Standard
1. Intro
2. Models
3. Biology
4. Wild Horses
5. See the Day
6. Watch Me Go
7. Waiting
8. Whole Lotta History
9. Long Hot Summer
10. Swinging London Town
11. It's Magic
12. No Regrets
13. Racy Lacey
Deluxe Christmas Disc
1. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
2. I Wanna Kiss You So (Christmas In a Nutshell)
3. Jingle Bell Rock
4. Not Tonight Santa
5. White Christmas
6. Count the Days
7. Christmas Round at Ours
8. Merry Xmas Everybody
UK Stats
Peak Position: #11
Certification: Platinum
First Week Sales: 81,962 (Entry at #11)
Total Sales: 390,000 (Official figure from March 2013)
Best Sellers List: 74th (Albums in 2005)
Chart Weeks: 3wks (Top 20) | 5wks (Top 40) | 10wks (Top 75) | 33wks (Top 200)
UK Top 200 Chart Run [Peak Position: #11]
[1st Entry: 11/12/05] 11-20-17-29-39-56-55-77-98-127-145-123-133-66-61-71-97-137-128-101-139-162-186-Out
[2nd Entry: 16/07/06] 194-159-152-108-102-127-Out
[3rd Entry: 24/09/06] 81-97-90-121-Out
UK Top 50 Budget Chart Run [Peak Position: #36]
[Entry: 30/09/07] 36-43-39-Out
Ireland Top 75 Chart Run [Peak Position: #31]
[Entry: 09/12/05] 34-36-33-31-51-67-Out
Australia Hitseekers Top 20 Chart Run [Peak Position: #12]
[Entry: 05/03/06] 14-12-19-Out
European Top 100 Chart Run [Peak Position: #43]
[Entry: 11/12/05] 43-71-63-96-Out
Chemistry is the third studio album by Girls Aloud, containing the top 10 hits Long Hot Summer, Biology, See The Day and Whole Lotta History. The album CRIMINALLY peaked at #11, for which we can blame Sugababes and Pussycat Dolls for reducing their albums midweek Plus rubbish single choices for what many on here seem to consider as GA's second best album. It is 9 years old today, what is everyone's thoughts on it now?
Feel free to submit rates and reviews for the album in here, we'd all love to hear your thoughts on Chemistry on its 9th birthday!
Was the Christmas edition released simultaneously with the standard? If so, seems even more bizarre that "Not Tonight Santa" wasn't pushed as a single (especially as "See the Day - their worst ever single - was). Minus the latter, almost every song on the standard edition is amazing. I often overlook Chemistry in terms of my favourite albums of theirs but it's definitely up there!
Yup it was released the same day! Not Tonight Santa would've made a fantastic single See The Day still sounds very...odd....in the flow of the album, I think, doesn't quite fit in amongst the rest.
Can't believe it's been 9 years already! I remember going to HMV after school to get it
Will never forget the heartache when I found out it only charted at #11 It seemed such a disaster, even though the sales were fantastic. I think the albums chart performance and the fact none of its singles went top 3 (and only one went top 5!) that triggered them to do the first Greatest Hits, which was a good move in hindsight, but at the time I wanted a new studio album!
My Chemistry rate:
(Not rating Intro as to me it's just an extra bit to Models)
10 Models
10 Biology
11 Wild Horses
07 See The Day
10 Watch Me Go
09 Waiting
08 Whole Lotta History
08 Long Hot Summer
10 Swinging London Town
07 It's Magic
07 No Regrets
08 Racy Lacey
Yeah, they really picked the wrong singles! The b-sides were really strong this era too.
A wonderful album. I was also so disappointed when I saw that it had entered at #11, especially given that it started out being midweek #6. Sugababes & The Pussycat Dolls playing dirty and reducing their albums in price that week too.
I remember that the Christmas version of the album was expensive, £16.99. I do wonder if it'd been a bit cheaper whether their sales might have been higher.
Gosh it's so hard to choose between this and Tangled Up! Chemistry has the non-single "W" winners - Wild Horses, Watch Me Go and Waiting while Tangled Up is just a crazy quality ride.
Chemistry wins though as their tour DVD is so entertaining while TU tour was already tad polished and professional and therefore not as fun.
*AMAZING*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQIHKBxwJA
I bought the Christmas edition the week it was released, so many happy memories. In terms of the album tracks I utterly adore Models, Watch Me Go, Swinging London Town and It's Magic. 'No Regrets' is the only real skipper for me.
'Not Tonight Santa' is an utter gem, I do hear this around quite a lot to be fair. I also love the cheesy covers of the classics.
