Today I bring you a guest post from the lovely Olivia, she blogs over at Olivia Curls - all about her thoughts, fashion and also posts album reviews which are amazing! One thing that both myself and Olivia have in common is our love of girl bands, so when I asked her to guest post for me; she came up with a guide to the albums from Girls Aloud (i love them and so does she, perfect right?) Enjoy!
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Girls Aloud, famous for being the most successful reality TV band ever, shook the charts for seven consecutive years, racking up 23 top ten singles, some fabulous, some damn well cheesy. Fast forward to 2013, their reunion tour became one of the most anticipated events in the pop calendar and grossed a sweet £7.8 million from 20 shows. Featuring at least one track from all 5 albums, the tour was hailed a success by critics. But what's a critics opinion to a fan? Does the rating in NME matter to a fan? Here's my review of the best (and worst) Girls Aloud singles from a honest fangirl's point of view.
Their first album, Sound Of The Underground, opens with the title track, a fast, upbeat yet cool and collected debut single which deserved its Christmas number one spot in 2002. The album on the other hand is a scrambled mess with only a few tracks worth listening to, one of those being Life Got Cold. I hated this ballad till the final tour, where I realised its true beauty and found that you needed a teenage mindset to understand the true underlying message within it. All I Need is a S Club rip off and I'm sure it samples one of their album tracks, while Boogie Down Love and Girls Allowed are fun filled 90's infused records that would probably have got the party started back in '02. The rest aren't worth a listen at all.
Their second album, What Will The Neighbours Say? features the cheesy as hell Love Machine, a cover of I'll Stand By You and a weird ass track namedThank Me Daddy which features the lyrics "listen to the noise that I'm making, not the boys on my answer phone." Lyrical geniuses here. *rolls eyes* However, the tracks Real Life, Graffiti My Soul and Here We Go, a cover of the Totally Spies theme song, are little gems that I love.
Chemistry on the other hand, the girls' third album, is absolutely fabulous. It's the best Girls Aloud album out there, which is surprising as it didn't sell too well in the charts. Released in 2006, there is only two songs on the whole disk that I don't like and skip within moments of the opening bars beginning, which are It's Magic and No Regrets. The seventh track on the album, Waiting was such a fan fave that it was featured on the girls' Out Of Control tour three years later as a bonus. It's not swing and it would be offensive to say that it was but it's one of those songs you swing along to the second you listen, alongside Wild Horses which prompts the same feelings within me.
Tangled Up, album number four, saw the girls become more electro than pure pop which alienated some fans but I adored it. The lead single Sexy No No No was fab, Call The Shots was in the charts for months. I personally adored Blackjacks as a child but find it cheesy and repetitive as an adult, but I've got a renewed love for Close To Love and Crocodile Tears, the latter being the finishing track of the record and an electro infused ballad.
Their final and most successful album, Out Of Control, is surprisingly not my favourite. Though I adored and still adore The Promise, the first release from the album, the rest of the album falls flat for me. Fix Me Up and Turn To Stone are skippable, and the only gems from the album come from the beautifulRolling Back The Rivers In Time and Miss You Bow Wow which is as fun and ridiculous as it sounds.
What did you think of Girls Aloud?
Thank you Olivia, for this amazing post! Be sure to check her blog out!!
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