The one time I pick the generic buzzjack response, I'm in the minority :o Love Machine's getting a raw deal here, it's easily their best song!

 

I do love Call on Me as well though so not an injustice, though American Idiot indeed trumps (that pun seems appropriate) them both.

but the difference was huge, 68k vs 35k, was it really a chart battle?

how much did American Idiot do?

I guess I'm in the minority too - although that's nothing new :lol:

 

I'll confess here: the first time I heard 'Love Machine' I did think they'd lost the plot a bit, I can see why the girls themselves even thought that. But thank God Polydor pushed ahead for them to release it, because it was such a fine example of the work they did with Xenomania in that you never knew what to expect when they released a new single (scrap that, they released 'I'll Stand By You' after this. You never knew what to expect *most* of the time), and that the more you heard it, the more it grew on you, and especially after I saw the video and saw them perform it on TV that it clicked with me and it's one of my top 5 favourite singles of theirs. Also the dance routine caught on like wildfire, it did for them what 'Tragedy' did for Steps.

 

Interestingly, the same situation happened in reverse about four years later when they released 'The Promise' - they all wanted it as the first single but Polydor wanted them to release 'The Loving Kind' instead and said it was career suicide if they released 'The Promise' instead! I do remember as well they wore these dresses from the video to death for all the TV promo for this :lol:

 

 

As for Eric Prydz...honest to God one of the biggest examples of why what I was interested in music wise at this point was being blocked from or not getting anywhere near the top end of the charts. This had no business either blocking 'Love Machine' or being at number one for as long as it was. I'm sure it has it's fans but I'm not one of them. I hated that whole 'looping 80s samples' thing that was so big in dance music in the mid 00s, to me it was just lazy, and I especially didn't have time for dance music that relied solely on videos geared so unsubtly towards the FHM or slightly seedier market. I mean you could probably make that same argument about Girls Aloud's videos but I'd like to think when they were dressed a bit more suggestively it was more playful and done with humour - see 'The Show', also 'Wake Me Up'.

Edited September 19, 20195 yr by ThePensmith

I voted for the Girls as they are legit my fave thing about pop music to ever come out of the UK.

Having said that I do prefer Call On Me, it's top tier 00's dance.

Surprised at the love on here for American Idiot, I can't stand that song ;)

It's pretty close between the two of them for me but I went with 'Call On Me' in the end. An effortlessly fun and catchy dance song and I think I'd be more hyped for it on a night out than 'Love Machine' which called it for me, although I'd still go nuts if I heard 'Love Machine'. That's definitely become one of Girls Aloud's most signature songs. I always loved it as a kid and didn't really recognise that it had a quirky composition. It was only until I watched the documentary that Jade referred to that I realised it actually was quite odd that is essentially lots of different lines sung by each of them all put together. I can see why it did sound strange to them if they didn't know what the finished product would be. Love the dance routine, a staple at school discos and I would probably still recreate it if I heard it out now!