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Lewis!

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  1. Edit Damn lyrics to follow
  2. I'm Falling when i was young i wanted to be a punk rocka but everybody said no and i was sure that if i ever had a shocka the sames old folks would say go it wasn't for lack of passion, a singular fashion that led me to go but then i'll always be your twisted little sista and all the rest can go blow i'm falling, i'll hit the floor running keep calling, i feel my heart drumming i'm falling, i'll hit the floor running cos this time this time i'm doin ok i need some va va voom to get me out of this room its gotten small for me i'm burning bright as hell so honey wish me well cos now i'm running free when i was young i wanted to be a punk rocka but everybody said no and i was sure that if i ever had a shocka the same old folks would say go it wasn't for lack of passion, a singular fashion that led me to go but then i'll always be your twisted little sista and all the rest can go blow i'm falling, i'll hit the floor running keep calling, i feel my heart drumming i'm falling, i'll hit the floor running cos this time this time i'm doin ok i need some va va voom to get me out of this room its gotten small for me i'm burning bright as hell so honey wish me well cos now i'm running free
  3. What You Crying For Stone, broke, it's all just a joke Your burning all your money and your breathing your smoke Your eyes shine The one that decline But only cuz you've crossed the line Sink, swim Oh where to begin? Your never gonna get it Coz you always give in Your smooth, fair, and out on the edge So when you gonna put your devils to bed? Boy! What you looking for? When the worlds in the palm of your hand. And whats the crying for? About the rules in your life that you never had So don't justify Your so broke inside Your running like a blind man With your hand on your heart Swearing never again No, Shame You did it again Your take my umbrella while I stand in the rain The last time, I give your mine You knew it when you crossed the line Sink, swim Oh where to begin? Your never gonna get it Coz you always give in Your smooth, fair, and out on the edge So when you gonna put your devils to bed? Boy! What you looking for? When the worlds in the palm of your hand. And whats the crying for? About the rules in your life that you never had So don't justify Your so broke inside Your running like a blind man With your hand on your heart Swearing never again You don't care It's cold out there You don't mind Anytime You don't care It's cold out there You don't mind Anytime What you looking for? When the worlds in the palm of your hand. And whats the crying for? About the rules in your life that you never had So don't justify Your so broke inside Your running like a blind man With your hand on your heart Swearing never again Boy! What you looking for? When the worlds in the palm of your hand. And whats the crying for? About the rules in your life that you never had So don't justify Your so broke inside Your running like a blind man With your hand on your heart Swearing never again
  4. Fling It's just a fling baby, fling baby Nothing more than a fling baby, fling baby Just a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby Dont want relationships so swing baby, swing baby It's just a... It's just a fling baby, fling baby Nothing more than a fling baby, fling baby Just a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby Dont want relationships so swing baby, swing baby It's just a... It's just a fling baby, fling baby Nothing more than a fling baby, fling baby Just a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby Dont want relationships so swing baby, swing baby It's just a... Who's that hottie over there? Big bad boy with big bad hair I can feel instinctively, He'll be riding up on me Who's that with that big fat game? Come get me love, come keep me sane But don't be getting soft on me Just give me something casually So come closer to me, cause I want to feel the heat You're fine and thats okay It's all that you need to be It's just a fling baby, fling baby Nothing more than a fling baby, fling baby Just a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby Dont want relationships so swing baby, swing baby It's just a... It's just a fling baby, fling baby Nothing more than a fling baby, fling baby Just a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby Dont want relationships so swing baby, swing baby It's just a... Who's that hottie in the dark? Body like a work of art Feel your eyes undressing me Strip me of my modesty Hey you with that sexy smile Come give me loving, kinky style But don't be talking love and things Cause baby, I ain't listening So come closer to me, cause I want to feel the heat You're fine and thats okay Thats all that you need to be It's just a fling baby, fling baby Nothing more than a fling baby, fling baby Just a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby Dont want relationships so swing baby, swing baby It's just a... It's just a fling baby, fling baby Nothing more than a fling baby, fling baby Just a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby Dont want relationships so swing baby, swing baby It's just a...
