Girls Aloud - Tangled Up

When reviewing the new Girls Aloud album, it's hard not to refer to their cheerleader-in-chief in the music press, Alexis Petridis. He's spent the last few years telling anyone who will listen that they are the most thrilling and original force working in music today, reviewing their albums with the kind of drooling praise most critics usually reserve for something more austere, like Arcade Fire or Radiohead. He even seems to prefer them to Busted, which is saying something. However, in his review of Tangled Up, he does go a bit too far when discussing non-believers: "Only the cloth-eared and inoperably snobbish seem immune to their charms," he says, going on to claim: "Frankly, the sort of person who claims they find nothing to love here is like the sort of person who claims to hate the Beatles: they're either posturing or they're an idiot." It's a bit much to say someone is an idiot for not liking a certain band or album, particularly one that will sell as many copies as this will, as not everyone likes everything, we're all entitled to our opinions and I certainly wouldn't count myself as an idiot for not liking Neon Bible very much. However, while Petridis goes too far, it is hard to see what anyone could dislike about Tangled Up. Girls Aloud may be a band put together by an evil TV show, but they have grown from that remarkably well and most importantly, found themselves a crack team of writers and producers who just keep on churning out great pop songs. What really helps Tangled Up when compared to the recent Sugababes album is that there is a real consistency when it comes to the writing and production, as it's almost all done by the same people, rather than a whole host of cliched big names putting their mark on a track or two each. With Xenomania at the helm again, it's sometimes tempting to wonder exactly what Girls Aloud themselves do, as none of them have particularly great voices and all sound pretty interchangeable, but it would churlish to suggest that they have no input at all other than turning up to sing. After all, that's officially what Frank Sinatra and Elvis did, and we never hold it against either of them, do we? Along with the consistency of creative staff, Tangled Up really benefits from the decision to avoid the two pitfalls of Girls Aloud's career so far, namely ballads and cover versions. Frankly, they're not very good at either of them, and their worst singles have always come from those directions, so it's a great relief to hear none of that cliched nonsense here. Instead, they've delivered 13 fantastic pop songs, from first single Sexy! No No No... (which thankfully is the only gibberish track here) to the classy upcoming new release Call The Shots, which kicks things off in a very mature way and almost sounds more like Sugababes than anything off their new album. But the singles don't really stand out that much because the rest of the material is so strong, even when they are pointedly borrowing themes from other people's chart hits, like Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend on the stompy and excellent Black Jacks and Lily Allen on the reggae-lite bounce of Control Of The Knife. There just aren't any weak links on Tangled Up, it's all amazingly catchy and well-produced 21st century pop music with the odd hint of the 80s thrown in, and the closest it gets to a soppy ballad is the Kylie-esque closer Crocodile Tears, but even that is so well put-together that it completely avoids being another I'll Stand By You or See The Day. With the Spice Girls releasing their new single and set to start touring again, Girls Aloud have proved that they are still top dogs in the girl band genre with this album, which is much more cohesive and impressive than anything the Spices ever released as well as better than what their chief modern rivals have managed. I won't go as far as Petridis in branding you an idiot if you don't like this, but what I will say is that you won't find many more consistently great albums released this year and if you've resisted the temptation to give Girls Aloud a proper chance before, maybe now is the time to check them out, because they've never sounded better.

Fron Male Voice Choir - Voices Of The Valley Encore

The Fron Male Voice Choir was formed in the small Welsh village of Froncysllyte (wonder why they abbreviated it...) in 1946 and sixty years later released the fastest-selling classical record of all time. That might not make them sound much like an overnight success, but in terms of their career as recording artists, it has been a rapid rise to fame for them, and they'll hope that it continues with Voices Of The Valley Encore, which is a very appropriate title for a follow-up album that replicates the formula of the first one almost completely. There's a mixture of pop songs and classical tunes for the 60-strong choir with an average age of 60 to run through, and the results are just as mixed as they were the first time out. The problem with this concept is that you just cannot replicate the sound of a mass male voice choir on CD successfully, and songs that might sound awe-inspiring when listening to them perform live can sound flat and rather dull on record. It doesn't help that their deep and booming voices mean that it all sounds a bit too samey and can come across as a bit of a dirge. When it works, it does work very well, and the Elvis classic Can't Help Falling In Love is beautifully reworked, but Bridge Over Troubled Water never really comes to life the way it should do. It's this inability to change gears that stops Voices Of The Valley Encore from being as special as music like this should be, and while they sound much more comfortable on tracks like the stirring Battle Hymn of The Republic and Amazing Grace, this is still an album that fails to capture the magic of choral music. Throwing in the pop songs for crossover appeal will probably work again, but if you really want to hear modern music done like this, then Gregorian do it with much more gusto and excitement. The Fron Male Voice Choir are clearly no one hit wonders and Voices Of The Valley Encore has been perfectly timed for Christmas so that all the people who enjoyed the album last year can have the sequel this year, but that doesn't stop it from being a bit of a disappointment.