The world’s best pop group lap the ‘competition’ once again. Just because they can.
Written: Feb 02 '04 (Updated Jan 08 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Some of their best work; production; more mature; smarter and deeper than your average pop-album.
Cons: Too much filler and mediocrity. Keisha still isn't that great a singer.
The Bottom Line: It's not perfect and the formula is beginning to wear, but it's still worth buying for the five star songs alone.
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| kookytree's Full Review: Three - Sugarbabes Movies |
It’s 2003, and if the Sugababes aren’t the most self-satisfied pop band in the world then there’s something wrong with them. Rave reviews for their overrated debut, huge sales for the follow-up and an inclusion in Amazon.co.uk’s ‘Best of 2002’ list, three number ones under their designer label belts, and some of the most successful producers in the industry signed up for their third LP. Life must look good for the terminally sour-faced ones right about now, especially considering ex-Babe Siobhan Donaghy’s solo debut flopped miserably in the charts due to non-existent promotion from the band’s old label, London Records.
Of course, it would have been all-too-easy for Mutya, Keisha, and Heidi to repeat the winning ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’ formula- promote the album with an irresistible floor filler (check), chuck in some glum ballads (check), roll your eyes and conform to dreary pop convention with some unimaginative bubblegum schtick (check) and top it off with a ‘deep’ and ‘meaningful’ closing song, so that you may sit down on stools at concerts and stare into the middle distance, like you’re so deep you can’t stand it (check). And, for the most part, that’s exactly what they’ve done. They invent a new genre with lead single and third number one ‘Hole In The Head’ (which is worth your attention if only because it was the song that FINALLY knocked the Black Eyed Peas off the top spot after six weeks last autumn), make Stronger Part Deux twice with ‘Too Lost In You’ and ‘Caught In A Moment’, out-bubblegum Atomic Kitten on the cheesy ‘Buster’, and belt out a self-penned ditty to Mutya’s dead sister on the epic ‘Maya’. Move on folks, there’s nothin’ to see here…
They’ve even used the tried-n-tested shorthand for musical maturation, used by pretty much every vocal group who’ve managed to last for several albums. Yep, they’ve put solo songs on a group record. Keisha plunges into the deep end first on the typically prickly ‘Whatever Makes You Happy’, whilst Heidi and Mutya take a trip to ballad-ville on ‘Sometimes’ and ‘Maya’ respectively. The fact that –tsk- Keisha budges Heidi off her stool for ‘Sometimes’’s middle-eight (and damn near ruins a perfectly good song) probably won’t help those pesky bullying rumours, but the three solo tunes are good enough that you won’t care.
However, it’s not entirely fair to dismiss this as little more than ‘Angels’ remixed, as there are genuine signs of growth, both musically and emotionally. Firstly, it’s a lot more relaxed and self-confident. On ‘Angels’, there was the occasional, uneasy feeling that the Babes were trying a little too hard to impress everyone with how damn hip they were. There, they were quite literally singing for their suppers- their first label had just dropped them after poor sales, and ‘Angels’ was their last shot at success. The fact that they’ve now established themselves as one of Britain’s most popular music acts has clearly put the girls more at ease with their tastes, meaning ‘Three’ is more muted and thoughtful in it’s approach. Like the considerably less credible Spice Girls, they’re at their best when they slow things down, and the floaty ‘Too Lost In You’ and soaring ‘Caught In A Moment’ are breathtaking powerful and impressive in their emotional scope. ‘Too Lost In You’ is about being so enraptured with a beloved that you begin to loose all sense of autonomy and identity, and ‘Caught In A Moment’ is similarly concerned with love meaning the girls have lost something: here, they are hopeless addicts to small moments of happiness with their lovers, their lives now worth nothing more than a temporary emotional high, slaves to a master:
‘Your stare swallows me, and I can hardly breathe/
I feel it’s dangerous, could be deadly/
Somehow I’m willing, to do the things you want/
You take me in your arms, spoonfeed my heart/
And drip by drip, I take it all/
Sip by sip. I guess that it’s make or break…’
They sound terrified and saddened, not loved-up. It’s this fresh, unique approach on well-worn pop themes that has always marked the Babes out as a cut above all other teen outfits, and it’s better realised on ‘Three’ than ever before. ‘Hole In The Head’ is the mandatory up-tempo lead single, but it’s melancholy disco is so much more urbane and stylish than other pop songs to the point that it’s unfair to compare. The new genre I mentioned, by the way, is bubbly electro-reggae-pop, and the superb lyrics exemplify the Babes glassy-eyed, bitter-teen-girl posturing with deadly accuracy.