  5. Edit Control of the Knife lyrics to follow
  6. Black Jacks Oh… there’s something that I want to say to you And jumping in your face just wouldn’t do Its summer and the sun don’t bake And sure if crazy’s what you feel then tell us so There’s something on your plate still getting cold Well ain’t that just a crying shame It’s hard having fun when you can’t see the sun anymore Wasting my time and I see when you’re following me to the door It’s hard having fun when you can’t see the sun anyway Wasting my time and I see when you’re following me all the way There’s Black Jacks running down my back and I say stop Coz I love you baby Fine, hard and blue with you (?) When I’m down and nasty Black Jacks running down my back and I say stop Coz I love you baby Fine, hard and blue with you (?) Coz you drive me crazy New York’s knocking Come and get stuck in Won’t you come rocking Coz I gotta feel, When your beep beeps get it Crazy don’t sweat it Honey just forget it If you keep to real There’s Black Jacks running down my back and I say stop Coz I love you baby Fine, hard and blue with you (?) When I’m down and nasty Black Jacks running down my back and I say stop Coz I love you baby Fine, hard and blue with you (?) Coz you drive me crazy Ooowah… oowaah yeah Ooh… ooh… ooh Ooowah… oowaah yeah Did ya, didn’t ya know Getting into the boat These boots are making me slow Ain’t you going to fast The future’s set in the past Keep on telling me so Did ya, didn’t ya know Getting into the boat These boots are making me slow Ain’t you going too fast The future’s set in the past Keep on telling me so There’s Black Jacks running down my back and I say stop Coz I love you baby Fine, hard and blue with you (?) When I’m down and nasty Black Jacks running down my back and I say stop Coz I love you baby Fine, hard and blue with you (?) Coz you drive me crazy I said stop Oo-oa-Oa-oh. Oh! Oa-oa-oa-oa-oa-Oh!
  7. Can't Speak French I've wa-aited here underneath the covers all ni-ee-ight beside you And who could ever question any cryin' I do? My heavy heart is beating out of rhythm all ni-ee-ight inside me And I fall a little harder everytime that I do Watch me living it up You totally Got me stuck in a rut You're made for me How'm I gonna step up And say to you I got the feeling, boy, I want you, want you The conversation is tough Because you're totally Walking round all the stuff You wanna say to me Words are never enough Oh baby baby, you turn my dust to gold I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking talking now Oh, I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking, oh oh oh I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking talking now Oh, I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking, oh oh oh I gotta let you know I wanna give into my temptation And let my feelings show I gotta let you know-oh-oh-oh I gotta let you know I wanna give into my temptation And let my feelings show I gotta let you know-oh-oh-oh Ohhh, ooh! I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking talking now Oh, I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking, oh oh oh I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking talking now Oh, I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking, oh oh oh I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking talking now Oh, I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking, oh oh oh I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking talking now Oh, I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking, oh oh oh
  8. Girl Overboard no doubt about it no doubt about it tumbled tumbled no doubt about it no doubt about it tumbled tumbled you know me babe, I love the good living give me something I can stick–stick in you give the girl another hit, honey you keep me waiting and I'll keep running, now can’t turn around, just do one out is there any light on the way home somewhere alone, I played it wrong fell into a world so far from home girl overboard I thought I had it but I stumbled and I thought I’d last forever oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I tumbled And I saw no doubt about it oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I stumbled and I thought I’d last forever oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I tumbled And I saw no doubt about it oh You know me babe, I used to feel so lucky Until karma came a knock-knocking One little slip and I hit rock bottom Life is waiting but I'm not stopping' no can’t turn around, just do one out is there any light on the way home somewhere alone, I played it wrong fell into a world so far from home girl overboard I thought I had it but I stumbled and I thought I’d last forever oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I tumbled And I saw no doubt about it oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I stumbled and I thought I’d last forever oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I tumbled And I saw no doubt about it oh no doubt about it no doubt about it tumbled tumbled no doubt about it no doubt about it tumbled tumbled can’t turn around, just do one out is there any light on the way home somewhere alone, I played it wrong fell into a world so far from home girl overboard I thought I had it but I stumbled and I thought I’d last forever oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I tumbled And I saw no doubt about it oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I stumbled and I thought I’d last forever oh girl overboard I thought I had it but I tumbled And I saw no doubt about it oh no doubt about it no doubt about it tumbled tumbled no doubt about it no doubt about it tumbled tumbled
  9. Sexy! No, No, No Cos I've been sitting back, no chance of falling, hoping that nothing ever blows (no no) Boy, did you ever think that loving would be nothing more than walking me home? (no no) Cos I've been sitting back, no chance of falling, hoping that nothing ever blows (yeah yeah) Boy, did you ever think that loving would be nothing more than walking me home? (no no) Did you tell him? No, no, no Give him kisses? No, no, no Whisper honey? No, no, no You're delicious? Hell no! Were you dancing? No, no, no Sweet as toffee? No, no, no You get his number? No, no, no Get him out for coffee? Hell yeah! Did you tell him? No, no, no Give him kisses? No, no, no Whisper honey? No, no, no You're delicious? Hell no! Were you dancing? (Wo-oooh-oooh) No, no, no Sweet as toffee? No, no, no You get his number? (Wo-oooh-oooh) No, no, no Get him out for coffee? Hell yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah [Repeat x3] I can't deny no way my d-d-dirty mind is saying Lover, come and get me, get me But for a while I dopped that d-d-dirty style and I discovered That it's sexy, sexy But you're knock knock knocking again, boy Woah oh, good aint good enough, gonna keep you waiting Knock knock knocking again, boy Woah oh, get your sugar rush and do a little chasing Did you tell him? No, no, no Give him kisses? No, no, no Whisper honey? No, no, no You're delicious? Hell no! Were you dancing? No, no, no Sweet as toffee? No, no, no You get his number? No, no, no Get him out for coffee? Hell yeah! From top to bottom, I'm a woman sunshine (No, no, no) (Whisper honey? No, no, no) (You're delicious) Ain't no damn reason you'll be leaving my side (You get his number? No, no, no) (Get him out for coffee?) I give you nothing 'til you show me something, something (No no no) Something Cos damn good loving's what I''m really wanting, wanting, wanting (Get him out for coffee) Hell yeah! Woo-ooh-ooh Woo-ooh-ooh I can't deny no way my d-d-dirty mind is saying Lover, come and get me, get me But for a while I dropped that d-d-dirty style and I discovered That it's sexy, sexy [Repeat] Sexy, sexy Woo-ooh-oo-ooh [Repeat x2]
  10. EDIT Close To Love Lyrics to Follow
  11. Call The Shots Verse 1 Standard tone on the phone, ill be breaking again, Must be something there that played. All the names that you called out of bed seem to fade, To sometime never gained. Bridge I won't cry for all the hunger in my heart, noo I wont cry because i've made it though this far... Chrous Just cause you're raising the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh Just cause you're rasing the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh Verse 2 Out of the fire that burns inside me, A phoneix is rising, If you dont feel that you can love me, I won't shoot you down, Bridge I won't cry for all the hunger in my heart, noo, and I wont cry becasue i've stumbled through this far... Chorus Just cause you're raising the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh Just cause you're rasing the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh Ive seen light burn bright, seen it shimmer (seen it shimmer) A faint light starlight to a glimmer (to a glimmer) Ive seen light flow by like a river (like a river) So full of twilight, dreams that glitter (like a glitter) Chrous x2 Just cause you're raising the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh Just cause you're rasing the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh Just cause you're raising the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh Just cause you're rasing the bet and call the shots nowowow on me, oooh It really doesn't faze me how you spend your time, oooh
  12. I went for Fling but I also love Girl Overboard
  13. lol wat two? , kimba and cheryl would be the best two!
