What Will The Neighbours Say?

By rights, Girls Aloud should have long been consigned to the bin of popular culture by now. Everything about the group – the fact that they actually won their particular reality talent show, the tabloid intrusion, the alleged racist attack, their unavoidable lack of genuine talent – should have made them yet another five minute marvel.

And yet, not only have they marched onto a second album, they are also heralded in many quarters (including the serious high brow ones) as something very good indeed. What Will The Neighbours? say goes a long way to explain this curious state of affairs, for there is no avoiding the fact that it is an awfully enjoyable way of spending less than an hour of your time.

The opening of singles – ‘The Show’ and ‘Love Machine’ – are enough to stake their claim to the pop crown, dwarfing the other contenders in the process. A couple of, at best wobbly, cover versions aside, what is most striking about this record is how it hangs together as an album. These type of affairs are usually supposed to consist of the hits plus a load of sub-standard fluff but What Will The Neighbours Say? manages to hold your attention to the end through a surprising series of styles.

The only problem is that praising Girls Aloud themselves for all this feels slightly unfair. They don’t write, their vocals are merely passable, their personalities negligible and if my daughter ever considered them to be role models I’d have a fit; the real architects of this success are the Xenomania production team but The Sun probably wouldn’t be quite as interested in them.

There are cooler, more credible pop records out there (The 411’s fantastic debut for one) but Girls Aloud look to be sitting pretty for the next while at least.