So yeah, a lot of good memories attached to this album. I too was really annoyed at it being #11, especially as it was just a whisker away from being #10!
Sales that week for the Top 10 & Girls Aloud at #11:
241382 Eminem (1)
132632 Robbie Williams (2)
124647 Westlife (3)
111666 Take That (4)
102947 Madonna (5)
101157 Il Divo (6)
94946 James Blunt (7)
91035 Sugababes (8)
83980 Kelly Clarkson (9)
82193 Pussycat Dolls (10)
81962 Girls Aloud (11)
Just 231 copies in it.
Absolutely incredible sales all round!
Interesting how Madonna almost sold MDNA's total in a week there as well.
I LOVE Chemistry, I think it was the last gift my gran gave me for Christmas before she passed away. I knew she had great taste!
Wild Horses remains my favourite Girls Aloud song
Watch Me Go is still my favourite from Chemisty. Cheryl's little rap
Onto 'Chemistry' we go (minus the Christmas disc x)... The singles are solid. I always forget 'Long Hot Summer' is the first single though It really feels like it was the last single from the era! But I find LHS quite underrated tbh. It's so fun. It's a bop! 'Biology' is still fantastic, even to this day. So brash and bold/like it's making a statement. The structure of the song is very unique! 'See The Day' is dull af. Not as monotonous as LGC but just as rubbish. Finally, 'Whole Lotta History'. Another one I find really underrated and I can't help but feel that if that was the Christmas/Winter ballad instead of 'See The Day' and then they pushed another song (that's not STD) in WLH place, it would've been more fondly thought of I think. Would have worked quite well.
My Ranking:
1. Biology
2. Models
3. Wild Horses
4. Whole Lotta History
5. Long Hot Summer
6. Swinging London Town
7. Racy Lacey
8. It's Magic
9. Waiting
10. Watch Me Go
11. No Regrets
12. See The Day
I removed 'Intro' from the ranking coz it's always weird to me if I rank them...
'Models' and 'Wild Horses' fit the sound that 'Biology' lends to the era very well I think. Just not as brash or daring as that, but still great songs in their own right. Idk why but I always remembered 'Watch Me Go' being better... oops. Although I don't dislike it, I always remembered 'Swinging London Town' being more of a highlight for me.. It's a v interesting track though.
It's a solid album and their best of the 3 so far. I know the fans absolutely love this album, but Idk what it is, but there's something that is missing that gives me that "I have to revisit this more than I do" feeling, if that makes sense. So I think that's why I never refer to it much when talking about Girl Group albums that I like. The top half of the album are great/very good though. The only song I really don't like is their cover of 'See The Day'. The other tracks are fine and work well within the album (I just dunno if I'd go back to them away from the album - unlike the top 6)!
Album Rankings:
01. Chemistry
02. What Will the Neighbours Say?
03. Sound of the Underground
Chemistry is by far by least fave album from them, it never really clicked with me.
Their best album and, obviously, the inspiration for me user name. This whole era just holds so many special memories for me, it was actually their first era as a fan that I could follow and stan for them (during the SOTU era they only released a few of the singles over here and during WWTNS? not much happened expect for a performance of Love Machine at a local awards show, but around summer 2005 I visited London for the first album and started to actively follow the UK pop scene).
I bought all of the CD2's editions of their singles, which were fab! LHM having the cocktail cards and obviously THAT Biology CD2 cover.
Looking back now, the singles campaign overall was a tad messy. Already starting with Long Hot Summer being their first single to miss the top 5, which was a real bummer as it was the lead single, and the total bizarre decision of releasing See The Day literally weeks after Biology. Who decided on that? Easily the most bland song on the album; there was no way this was going anywhere near Christmas #1 and if they really wanted a ballad to shift records during the Christmas rush, Whole Lotta History would have been more sense. Also not releasing Models, which screamed single release, while it was the theme tune for Off The Record was very interesting.
Biology was ofcourse a bloody fantastic choice and I still feel to this day that it's that song that give them the second part of their career. It was the song that made music critics and non-pop fans appreciate them and their music. Also one of the highlight of the album, and probably their career, for me. I still remember seeing the video for the first time and playing it on repeat and repeat. Or watching the Whole Lotta History, while being ill in bed, and just loving the mood and vibe. Album track wise I always loved the already mentioned Models, the three W's (Wild Horses, Watch Me Go, Waiting) and Swinging London Town.
