted on November 2, 2008 | Filed Under Pop Music
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