- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2002
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2004
- Sound of the Underground · 2003
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2012
- Out of Control · 2008
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2003
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2006
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2012
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2006
- What Will the Neighbours Say? · 2004
- Tangled Up (Bonus Track Edition) · 2007
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2007
- Ten (Deluxe Edition) · 2007
Essential Albums
- In the half decade since Girls Aloud were formed on Popstars: The Rivals—during which they released three albums and a greatest hits collection—the band had graduated from manufactured reality TV construct to become the most successful girl band in UK chart history, notching up more Top 10 hits than the Spice Girls. Nadine, Sarah, Cheryl, Kimberley and Nicola, at least according to them, were no longer the gobby teenagers and notoriously outrageous young women of the past. This new-found maturity perhaps explains why the kitchen-sink approach adopted by Girls Aloud’s regular songwriting and production partners Xenomania has been reined in a smidgen on the group’s fourth album Tangled Up. It is, in fact, a far more sophisticated-sounding record. That’s not to say that Xenomania and Girls Aloud’s innovative approach to pop is absent; there’s still a lot of weirdness to be found. Those wondering what the industrial edge of Pendulum’s rock-laced drum ’n’ bass might sound like paired with a melody lifted from a Pointer Sisters song will have their curiosity satisfied by the charging electronics of “What You Crying For”, while fans of Blur’s “Song 2” and Geri Halliwell’s spoken word verses in the Spice Girls’ “Naked” might find something to enjoy on the pogoing “Fling”. Meanwhile, “Can’t Speak French” is as preposterous as it sounds, smushing together jazz melodics, plastic ’80s electronics and a swinging beat, the band insisting that they’ll “let the funky music do the talking” over a backing track that is as far from funk as you can imagine. Still, there’s a traditionalism that prior Girls Aloud albums shied away from. “Black Jacks”, a Northern soul-indebted swinger, follows a more conventional song structure than “Biology” ever did, as does the scuzzy handbag house of “Girl Overboard”, an aching cautionary tale about excessive partying and falling off the wagon. “Call the Shots”, a glitter-soaked electro ballad, has a similarly melancholic texture. “I won’t cry for all the hunger in my heart,” Nadine sings on the pre-chorus, before Cheryl and Sarah add: “No, I won’t cry because I’ve stumbled through this far.” It’s a rare glimpse of vulnerability from a band renowned for their ballsiness and sees Girls Aloud subverting expectations once again. It’s understandable why so many consider it, and Tangled Up, their crowning achievement.
- Before Girls Aloud released their second album, What Will the Neighbours Say?, the group was at risk of being dropped by their record label. Despite beating the odds and winning the British reality TV show they were put together on, Popstars: The Rivals, and storming ahead in a now infamous chart battle for Christmas No. 1 with their sweat-soaked, surf-rock-meets-drum ’n’ bass debut single “Sound of the Underground”, their first album had failed to match the commercial expectations that accompanied such overnight fame. Luckily, Girls Aloud had a secret weapon: British songwriting and production team Xenomania. Comprised primarily of Brian Higgins (the man behind Cher’s megahit “Believe”) and songwriter Miranda Cooper, Xenomania’s Frankensteinian approach to songwriting—where disparate hooks, verses, choruses and lyrics are stitched together to create a whole—was, at that time, an idiosyncratic curio. But when in the hands of Cheryl, Kimberley, Nicola, Sarah and Nadine, the members of the similarly chimerical Girls Aloud, it resulted in monstrous pop perfection. There’s evidence of this patchwork pop craft all over What Will the Neighbours Say?. On grungy pinwheel “Graffiti My Soul”, which was originally written for Britney Spears, melodies, spoken word and crunchy guitar riffs are recklessly layered on top of one another until they almost topple. “Real Life” takes its bossa nova-flecked verses and sews them together with arm-swinging ’80s New Wave. And pop-rock oddity “Wake Me Up” adopts the modish strut of Visage’s “Fade to Grey” for the verses, Sarah uttering seemingly nonsensical lyrics about “Moët in mud” and a “vice-like grip on my sherbet dip”, then wallops you over the head with lacerated garage-punk guitars and strobing techno beats for the remainder of the song, the girls chanting: “Wake me up before I drop out on you.” The crowning jewels, though, remain “Love Machine and “The Show”. The former, famously covered by the Arctic Monkeys, is built around an absurd rockabilly guitar riff and was allegedly inspired by The Smiths, although it’s hard to imagine Morrissey and co singing, “I need a squeeze a day, instead of this negligée.” The latter, meanwhile, with its statically charged synths and frothed-up melodies, is so stacked with hooks that it leaves you uncertain whether you’re at the verse, the bridge or one of the song’s multiple choruses. As such, What Will the Neighbours Say? laid a foundation of lawlessness that would typify Girls Aloud’s career. Luckily, the group were just as raucous and mutinous as their hit songs.
Albums
- 2008
- 2008
- 2007
- 2006
Artist Playlists
- Welcome to The Show! Hear every hit Girls Aloud are playing on their long-awaited reunion tour.
- Harnessing the frenzied pop catchiness of the '00s hitmakers.
Singles & EPs
About Girls Aloud
One of Britain's premier 21st-century girl bands, Girls Aloud released a slew of chart-ruling singles during their 11-year run. Formed in 2002 during the second series of ITV’s singing competition Popstars, Girls Aloud were made up of Newcastle’s Cheryl Tweedy, Stamford’s Nicola Roberts, Derry’s Nadine Coyle, Bradford’s Kimberley Walsh and Asot’s Sarah Harding. Their first single, the rock-tinged harmony showcase “Sound of the Underground”, topped the singles chart in December 2002, and the group remained a constant presence in the Top 10 while playing with different styles over the rest of the decade. Uptempo cuts like the feisty 2004 hit “Love Machine” and the playful 2005 track “Biology” showcased the group’s spiky charisma, while romantic cuts like 2008’s retro-’60s throwback “The Promise” and the plush 2009 single “The Loving Kind” reminded listeners that they’d come together because of their vocal prowess. Girls Aloud officially disbanded in 2013, a few hours after playing their final gig in Liverpool, leaving behind a string of pop confections that helped define British music in the 2000s.
- ORIGIN
- London, England
- FORMED
- декабрь 2002 г.
- GENRE
- Pop