The Christmas album was also a nice bonus, loved the artwork, and still listen to it every Christmas period and who can talk about this era without mentioning Off The Record? Nicola's impression of The Cheeky Song, Cheryl climbing the mountain, Nadine in the taxi in Greece- it's all so iconic and just showed them as the lovely, down to earth girls they are.
Chemistry was their least consistent release and a rad messy which reflects why it was their lowest charting album.
Girls Aloud - Chemistry (2005)
My rate : A (Wonderful)
Top 5 songs :
1. See The Day
2. Whole Lotta History
3. Models
4. Biology
5. Waiting
Did it miss the top 10 by much?
Long hot summer was a huge disappointment at the time I just found it forgettable, I like it more now but as lead it didnt work.
Christmas 2005 sales were huge. 'Chemistry' sold ~70k in week 2 at #20 and ~99k in week 3 at #17 too.
I love the 'Whole Lotta History' video too. It always makes me think of 'Off the Record' which shows them shooting - I particularly love Sarah saying something on the lines of "this deserves #1, Top 3 at least" and finding out it charted at #6! Very "B-list at Capital".
I underrated this album for a few years at first, partly due to the messy singles campaign I think. I didn't give the album a whole load of time for no particular reason, but around the time of Ten, I really started to appreciate how GREAT an album Chemistry is - their second best for me!
It's weird, the singles campaign doesn't feel remotely representative of the album. Long Hot Summer was more lukewarm to me for a loooong time, and I always considered it one of their lesser singles, but I know I enjoyed it at the time and I truly love it now - it's aged like fine wine and has had a very hard time over the years! Biology is of course a masterpiece, I find it a *tad* overrated but by that, I mean it'd probably be in my top 15 Girls Aloud singles rather than top 3 so still very high praise. I get why See the Day was a thing and it paid off somewhat for them I guess but it's a shame they didn't feel confident in trying an original ballad for Christmas instead! I agree it's probably not worth sacrificing the gorgeous WLH video we got in the end though speaking of WLH, it's a true gem for me, in their top 10 best! It's such a beauty and it gets soooo overlooked.
As for the album tracks, I agree with the consensus of Models, Swinging London Town and the 3 Ws of Wild Horses, Watch Me Go and Waiting being the highlights! Models strikes me as the missed single opportunity there. The final three album tracks are where the wheels come off a little but they're by no means bad. It's Magic and No Regrets are cute and Racy Lacey's a fun, energetic closer, but I wouldn't place any of those three above any song that came before.
Also: the Christmastry artwork is BEAUTIFUL! I wish the main cover was as inspired as that
1 Whole Lotta History
2 Biology
3 Long Hot Summer
4 Swinging London Town
5 Watch Me Go
6 Models
7 Wild Horses
8 Waiting
9 See the Day
10 Racy Lacey
11 It's Magic
12 No Regrets
Models was def the missed single opportunity in my opinion.
I was really pissed at the time when 'Whole Lotta History' was announced as the single instead of 'Models', but with hindsight I really would have preferred WLH being the Christmas single and 'Models' being the spring single with that same promo push.
Whole lotta history i think in general is probably one of their most forgotten or unknown singles.
Long Hot Summer was released 16 years ago today! It became their first single to miss the Top 5, an injustice x
Such a shame it missed the top 5 I absolutely love it! However that is from listening to Chemistry again and again at the time it did pass me by a little so I can understand why it did miss the top 5 at the time.
Chemistry though is SUCH an album! My favourite of the Girls Aloud albums but to this day I just do not understand why Models wasn't a single!!?!?!?
'Long Hot Summer' is a GA essential for me and so painfully underrated/underappreciated.
A bit random, but anyway. Does anyone have an album cover in VHQ?
I truly believe that it's their best album cover. Even though it looks rather simple, but girls are absolutely stunning on it. There's some magic in it's simplicity. I honestly think that it's iconic.
I was thinking to print it and put it on the wall.
I’ve always liked Biology. It was the reintroduction to them for me. It was the first thing of there’s I’d heard since Sound Of The Underground.
Released 16 years ago, 5th December 2005 This album deserved so much more than it got.
The original songs on the Christmas disc are so good too! Bish bash bong woo x
So I finally got around to listening to this for the first time.
It was good without working me. Biology and Whole Lotta History are not just my favourite single from the album but my favourite tracks as well. I also liked Wild Horses, Swinging London Town and No Regrets.
Racey Lacey sounded like it would’ve fitted perfectly on a Spice Girls album.
Has anyone been listening to the Christmas tracks recently? I've given them more attention than I usually do this year and I've underrated so many of them! Not Tonight Santa is a staple of my Christmas playlist but Christmas Round At Ours, Count the Days and I Wanna Kiss You So are fabulous too
Yes I'm particularly into Not Tonight Santa this year!
