- Label
- Fascination
- Release date
- 3rd November 2008
- Genre
- Pop
- Buy this album
- Order CD
Tabloid-friendly pop princesses start to yield diminishing returns
Girls Aloud have long been the exception to the rule that nothing good ever came out of TV talent contests. Six years have passed since they demolished One True Voice (of whom we oddly hear so little nowadays), during which they have become a tabloid fixture, released a string of largely fun albums and enjoyed comfortably more musical highs than lows. Yet Out Of Control hints that the Girls, at exactly the same time as their main rivals Sugababes, may be running out of steam.
Out Of Control is no disgrace but nor is it the anticipated panoply of pop delights. Loving Kind, co-written by the Pet Shop Boys, is just about as good as that pedigree would imply, and Miss You Bow Bow is their most endearingly wonky and skew-whiff offering in years, but too many sleekly buffed electro-tracks zip by and are forgotten almost before they end. Girls Aloud's appeal has always been that their pop alchemy appears utterly effortless, but this time around they are straining and trying that little bit too hard.
Also to try: Sugababes: Taller In More Ways B*Witched: B*Witched Spice Girls: Forever
