Sugababes - Hole In The Head

I can't really agree here. Much like four or five of the songs off Angels With Dirty Faces, this really could have been done by anyone, though it's fortunately free of the lyrical missteps of that album.

I don't hear a spark of individuality in it. That spark is all over the best bits of the first two albums, but nowhere to be found here. Maintaining the "grumpy brand" is obviously a good idea - is this the reason for the grudging approval of them outside the sphere of pop? - but it takes more than the word "ass".

The last album had the girls delivering some very average lyrics and tunes brilliantly. They very nearly pulled off the pretty-atrocious-on-paper "Virgin Sexy", and the Misteeq-esque "More Than A Million Miles" would have sunk under a lesser performance, but here it just sounds like a desultory attempt at a spit-and-polish of their laurels.

For the record, I prefer "Run For Cover" to "Overload", and "Round Round" to "Freak Like Me". So that makes four momentous pop marvels in two albums, and if this is the best they can muster for their third then it's more than disappointing, it's tragic.

The individuality thing is all in the grumpiness/inapproachability - I think the Sugababes were much more generic on their first album than they are here, even if now it all feels more calculated and put-on. And I think "Round Round" is more 'typical pop done well' and less individual than this is too. (In fact way back when I said pretty much the same things about it as you're saying about this viz it could be anyone) "Hole In Your Head" has an element of Sugababes-by-numbers about it, but I think it's a testament to their strength as performers that they've got such a distinctive style now (I worked out that "Life Got Cold" annoys be cos it sounds like a Sugababes rip-off!) - I really don't think any of their peers could have pulled it off.

Anyone know who wrote/produced it? It sounds like Xenomania (as was "Round Round").

"Round Round" was not really typical, it was like a whole album's worth of ideas thrown into a blender. Well, two songs' worth anyway. It wasn't trying to be individual or perfect or grumpy or fantastic pop or epoch-making, it just was.

"Hole In The Head" I'd describe as "quite good", but it's only really got one idea. There are lots of bits that just sound like padding, notably the bit after the second chorus. Girls Aloud would have put a talky bit at the end, too, and it would have improved things vastly - this just ebbs out tamely. The backing vocals also feel a bit.. hang on, shouldn't we be singing something else here..? too.

I like the Ricki Lake line, though it's a bit of an anachronism.

I don't get the 'Life Got Cold'/Sugababes thing either, to me that's the encapsulation of what Girls Aloud are all about.