Album Review: Sugababes - Catfights and Spotlights (4/5)

The Spice Girls continue to remembered as the royalty of British pop girl groups, a shame really, when you consider that the Spices were active for only 4 years, and the Sugababes have been going strong for twice that time now. Lately their star is in danger of being eclipsed by Girls Aloud, who have gotten better (and now have more top 10 hits), while the Sugababes' latest albums haven't been their best.

But Catfights and Spotlights, the group's sixth album and second with latest member Amelle Berrabah is a decent outing. Even if it doesn't reach the heights of their 2002 album Angels with Dirty Faces or their 2003 work Three, it is their best work since then.

Catfights immediately jumps on a retro soul bandwagon recently popularized by Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, and others. "Girls," the fantastic first single, is a throttling, horn-drenched affair. "You on a Good Day" gives us a good dose of soulful '60s girlgroup swing. "No Can Do" skips to the next decade, for a funkier but equally upbeat sound. It's a got a cool vocal and horn breakdown about 2 minutes in. I think this will be the second single, and it's a good choice. "Hanging on a Star" continues in the '70s vein, adding a disco stomp and mixing sung and spoken vocal delivery.

Then the album takes a bit of a dip with "Side Chick," a sudden shift from the retro pop to contemporary urban stylings. It's a good but not great track, with decent vocal harmonizing and a darker style reminiscent of the group's early days. The Max Martin-penned "Unbreakable Heart" shimmers with vibrating guitars and a repetitive piano riff. These songs are good, but not as good as the four tracks that open the album.

The album recovers with the next two tracks, which are both excellent. "Sunday Rain" is the first ballad, and it's the most obvious step in the Amy Winehouse direction, employing a big '60s-ish wall-of-sound production of strings, brass, and keyboards. The track was co-written by Steve Booker who worked with Duffy to write her hits "Mercy" and "Stepping Stone." The result is quite satisfying, and the girls sound particularly good here. Even better is "Every Heart Broken," an earnest, powerful ballad that starts with a bare vocal and piano and builds to a big string-backed chorus. The blend of the classical stylings of the strings and modern beats is well done, and I would expect this to be a future hit.

The album's last act is its weakest, which has generally been the case for all of the group's albums, but it still reveals some interesting work. It opens with "Beware," a rather unusual track, with a darker sound and an unusual (but interesting) verse-to-chorus transition. "Nothing's as Good as You" is rather slight, definitely my least favorite track on the album. "Sound of Goodbye" is a delightfully melodramatic breakup song, with a heavy piano, strings, and bass production. It's the best of the last four tracks. "Can We Call a Truce" has a repetitive string melody that's too reminiscent of Pachelbel's Canon.

There's two bonus tracks here also, which are worth mentioning. First is an acoustic piano version of "About You Now," popularized over the summer when it aired during a funeral scene in the British soap opera Hollyoaks. "About You Now" was as frothy and upbeat as any Sugababes single, so it's remarkable how well it translates to a stripped down ballad (the girls performed it in this manner on Radio 1's Live Lounge). Then there's a version of Taio Cruz's recent hit "She's Like a Star," which here also includes the 'Babes.

I'm pleased to say that Catfights and Spotlights is an improvement their last album Change, which became their first since their debut to net them no more than one top 10 hit, and more consistent than Taller in More Ways, which had a great first half and pretty unmemorable second one. There were posters for Catfights all over London last week (especially in the tube), so of course, I had to buy it, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the album offered more treats than just "Girls." The question now is whether the upcoming releases from Girls Aloud and new girl group The Saturdays can top this.

Best: Girls, No Can Do, Every Heart Broken, Sunday Rain, You on a Good Day, Hanging on a Star, Sound of Goodbye