Girls Aloud - 'The Promise'
Wait wait wait...did I just see what I think I saw? Did Cheryl Cole just pick up a piece of popcorn from the floor of her car - flicked in her direction by a handsome man - and eat it? And is she doing this to a backdrop of another amazing song by Girls Aloud? Well!
What kind of message is this sending to our nation's children? Are we teaching them to grub around under the seats at the cinema, looking for dusty treats? Is this the secret of Cheryl's slim physique? Should Heat magazine prepare a new front cover? This will never do. Something must be done. Steps must be taken...
Unsavoury eating habits aside, this represents yet another astonishing pop moment for The Aloud. A song which takes their patented sugar-rush pop thrill into a more soulful, adult area, and STILL wins. Is there NOTHING they can't do? I mean apart from wee standing up without making a mess...
You have to hand it to them, especially when pop music gets a lot of flack for being shallow, repetitive and transient, for making a song which sounds great on first listen, but a jakillion times better on the 10th, or 100th go around. Even though it contains what can only be described as The Westlife Key Change. Even though the hooks are soft and the song doesn't really seem to be ABOUT anything, there's still so much to get your teeth into.
You can spend ages playing 'Spot The Voice' with each singer, where usually it's just Nadine vs The Other Four. Then you can go back and try and work out what all the lyrics are, and rank them according to how bonkers they are. All the while grinning like a simpleton because lovely music is raining down all around you, and the girls look just smashing in those shiny golden dresses.
Sorry, I'm frothing now, I'll stop. I meant it about that grubby popcorn though.
Download: Out now
CD Released: October 27th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 22nd Oct 2008, plepton wrote:Five second rule!
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Comment number 2.
At 22nd Oct 2008, Paul Philpott wrote:I hadn't given Girls Aloud much thought until a friend asked me to go to see them in concert this year, and I was suprised how good they are - although I'm still not overly keen on some of their songs, they are obviously on the up, because the Tangled Up CD produced some cracking songs and this new song is just fab! How do they do it indeed, because they are the only band that seem to get my brother and I to agree on something. looking forward to hearing the new album!
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Comment number 3.
At 22nd Oct 2008, paularm12 wrote:This review basically says "Even though the song is completely full of really bad bits, it is still good."
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Comment number 4.
At 22nd Oct 2008, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:No it doesn't. It basically says that everything about this song is brilliant, even the bits which, in other songs by other people, would be poor.
There are no bad bits in this song. At. All.
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Comment number 5.
At 22nd Oct 2008, hackerjack wrote:This is actually a ather poor effort by their standards.
Usually for all the throw-awayness of the lyrics there is a tune that you juct cant help by like (even the ghastly can't speak french ends up getting hummed occasionally before I come to my senses).
Sadly the poor harmony and lack of hook here make this sound more like the awful sugababes than Girls Aloud.
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