CD: Girls Aloud: Sound of the Underground (original) (raw)

Girls Aloud's debut single, now the title track of their album, proved a first: it was a reality pop record that didn't make you want to do physical harm to everyone involved in its manufacture. Sound of the Underground featured Fatboy Slim dynamics and an irresistible chorus.

Dribbly ballads and woeful rapping aside, the album is similarly jolly, laden with spiky guitars, zippy beats and lyrics curiously insistent upon Girls Aloud's musical credibility and autonomy of thought: apparently, they "don't need no good advice".

Frankly, even their tiniest fan knows Girls Aloud are no more the sound of the underground than they are the sound of 12th-century liturgical plainchant, and that their every waking hour is spent receiving advice from managers, PRs, stylists etc. So it's hard to hear this stuff without picturing the lyricist winking at you and tapping the side of their nose - but that rather adds to the fun.