  14. Lewis! posted a post in a topic in Girls Aloud's Girls Aloud
    UPDATED! LETS TRY FOR TOP 10 THIS WEEK GUYS :P
  15. Whats your favourite track on the amazing album that is "Tangled Up"! I know tough decision isnt it!
  16. Whats your least favourite song on this amazing album?
  17. The Sun DO we really care about the new Spice Girls single or reunion tour? No, not when Girls Aloud are still around. The fact they are still at the top of their game with a fifth album puts the Spices, who only did two decent albums, to shame. As always they team up with pop masterminds Xenomania but this time the result is a more ballsy sound. Call The Shots has an addictive chorus. Girl Overboard retains the same clubby vibe and the thumping Black Jacks is melodic magic. Control Of The Knife is a feisty two-finger salute to rubbish blokes. Long may they reign!JS
  18. Time Out In their five-year, multi million-selling career, Girls Aloud have pulled off (so to speak) a pretty mean feat: namely, that they straddle two wildly different camps of what is considered ‘cool’. Girls Aloud are equally adored by the Primark-buying, ringtone-downloading, Ant ’n’ Dec watching general public, as they are by high-falutin’, long-word-wielding, ‘high-brow’ critics. My, what magic it is they weave. And fifth album, ‘Tangled Up’, is sure to be no exception. It’s produced by the British production team Xenomania (who have masterminded all of GA’s LPs, as well as Cher’s ‘Believe’), whose name apparently means ‘an openness and a love of all cultures and influences’. Here, that means that you get an eye-watering array of genres cleverly thrown into the mix, from the clingfilm-flimsy reggae of ‘Control Of The Knife’, to the trebly drum ’n’ bass of ‘What You Crying For’, up to the fuzzy, modern-Motown strut of ‘Can’t Speak French’. For the music nerd, it’s a knickerbocker glory of a treat, with cherries and nuts on top. And then – for the pissed-up girls roaming city streets coatless and shag-hungry on a Saturday night, there is ‘Fling’ – a rock-riffed call-to-arms which features the righteously squawked chorus, ‘It’s just a fling baby, a bit of ding-a-ling baby, bling baby’. Video-gaming, porn-downloading teenage boys will go for ‘I’m Falling’ with its aggro, ‘Smack My b**ch Up’-style tech-pop and processed coos and squeals. Fun for everyone then? Not exactly. The tunes are there, certainly: the Girls’ seventeenth single-in-waiting, ‘Call The Shots’, is a magnificent piece of melancholy gym pop and ‘Black Jacks’ is sublimely melodic. But there’s one thing the album falls short on, and that’s a sense of the girls themselves actually having fun; or indeed feeling anything at all. Aesthetically, their voices blend fine, but it’s hard to find any real character; a rasp, a gasp, a laugh, even. Like their (deliberately) robotic dance moves, there isn’t a lot of Girls Aloud that comes across as human or red-blooded (unlike the distinctly muscular, lip-smacking Britney album). In this respect, Girls Aloud are the aural equivalent of the perfect murder, leaving behind no trace that ever they were there. 3/6
  19. stv.tv By Oliver Gaywood Recently, I received the best parcel of my stv career. Inside was a copy of Girls Aloud's fourth studio album, Tangled Up. Although the first two singles haven't set my ears alight, there's always something special hidden in a GA album that made me extremely excited – for anyone who hasn't heard You Freak Me Out, Wild Horses or, most importantly, Graffiti My Soul get yourself down to iTunes now. Call The Shots comes up first but I don't want to listen to that right now so it's straight on to the new stuff, Close To Love, which is the real opener of the album. Hectic and fast paced, it seems Xenomania have opted to go with the Something Kinda Ooooh style for this album which is an amazing idea. Sexy! No No No… had already hinted at this and Girl Overboard, although more melodic, does nothing to try to persuade me otherwise, keeping the same style as high-tempo electro pop rules supreme. It's not until the bass-heavy Can't Speak French, with the sizzling line of “I can't speak French so I let the funky music do the talking, talking”, that something different happens, something special happens. Rather than the futuristic sound often associated with Girls Aloud, this comes across more like an updated Bananarama track (when the band were at their peak in the 80s rather than the recent shambles