When Sugababes (aka Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy) first emerged onto the music scene in 2000, they were hailed as hot new refreshing talent and gained instant credibility with the single "Overload". But, no matter how good their singles were, they never seemed to do fantastically chartwise and in what seemed like a matter of months they were dropped by their record label and found themselves losing one of their founder members Siobhan (who released a pretty decent solo album and then vanished).
Luckily, they managed to pick themselves back up, get a new bandmate in the form of Heidi Range (who'd allegedly been in Atomic Kitten before they'd got big) and get involved musically with uber-producer Richard X. With a new grown-up image and the fantastic track "Freak Like Me", there was no stopping them as they re-launched themselves on the chart. And their album "Angels With Dirty Faces" is still, in my opinion, their best.
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BEST TRACKS
"Freak Like Me"
This Richard x produced tune brought the 'Babes seemingly back from the dead and it's easy to see why. Mixing the lyrics of the classic Adina Howard track "Freak Like Me" with a Gary Numan
sample sounds like a risk, but it pays off and the track is fantastic, whether you want to dance to it, sing along, or just lie back and listen.
"Blue"
This song has a funky garage style beat, although the tune is probably a little too jittery to be able to dance to easily. I love this song as it is unbelievably catchy, particularly the chorus. The lyrics are fairly bitter - they seem to be dissing someone for being two faced and using them because of their fame. That's my interpretation of it anyway and I can identify with that - the two faced bit, not the being used for my fame bit!
"Round Round"
Used in the film "The Guru" a couple of years back, this is a very upbeat tune about having fun and not needing a man to do it. Towards the end of the song, it takes a serious turn and slows down drastically as Heidi sings
"Does it hurt when you see how I've done without you/ You thought that I couldn't belong"
before speeding back up into the chorus, implying that there's been heartache but they're over it.
"Stronger"
A ballad (argh!) but a very good one (high praise from me!) which the girls contributed to the writing of. The music is fairly simple but the lyrics are very powerful in my view - about overcoming the "trials and tribulations" in ones life and emerging a stronger person for it.
"Supernatural"
A jittery bouncy tune which has a slight American r & b vibe to it. The lyrics are slightly silly ("Supernatural/International/Unstoppable/That's Just how it goes/it's practical/it's actual/it's a fact that everybody wanna be loved") but its funky and an easy song to sing along to and enjoy.
"Angels with Dirty Faces"
Another fave of mine, this title track is very upbeat and sounds slightly eighties to me. It is about them not being as innocent as they look, how appearances can be deceptive.
"Cos this is driving me crazy, tell me what do you see, I'm not an innocent girl."
The chorus is great and the girls' voices blend together fantastically on it. The only downside is the rapped verse towards the end - don't try to be "street", girls! It doesn't work!!!
"Virgin Sexy"
In terms of musical style, this reminds me a lot of "Supernatural" and is about the contradictions of being innocent but not necessarily WANTING to be.
"All he sees is lust in his eyes . . . she ain't ready for the surprise (he just wanna get the job done) . . . heading straight for the danger zone (daddy wanna keep her ass home)"
I see it as trying to get across the message that Britney Spears tried to send in "I'm not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" but in a far less dull, far more funked-up sorta way!
"Shape"
Funnily enough, I've never heard the original Sting song that this track makes use of, but I really love this song. Strange how both the girls AND Craig David took parts of the same song and released their singles within a matter of weeks of one another - and while Craig managed number one, the Sugababes didn't even break the top ten (and they released it first!) It's a fairly slow tune although the girls sing fairly fast over the top of it at times, and it sounds fairly sad on the surface but the lyrics are about taking a stand and putting yourself first.
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If I had to sum up the genre of this album in one word I would have no choice but to say "pop". But it contains such a wide range of music, from r & b to garage to dance and more soulful tunes, that it is certainly at the more credible end of popular music. Considering the girls had a hand in co-writing a few of the tracks, and were only 16, 17 and 18 respectively at the time, I find the majority of the tracks fairly impressive. The girls have fantastic voices, particularly Keisha, and they all mesh so well together - I think, in terms of groups, they definitely have the best singing voices.
I own all three Sugababes albums and I definitely prefer this album over "One Touch" and "Three". It is, in my view, the catchiest, the most cohesive, and the one I can definitely still see myself playing in five years time.
The story of the Sugababes is a tale which might sound more appropriate to a band of ... more
leather-faced rock dinosaurs yetAngels With Dirty Facesis only the second album in their short career. Since dazzling the world with their anthem "Overload"; their fir...
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The story of the Sugababes is a tale which might sound more appropriate to a band of ... more
leather-faced rock dinosaurs yet Angels With Dirty Faces is only the second album in their short career. Since dazzling the world with their anthem "Overload"; their f...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
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