‘Seven hours since you went away/ Eleven coffees, Ricky Lake on play/
But late at night when I’m feeling blue/ I’d sell my a-s before I think of you/
Seven hours since you closed the door/ Started a diet, got a manicure/
Erased your number from my telephone/And if you call me I won’t be at home’
You wouldn’t mess, would you? This leftfield approach to pop manifests itself everywhere- on the Keisha-written ‘Whatever Makes You Happy’, the scary one sneers at other popstars and their silliness whilst synthed soundscapes create tunnels of echoes and foam snarling white sound. The Linda Perry produced ‘Ghetto Nasty’ sounds filthy though the lyrics are tame, a sleazy come-on in the back of a dingy inner-city dive. ‘He turned my frown right upside-down, yeah’ smirks Keisha. ‘He got caught in a nasty ghetto.’ Bet he did. And ‘Maya’ is heartbreaking. Criticising a song written by a 19-year-old about her dead baby sister would be crass anyway, but thankfully –like Aguilera’s ‘I’m Okay’- it’s the best song on the record, surprisingly restrained, philosophical, and nowhere near as histrionic as it could have been. ‘Buster’ is one of the more typical pop tunes, and the clichéd lyrics should make it awful- they can be summised as ‘boy, you no good and you no gunna get your smelly hands on this piece, aight?’ However, the eccentric approach to production –operatic wails and ominous percussion (it actually sounds a lot like Pink’s ‘Most Girls’)- save it from being pure filler.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of one-too-many other songs on ‘Three’. You’ve heard ‘Twisted’ 14696949506 times already even if urban music isn’t your genre of choice- the ‘Hypnotise’ sample, the eternally young Betty Wright "Clean-Up Woman" Motown riff, the inane lyrics, the fact that the hook is repeated at least ten times…the girls are better than this. However, if you listened ‘Million Different Ways’, you probably wouldn’t know that. The song has a promising melody and would be great if it wasn’t for the fact that’s it’s produced within in an inch of it’s life. The Bollywood sample sounds cheap and doesn’t fit in at all, not least because it drowns out the girls’ voices. ‘In The Middle’ is the most straightforward POP the album gets, sounding as it does on the chorus like a Stock, Aitken and Waterman synthy cheese fest, right down to the silly hook (‘Why can’t the boys be the toys that the girls want the boys to BE?’) and references to busting bubbles. However, it’s very nearly salvaged by an amusing reference to a ‘drunken elevator’, whatever that might be.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of ‘Three’, though, is that the girls are a little TOO mid-tempo to be completely memorable here. ‘We Could Have It All’ and ‘Conversation’s Over’ are pleasant enough radio-friendly exercises in blandness, but you’re a better person than me if you can muster up an opinion over them. The sporadic oasiseseses (what is the plural of oasis) of rump-shakers (‘Hole In The Head’ ‘Buster’ ‘Nasty Ghetto’) are just too far apart and few in number. Take out some of the average tracks and the Babes would have a much stronger record.
However, ‘Three’ is a solid effort. The lyrics are a bit of a mixed affair, ranging from outstanding to horrid, but vocally they’ve all developed into top-class talents. Heidi in particular is given a lot more space to shine on the ballads, and on ‘Sometimes’ she is note perfect, confirming once again her position as the band’s best voice. Even Keisha sounds less strained in more relaxed circumstances, though her ‘Sometimes’ cameo is unwelcome and a stepback to the shrieky days of old, as is her alarming Beyonce impression over the final choruses of ‘Too Lost In You’, which will make any ‘Yonce hater realise just how hard it is to carry off those generic soul wails. Despite that, ‘Three’ is easily 2003’s best pop album, a title it can claim with depressing ease. Unlike many of their contemporaries, they’ll almost certainly be back for a fourth, and it’ll probably be just as good. Siobhan really must kick her ginger self as she peddles her wares in sweaty pubs for tenners and tries to ignore the endless heckles for a rendition of ‘Overload’. Poor girl.
Song Titles and Ratings:
01- Hole In The Head- 5/5
02- Whatever Makes You Happy- 4/5
03- Caught In A Moment- 5/5
04- Situation’s Heavy- 4/5
05- Million Different Ways- 3/5
06- Twisted- 1/5
07- We Could Have It All- 3/5
08- Conversation’s Over- 2.5/5
09- In The Middle- 2/5
10- Too Lost In You- 5/5
11- Nasty Ghetto- 4/5
12- Buster- 3/5
13- Sometimes- 3/5
14- Maya- 5/5
OVERALL- 3-and-a-half stars. So four overall, just
Related reviews:
Sugababes- Angels With Dirty Faces (****)
Siobhan Donaghy- Revolution In Me (****)
Recommended:
Yes
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kookytree
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Reviews written: 52
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mais lindo que michael jackson!
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