of a reunion). Round about now would be a good time to remind everyone that this album has no covers (none, zero, nil, nada) and after past attempts – such as the bland version of Girls On Film (Duran Duran), the dreary Deadlines and Diets (Moonbaby), or the worst-song-ever-recorded-by-Girls-Aloud-and-that's-including- All-I-Need-(All-I-Don't) See The Day (Dee C. Lee) – this can only be regarded as a positive thing. Also, there's nothing that can be regarded as a proper ballad which means there's no need to skip through anything slow as you play Tangled Up to get you geared up for a night out. Although Can't Speak French is definitely up there, the stand out track on first listen appears to be Damn (“She said ‘Damn! I lost my number and I lost my head, baby.'”) which is nothing more than three minutes forty-five of outstanding pop. At the moment, I'd say Tangled Up is better than Chemistry but not up to the standard of What Will The Neighbours Say?. If a new band had come out with an album of this quality I would be raving about it, but because of Girls Aloud's brilliance in the past I expect nothing but the best from them. Paul Gallagher's going to give this album a proper review sometime soon and if he gives it any less than 12 stars he's a fool. Also... If you're looking for a ballad along the lines of I'll Stand By You or Forever And A Night , there's nothing on here like that. Black Jacks starts a bit like a ballad, but its chorus picks up and when they start screaming “New York nothing, come and get stuck in, won't you come rocking?” it all gets a bit too mental to be a ballad. If you came into a room where someone was listening to this after about a minute of the track you'd never call it a ballad. Fling (“Nothing more than a fling, baby, fling, baby. A bit of ding-a-ling, baby, bling, baby”) can be a bit hit or miss (think Money ) but it'll be mindblowing played full blast / in a club. Crocodile Tears , which is about the same tempo as Call The Shots , is probably my least favourite on the album. I'm Falling ("When I was young I wanted to be a punk rocker, but they said 'No!'") is the Sarah-friendly track whilst Control The Knife has the same sort of vibe as Watch Me Go and makes use of Sexy! No No No… 's vocoder. Lyrically, Close To Love is sublime. If you're wondering, this is the song that the album takes its title from.
  20. Popjustice 1. This is the sleeve for the promo --> 2. 'Girl Overboard' is a massive Euro rave-up extravaganza and should be a single unless there is a tragic event involving a girl falling off a boat or maybe if there is some sort of real-life version of the hilarious Goldie Hawn film 'Overboard' in which Goldie Hawn actually died instead of just amusingly lost her memory because then Radio One wouldn't play it due to 'concerns over the public mood etc'. 3. Every time it's been on in the office 'Sexy! No No No...' has been mercilessly skipped and after we'd finished listening to it the first time there was literally an argument over which song we'd listen to again first. 4. 'Fling' is sort of like 'Wake Me Up' from the year 2012. 5. There are NO BALLADS and NO COVERS. 6. "I can't speak French, so I let the funky music do the talking, talking now." That is a good lyric. 7. We've listened to it 180 times and it's only been in the office since 9am. 8. It's the best Girls Aloud album of all time and is better than the Sugababes, Kylie and Britney albums although we've just done a review for someone giving the Britney album 5/5 so we suppose that probably makes 'Tangled Up' a 6/5 album. Which our calculator tells us is 1.2. Which is 120%. "They've really given it 120%" etc etc. 9. It's out at some point in November and would make the ideal Christmas present for someone who likes amazing pop music. 10. There you go. 6/5
  21. NME Breakbeat symphonies, new rave ballads, clubbing nightmares - yes, Girls Aloud's career has been marked by genre-hopping, and lots and lots of fake tan. The magic dust they sprinkled on the Top 40 has now fallen into the fabric of music and 'Tangled Up' will continue the trend. Highlights 'Fling' and 'Can't Speak French' are unbeatable future pop hits 7/10