Today's date marks 17 years since the release of Chemistry
Chemistry was always their album that never fully clicked with me and still hasn't, i enjoy it slightly more now than i used to but its not an album i revisit much. I was really disappointed though it missed the top 10 as i didn't see that coming plus the album overall sold way less than what will the neighbours say so there was a bit of a worry that things may stay in the decline, thankfully that wasn't how it went and their album sales really increased again after this which was a great turn around.
I think it's probably my favourite album of theirs as a whole, tbh. So many gems on it. I think I'd rate everything except STD and 'No Regrets'.
I don't think I'll ever get over how it missed the top 10 so narrowly, but it still sold well. I did worry by the end of the era that they might be on shaky ground though, but with the GH and 'Something Kinda Ooooh' later in the year I was reassured they were back on top of their game.
Time to dig out the Christmas edition methinks!
The number 11 was a shock and also frustrating it was so close. The greatest hits success was a big surprise for me in a good way, i did think it might do well but not the level it achieved. Something kind Ooooh also came at the right time as i love the song and it was exactly what i wanted from them at that time and thankfully it did connect with people and did well for them and put them back at a level that was needed again.
The #11 peak will always hurt, especially with it being such a strong album. The singles run doesn't entirely do it justice either but I'm glad Long Hot Summer's had a re-evaluation of sorts in the last few years, really doesn't deserve to be seen as a disaster single choice. See the Day, though it was an airplay hit, probably could have been swapped out for one of the Christmas originals.
I think one of the christmas songs might have done better than see the day but that's my own opinion as I'm not a huge fan of see the day but it did do well on radio.
I wish they'd done 'Whole Lotta History' at Christmas, skipping 'See The Day' entirely and then 'Models' in March.
Chemistry is my favourite album by them I think! Not so sure on the singles run for it though I’d probably have gone
Models (over long hot summer even if I adore it I feel models would have clicked better)
Biology
I wanna kiss you so or Not tonight Santa
Whole lotta history
Long hot summer (if they decided to release one again towards the summer)
Models over Long Hot Summer could have worked better.
I know that bumping this thread could potentially give the impression that there's reissue news, but there isn't yet!
I was bored so I thought I'd have a go at creating what could be possible for a Chemistry reissue track list. When it eventually materialises I'll be interested to see how close or not I was.
Jay's Fantasy Chemistry Reissue
CD1
(The original 13 tracks)
CD2
1 New/Unreleased Track 1
2 New/Unreleased Track 2
3 New/Unreleased Track 3
4 Biology (Demo)
5 Long Hot Summer (Alternate Version 1)
6 Watch Me Go (Demo)
7 Nobody But You
8 I Don't Really Hate You
9 Crazy Fool
10 See the Day (Demo) *
11 Whole Lotta History (Demo II)
12 Long Hot Summer (Alternate Version 2)
13 Biology (CD:UK Edit)
14 See the Day (Ministry of Mayhem Edit)
15 Whole Lotta History (GMTV Edit)
16 Long Hot Summer (Top of the Pops Edit)
* I'd guess that this was the Nadine-only vocals version that was accidentally played on a radio station when See the Day was new. Also interestingly the https://forum.popjustice.com/threads/girls-aloud-what-will-the-neighbours-say-album-re-issues.6172/page-4290#post-9272049 teased See the Day Demo as being a part of the track list, but that evidently didn't end up being the case (same goes for Biology Demo!).
CD3
1 Biology (Tony Lamezma Radio Edit) [New/Unreleased Edit]
2 Whole Lotta History (Whole Lotta Lamezma Radio Edit) [New/Unreleased Edit]
3 Long Hot Summer (Tony Lamezma Rides Again Radio Edit) [New/Unreleased Edit]
4 See the Day (SOUNDHOUSE Masterblaster Radio Edit) [New/Unreleased Edit]
5 Biology (Benitez Beats)
6 Whole Lotta History (Ash Howes Mix)
7 Long Hot Summer (Benitez Beats)
8 See the Day (SOUNDHOUSE Masterblaster Mix)
9 Long Hot Summer (Tony Lamezma Rides Again)
10 Biology (Tony Lamezma Remix)
11 Whole Lotta History (Whole Lotta Lamezma Mix)
12 Biology (Live at Wembley)
13 Long Hot Summer (Live at G-A-Y)
14 Whole Lotta History (Acoustic Version)
I went on the premise of the Christmas tracks being excluded, but being released as its own separate vinyl using the Christmas Hits artwork!
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