'Tangled Up' by Girls Aloud
Trotter’s Top Ten position : 6 in 2007
UK Chart high : 4 in 2007
For some years now I've been looking out for the perfect pop album. For some reason no-one's ever really given this a serious try, content to pad their manufactured poppet's record with filler around a few hit singles leading to major disappointment and one justification for buying tracks individually on iTunes (or singles at Woolies in the good (?) old days). Well, Xenomania and their (co-opted) reality-tv assembled hybrid of Spice Girls and All Saints just about cracked it with 'Tangled Up' after a couple of admirable attempts with previous releases that fell down on 'sumptuous' Mariah-lite balladry and rip-out your ear-drum ill-advised cover versions ('Jump'? Yes, off a cliff, after hearing that monstrosity thanks). Mercifully 'Tangled Up' just goes for the jugular, 12 stomping singles-in-waiting and not a cover in sight. Granted they can't help sneaking in a ballad at the last, but mercifully you don't even have to hit 'skip' just 'off'. So, while Girls Aloud's inclusion in this countdown is the traditional Trotter's Mariah Carey Moment (tm), their album consists of anything but. I've given far too much thought to pop music over the years, but do think pop can be a science, that you can craft the perfect pop moments by using the right ingredients in the right recipe. Xenomania's factory-line approach to assembling a pop record (several writers coming up with snippets to be melded into one tune) coupled with the public selection of the nation's favourite girl group is as good an example of this you're ever likely to get. Similarly there's a bell curve charting any pop group's popularity and cool/kitsch factor, where they rise in popularity and potentially pick up indie-cred along the way but then either lose their fan base or their (non)ironic element by starting to take themselves far too seriously. GA are probably on the wrong end of the curve right now, but here they were standing proudly at the top laughing at the many different versions of the Sugababes below them. All of which is pretentious fancy-talk for 'bloody fine pop album from start to finish'. Not only that, but they very cleverly and gently push the boundaries of what you can get away with on a pop album - one that gets better with repeated listens, no photos on the cover, pounding dance backing on 'Sexy No, No, No' (and ridiculous song titles also demonstrated), dancehall - and suspect lyrics - on 'Control of the Knife', sheer genius on 'Call the Shots' which should be in anyone's Noughties singles countdown and the musical equivalent of an all-conquering computer virus that is 3:45 minutes of 'Damn'. We'll return to the usual indie/rock gubbins with the next entry. Oh, and Cheryl's album was Number 51 by the way ;)
Look at Call the Shots ; Can't Speak French ; Sexy No No No
Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version
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