  22. Guardian On Girls Aloud's official website, a fan recently asked Cheryl Cole if she had ever considered an alternative career. Apparently so. Had fate not intervened in the young Geordie's life, and transformed her into the kind of pop star that Viz comic might have invented - impossibly beautiful, implausibly foul-mouthed - she was all set to become an embalmer. "I would have liked to have put makeup on dead people," she said, "because when I went to see my granddad who had died, they did a really bad job on him and I was only 14 and that made me want to do a better job for other people." Pop music's gain, it seems, was the mortuary slab's loss. Quotes like that offer a salutary reminder of Girls Aloud's uniqueness. The current singles chart rather belies the notion that pop is mouldering in its grave - half the Top 10 is composed of manufactured pop acts - but Girls Aloud remain a manufactured pop band like no other, and not merely because one of their number abandoned her teenage dreams of putting makeup on dead people in order to join up. They have attained a remarkable blanket approval. Only the cloth-eared and inoperably snobbish seem immune to their charms. Tiny children scream at them; OK! and Heat magazine pursue them; the Arctic Monkeys declared them "the best"; Franz Ferdinand have borrowed their production team, Xenomania, to work on their next album. Ken Livingstone apparently believed they could improve diplomatic relations between Britain and China, which even their most ardent fan might consider is investing Something Kinda Ooooh with powers slightly beyond its facility. There is no talk of guilty pleasures or so-bad-it's-good about their records. Girls Aloud currently find themselves in a difficult position not because their fickle weenyboppers have deserted them, or adverse publicity has dented their image, but because they and Xenomania have to follow up 2005's Chemistry, a concept album about celebrity that set boggling new standards for daring in contemporary pop. It's a tough call, and Tangled Up's pre-emptive singles have augured ill. Sexy No No No is nothing if not bracing, but someone carelessly forgot to pack a tune amid the fuzzy guitars and synthesizers, distorted vocals and Sympathy for the Devil-esque whoops. By contrast, Call the Shots has a chorus that only anterograde amnesia could wipe from your brain, but its structure and production seem a bit commonplace coming from the people who made Biology, an audacious three-minute pop single on which the chorus didn't turn up for a full two minutes. Thus Tangled Up begins disappointingly, with the sense that, having set the bar high, all concerned are now craning their necks to see the bar and wondering how it got up there in the first place. Girl Overboard and Close to Love's conjunction of rock guitar and thumping house beat seems familiar, and previous Girls Aloud albums have dealt in the un- expected. Enter Can't Speak French, a prime example of Xenomania's ability to throw wildly disparate musical elements together, an ability they seem to reserve for Girls Aloud, possibly because it fits so perfectly with Cole and co: these ideas shouldn't work but they do, just like the notion of a reality TV-birthed band making thrilling and ground-breaking albums. Here, you get a peculiar, loping rhythm that can't decide whether it's swing shuffle or glitter stomp, topped off with an ungainly synthesised bassline and intricate jazzy guitar. As ever, you get the distinct impression that lyricist Miranda Cooper may require surgery to get her tongue out of her cheek: "I'll let the funky music do the talking," runs the chorus, over a beat that couldn't be more cumbersome and unfunky if it tried. From then on, Tangled Up is a riot. The melodies are uniformly fantastic and there's something relentless about the way it pelts you with audacious creativity and improbable juxtapositions: Black Jack's cocktail of glorious Northern soul-inspired chorus and belligerent terrace chant ("come and get stuck in!"); What You Crying For's unlikely debt to techstep drum'n'bass; the clattering rave breakbeat and sampled scrape of fingers down guitar fretboard that powers I'm Falling. Fling - on which a Girl Aloud divertingly announces her Chuck Berry-esque desire for "a bit of ding-a-ling" - offers a kind of nuclear-powered punk-funk that leaves virtually every NME-sponsored early 80s revivalist looking hopelessly pallid. You're left pondering an album that by any standards seems pretty irresistible. It's witty, diverse, experimental and viscerally thrilling: what more do you want pop music to be? 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. Either way, you should pay them no mind.
