6 (More) Reasons to Love Girls Aloud

These are in addition, of course, to the song "Watch Me Go", which I posted just one post ago on Thanksgiving.

1. They finally made a good video! Just today the video for "The Loving Kind" came out, and it's really good:



Is it just me, or is this a bit panopticon-y? But, Foucault-inspired or not, it isn't as good as ...

2. Girls Aloud Party advertisement.



I don't have much to say except that this is the best, prettiest commercial ever.

3. Excess! Where their songs are flawed, it's because they're too much. All of Girls Aloud's music is produced by Xenomania, which literally means, at least according to Xenomania itself, "love of everything." So why not throw everything into each song? When it works, this makes for songs like "Watch Me Go" or "Biology", which don't bother with verses and are instead built around multiple choruses and random bits ("I know what you're thinking, you're thinking 'bout my butt!" for one delirious example) shoved together into one intoxicating pop song. (Last night I had a dream about Girls Aloud sitting around and writing the chorus to "Biology," which I'm pretty sure they didn't actually do, but it was a pretty great dream). When it doesn't work, you end up with a song like "Sexy No No No" where promising bits (like the beautiful vocodered intro) get stomped on and the whole song is muddled up with all those sounds. But "Sexy No No No" is pretty thrilling for a failure. Girls Aloud are too excessive to ever be boring. It reminds me of the slogan for Pinus in the Tales of the City books: "Too much of a good thing is wonderful."

4. Their new, subtler, more minimal sound on Tangled Up and particularly Out of Control. On Tangled Up, Girls Aloud still suffered sometimes from too much going on in their songs (after all, "Sexy No No No" is off of Tangled Up), but "Call The Shots" is one of their best songs, the first Girls Aloud song I ever heard, thank goodness. It's restrained and beautiful. Out of Control goes in the direction of "Call The Shots" – the album is full of pretty, minimalist (in comparison) songs. Don't worry, though. Girls Aloud still knows how to be excessive, even within a minimalist soundscape. One of my favorite songs from Out of Control, "Untouchable", is over 6 minutes long, the definition of excess for a pop song. And "Live in the Country" features barnyard animal noises, for goodness' sake! (It also features one of my favorite Girls Aloud lyrics: "[When I live in the country] I'll be out of my head but they'll say I'm eccentric and look the other way.") "Close To Love", from Tangled Up, has a lot going on without making you feel like you got hit by a truck (as with "Wake Me Up", for example, from one of their earlier albums), and still manages to end with Kimberley (I think) shouting, "Man with the chemical stare: hands off! Guy with the terrible hair: back off! Dude with the look in your eye: leave it! Man with the beautiful bride: beat it!"

5. They're fantastic live. I'm not a fan of live music. In fact, I'm generally opposed to it. But I love that Girls Aloud, in particular, sings live because it shows their individual personalities a bit and because it's like getting a whole new version of the songs. I love this live version of "Watch Me Go" because they shout a lot more of it than on the recorded version, which actually suits the song really well. I love this live version of "Close to Love" because otherwise I wouldn't have had any idea Nicola's voice could sound like it does at 2:17. I love this version of "Control of the Knife" because of how Cheryl starts randomly singing a Kelis song at the end (which I realize makes sense because Kelis is much bigger in the UK, but it was a delightful surprise for me). I love these version of "Something Kinda Ooh" and "Sound of the Underground" because the now-more-subtle Girls Aloud can go back and make some of their most manic songs sound restrained and pretty. And I really, really love this version of "Sexy No No No" because: 1) the intro is, like, Kate Bush-level insane, and 2) it takes this song, which seems designed to thwart my desire to enjoy it at every turn, and, after one typically obnoxious chorus, becomes the song I always wanted it to be. Oh, and 3) How Nadine's accent shows through a little bit around 4:55.

6. "No Good Advice"!



This is Girls Aloud's second-ever single, from their more manic, less beloved-by-Spencer phase. The video is pretty bad (what Girls Aloud video isn't, other than the merely alright "Call The Shots" and, of course, "The Loving Kind"). And it has way more guitar than I usually approve of (the amount I approve of is none). But I have been listening to this song over and over the past several days. It's really resonated with me for personal reasons and Britney-related reasons (more on this below). Honestly, I'm not convinced that Jean Genet didn't write this one. Lyrics up to and including the first chorus:

Daddy told me look into the future

Sit at your computer, be a good girl

And Mama said remember you're a lady,

Think before your play and straighten your curls,

Well everybody's talking like I'm crazy

Dangerous and lazy girl with no soul

But I've seen it all from where I'm hiding

Baby cause I'm sliding, out of control

Here I go, off the road, crank the stereo

I flick my finger to the world below

Here I am, dirty hands, I don't give a damn

Shut your mouth because it might show

I don't need no good advice

I'm already wasted

I don't need some other life

Cold and complicated

I don't need no Sunday trips

Tea and sympathizing

I don't need no special fix

To anaesthetize me

This song is helping me process this Rolling Stone article about Britney Spears, and also her documentary, For the Record. All of Britney's freedom has been taken away by the court-ordered conservatorship which puts her entirely under the control of her previously-estranged father. Over the past few years, her life has been a mess, and it seems like she's starting to get it back together. Last spring, after Britney shaved her head, I developed a theory that the only way she could gain any agency in her life was by deliberately making bad decisions (i.e. the head shaving, marrying that Jason guy, marrying K Fed, etc.). Now she's completely controlled, officially and legally, by others, and they're making all the right decisions for her. And as For the Record showed pretty clearly, I think, Britney's sad, bored, and lonely, and she misses the time when she was out of control ("I used to be a cool chick"). I want Britney to be healthy and safe, but I also want her to be happy and to be able to make her own decisions. So this posting of "No Good Advice" is dedicated to Britney.

I don't want to end a post about the deliriously exciting Girls Aloud on a down note, so instead, watch the Girls Aloud Party ad again. It's worth it.