Cameron Adams Gives The Girls Aloud Album Album Of The Week

HiT was like a Popstars special this week ('Scott Cain: We've Found Him'!) and Sound Of The Underground was given one ripper of a review:



'Girls Aloud were formed before the eyes of British viewers on Popstars: The Rivals.Two bands were formed, one all-female, one all-male, who then competed on the chart for No.1. Girls Aloud won, and with a first single like Sound Of The Underground, it's no wonder.

Easily the best thing to come out of any Popstars franchise, it's a spiky explosion with with one foot in yesterday and one in tommorow. It sets the girls apart from their sappy male rivals, signalling a changing of the guard in manufactured pop.

It's all about attitude and credibility, Girls Aloud have plenty of the former, but don't bother with the pesky chore of songwriting. At least their record company have sorted them out with top-shelf pop.

No Good Advice is a spiky beast shamlessly shaped around the pulsating riffs that made My Sharona, Mickey and Kids In America stick in your head. Tweak them slightly, combine and bring to the boil and you've got No Good Advice: instantly familiar and ridiculously addictive.

The songs are written to order: the brief is girl pop with attititude.

The squelching clubbed out bass of All I Need (All I Don't) adds dirty funk, while Love/Hate follows the kitchen-sink production that made Tatu a breath of fresh air.

Mars Attacks is one of two tracks written by Betty Boo and the Beatmasters - very exciting if you remember their life affirming pop treats from the late 80's/early 90's. White Lies (written by trip-hop act Olive) is a spacey beatfest with a chorus that swings between everything and nothing.

This is what the third Spice Girls album should have sounded like. If you need a clever pop fix, dig in.

The Verdict: 3 and 1/2 stars
In A Word: Sassy '

Needless to say, that review has changed my opinion of it and I now love it a lot more.