  23. Digital Spy During their five-year assault on the pop charts, Girls Aloud have turned presumption-busting into an art form. Formed on Popstars: The Rivals - a forerunner of The X Factor that now seems hopelessly naïve and innocuous - nobody expected the ramshackle five-piece to last beyond their first album. But thanks to their brilliant run of genre-defying modern pop singles, not to mention their dogged refusal to conform to the media-trained blandness of most modern-day chart stars, they stand proud as the nation's most cherished pop group. Ken Livingstone took them to China as "cultural ambassadors"; the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand came out as fans; and David Cameron told Radio 1 that Cheryl Cole was his favourite group member. At this stage in the game, only the most wilfully miserable indie buffoon could deny a fondness for Girls Aloud. However, this hard-earned respect has come at a price. For the first time in their careers, Girls Aloud are feeling the weight of expectation on their tanned, toned, exfoliated shoulders. Tangled Up, the group's fourth studio album and their first since 2005's Chemistry opus, will be regarded as a disappointment if it's not fun, frivolous, catchy, sexy and innovative. Thanks to the sterling efforts of Xenomania, the hit-making collective who've produced every one of the group's 16 hit singles, it succeeds on all counts. While Sugababes, Britain's other great girl group, have recently equated maturity with retreating to mid-tempo and saving their dancing shoes for special occasions, Girls Aloud have thrown caution to the wind and done the exact opposite: Tangled Up is their most danceable album to date. The bolshy electro-rock of 'Fling' is surely the sound that fills Sarah Harding’s head on one of her infamously boozy nights out, while 'Girl Overboard', a slightly ridiculous rave knees up with a vodka rush of a chorus, pushes the group towards BPM overload. There's even a nod towards the Hoxton scene on 'I'm Falling', a thrilling mixture of Prodigy-style beats and intergalactic synths that comes on like a slightly less ear-splitting Hadouken! Amidst all these transgressions on the dancefloor, Xenomania still find time to bend pop music into strange, exotic shapes. It shouldn't be possible to weld early noughties Gallic disco to souped-up ska-pop, but 'Control Of The Knife' manages just that, while ‘'Black Jacks' somehow recalls both the sixties psychedelia of 'This Wheel's On Fire' and the brief career of shouty popstrels Shampoo. Yes, really. Still, with the benefit of hindsight, the girls might wish they hadn't based their cartoon character rapping technique on Betty Boo, the nineties popstar with whom Cheryl Cole's recently been scrapping in the tabloids. Mildly upsetting as it is, Tangled Up lets us know that Girls Aloud are growing up. (Well, Sarah Harding has just reached the ripe old age of – gasp! – 26.) Current single 'Call The Shots' tempers its eighties pop exuberance with a generous helping of melancholy, while the titter-filled 'Control Of The Knife' deals with a power struggle within a fledgling relationship. Its killer pay off line - "You're keeping me cold in the night… but honey you're starving!” – confirms what we've known all along: there's a spikiness behind the group's sweet exteriors. That said, their new-found maturity notwithstanding, Girls Aloud are still capable of playing the hussy: 'Close To Love' makes some not so-coy to references to "needing more wood", and 'Fling' finds the kinky quintet in full-on vamp mode. "Don't be getting soft on me," they holler. "Just give me something casually." Ultimately Tangled Up comes off as a teasing insight into the relationship histories of five girls who've packed a lot of living into their 20-odd years. Girls Aloud are many things on this album – confident, sexy, vulnerable, persuasive, even a bit embarrassing at times – but, crucially, they always sound built to last. Let's call it another presumption busted, shall we? 4/5