Girls Aloud

Latest Release

Essential Albums

  • What Will The Neighbours Say? (20th Anniversary Edition)
    What Will The Neighbours Say? (20th Anniversary Edition)
    What Will The Neighbours Say? (20th Anniversary Edition)

    2024

  • Tangled Up (Bonus Track Edition)
    Tangled Up (Bonus Track Edition)
    Tangled Up (Bonus Track Edition)

    In the half decade since Girls Aloud were formed on Popstars: The Rivals—during which they released three albums and a greatest hits collection—the band had graduated from manufactured reality TV construct to become the most successful girl band in UK chart history, notching up more Top 10 hits than the Spice Girls. Nadine, Sarah, Cheryl, Kimberley and Nicola, at least according to them, were no longer the gobby teenagers and notoriously outrageous young women of the past. This new-found maturity perhaps explains why the kitchen-sink approach adopted by Girls Aloud’s regular songwriting and production partners Xenomania has been reined in a smidgen on the group’s fourth album Tangled Up. It is, in fact, a far more sophisticated-sounding record. That’s not to say that Xenomania and Girls Aloud’s innovative approach to pop is absent; there’s still a lot of weirdness to be found. Those wondering what the industrial edge of Pendulum’s rock-laced drum ’n’ bass might sound like paired with a melody lifted from a Pointer Sisters song will have their curiosity satisfied by the charging electronics of “What You Crying For”, while fans of Blur’s “Song 2” and Geri Halliwell’s spoken word verses in the Spice Girls’ “Naked” might find something to enjoy on the pogoing “Fling”. Meanwhile, “Can’t Speak French” is as preposterous as it sounds, smushing together jazz melodics, plastic ’80s electronics and a swinging beat, the band insisting that they’ll “let the funky music do the talking” over a backing track that is as far from funk as you can imagine. Still, there’s a traditionalism that prior Girls Aloud albums shied away from. “Black Jacks”, a Northern soul-indebted swinger, follows a more conventional song structure than “Biology” ever did, as does the scuzzy handbag house of “Girl Overboard”, an aching cautionary tale about excessive partying and falling off the wagon. “Call the Shots”, a glitter-soaked electro ballad, has a similarly melancholic texture. “I won’t cry for all the hunger in my heart,” Nadine sings on the pre-chorus, before Cheryl and Sarah add: “No, I won’t cry because I’ve stumbled through this far.” It’s a rare glimpse of vulnerability from a band renowned for their ballsiness and sees Girls Aloud subverting expectations once again. It’s understandable why so many consider it, and Tangled Up, their crowning achievement.

Albums

Artist Playlists

Compilations

About Girls Aloud

One of Britain's premier 21st-century girl bands, Girls Aloud released a slew of chart-ruling singles during their 11-year run. Formed in 2002 during the second series of ITV’s singing competition Popstars, Girls Aloud were made up of Newcastle’s Cheryl Tweedy, Stamford’s Nicola Roberts, Derry’s Nadine Coyle, Bradford’s Kimberley Walsh and Asot’s Sarah Harding. Their first single, the rock-tinged harmony showcase “Sound of the Underground”, topped the singles chart in December 2002, and the group remained a constant presence in the Top 10 while playing with different styles over the rest of the decade. Uptempo cuts like the feisty 2004 hit “Love Machine” and the playful 2005 track “Biology” showcased the group’s spiky charisma, while romantic cuts like 2008’s retro-’60s throwback “The Promise” and the plush 2009 single “The Loving Kind” reminded listeners that they’d come together because of their vocal prowess. Girls Aloud officially disbanded in 2013, a few hours after playing their final gig in Liverpool, leaving behind a string of pop confections that helped define British music in the 2000s.

ORIGIN
London, England
FORMED
December 2002
GENRE
Pop

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada
  翻译：