Sugababes: Classic Or Dud?

I'm a big fan of the Bucks Fizz feud.

http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/sugababes/news/deny-losing-name-mutya-buena/

Oh well. Looking forward to the gift wrap!

"First she came for the wallpaper..."

BACK BACK BACK

blasting one touch in celebration. what a fucking amazing album though!

2-step beats on "same old story" <3 <3

Oh yes!

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/jan2012/8/5/sugababes-reunion-pics-rex-getty-image-1-158705373.jpg
http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/jan2012/0/1/sugababes-reunion-pics-rex-getty-image-2-234862336.jpg

weird.

They should call themselves Buchanan Donaghy Buena, then next year get all six together to make an album called 'Coalition'

those were both in the first article i googled when i looked to see what people were talking about in this thread, btw. it seems like a depressing progression as regards 'what female figures in the public eye are expected to look like'. but i can't tell if that's really a genuine thing or if it's an artifact of the second photo being a far more staged occasion; or, if it is a genuine thing, whether it's because the original band was kind of an oddity, & then whether one could imagine that case cropping up these days. hrm.

so so so excited for this! one touch was so formative in my mid-teens.

intruiged to see how they'll go about this, considering what worked so well for the original trio was their youth and precociousness.

not being the other 3 shd work out fine for them this go round

Heidi looks downright terrible in that photo. One Touch is so classic, as good as some of their later singles - esp off Angels + "Push The Button" are - I'm not sure they ever topped the Overload/Run For Cover brace.

it seems like a depressing progression as regards 'what female figures in the public eye are expected to look like'

cf pictures of girls aloud when they first emerged and in their latter days

d'you think it's true as a general thing, lex, or do you think that it was a deliberate and calculated move on the grounds of marketing/record companies/whoever that sugababes and girls aloud circa 2001 had a "look" that was 'resembling actual human beings'

i'm just heading out now so can't expand - i think "looking like ordinary girls" was broadly true in the early 00s, certainly across UK girl groups; but there's also the vexed question of how young pop acts evolve or mature or "grow up", and one of the laziest but most common ways to visually signify that a teenage pop act has grown up is by "going sexy", and this happened to both sugababes and girls aloud (but no "ordinary girls" came along to fill that niche) (until...little mix?!)

They should call themselves Buchanan Donaghy Buena, then next year get all six together to make an album called 'Coalition'

― Peas, Ants, Pigs & Astronauts (PaulTMA), Friday, January 6, 2012 1:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sugababes... the Yes of pop! :D

BACK

they look AMAZING and i am hyped

https://twitter.com/MKSOfficial/status/226256172368396288/photo/1

http://cdn.umg3.net/mutyakeishasiobhan/holding/assets/images/mutya.jpghttp://cdn.umg3.net/mutyakeishasiobhan/holding/assets/images/keisha.jpghttp://cdn.umg3.net/mutyakeishasiobhan/holding/assets/images/siobhan.jpg

YES.

I am scared shitless that the result will be less than amazing tho.

also: v poor lack of piling in here ILM (it were all sugababes round here when i were a lad)

First Sunship radio edits, now Sugababes? Is it really time for the early 00s revival? Am I really that old already?

All hail the new Suga overlords.

Now if they need a producer/songwriter I'd just like to volunteer my services... oh wait.

xxp OMFG

My ideal for their return (which probably won't be achieved but there's always hope) is that they combine all the lessons learnt from the various eras - e.g. I think Mutya and Keisha really hit their stride with the third and fourth albums in terms of knowing the best way to deploy their vocals (although perhaps it's as much that Xenomania in particular had such an insight on that point) and I would love to see those qualities combined with Siobhan, who was the standout singer on the debut IMO.

i'm excited atm because i really don't know what direction they'll choose to go in: i have to say i do trust the opposite poles of mutya and siobhan to put a stop to anything too awful (plus the motivation of differentiating themselves from whoever is currently recording under the actual sugababes name).

xxp OMFG

― Jeremy Clarkson Sex Face (snoball), Saturday, July 21, 2012 2:08 AM (18 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

I am scared shitless that the result will be less than amazing tho.

Not to worry:

http://www.popjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mkscontract-535x667.jpg

BEST.

They should have asked Björk to join them and call themselves Sugarbabes³

(yeah, way too far fetched, sorry)

thinky, like it

tbh a popjustice contract = the first uh-oh sign but whatever pleases you lot?

Posts very much in character, I see.

But srsly I always got the impression that sugababes was one case where popjustice was at least in the ballpark of being otm? Am I forgetting some egregious case of preferring amelle to mutya or something? Or not liking R&B leanings?

First google search of "Sugababes Popjustice" brings up a post celebrating "Ace Reject" as one of their finest songs, which makes up for a lot IMO.

OTOH google also reveals they thought "about you now" was the best sb single since "round round", which is ridic, so maybe you're correct on this point.

That Popjustice contract means nothing. They haven't listened to anything afaik.

*anything yet

That contract makes me smile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugababes_discography
singles between round round and about you now:

stronger
angels w dirty faces
shape
hole in the head
too lost in you
in the middle
caught in a moment
push the button
ugly
red dress
follow me home
easy
walk this way

i'd side with that claim. Push the Button and hole in the head are close, but I *really* like About You Now.

not looking to defend popjustice (i agree that its approach to pop music is mostly utter bollocks) but they always overhype a new single, especially when it's an exclusive to them and feel they have to big it up - I doubt they'd stand by that "about you now" claim now, or ever really believed it beyond the hype of the moment. of course it nearly always makes them look ridiculous in hindsight, but if it keeps big exclusives coming in i doubt they care.

clearly "too lost in you" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

though looking at that list their singles are probably on the whole less great than I remembered (quite a few dud choices of singles to release), in that they were much better album artists for their first two lineups.

though to be fair overload > new year > run for cover > soul sound > freak like me > round round > stronger is completely imperious.

"about you now" tends to get underrated, it's sort of flawless despite being massively derivative and unimaginative. but the idea that they had any sort of dip in between "round round" and "about you now" is just weird. "too lost in you" is a towering pinnacle of their discography, better than either, "angels with dirty faces" and "follow me home" are up there too - though perhaps it's true that their absolute best songs in the three/taller eras were the deep cuts.

Agree with the above, though I prefer "Caught In A Moment" (and also "Sometimes"!) - I love "About You Now", I just dislike the implied dismissal of many of the amazing songs in between ("Stronger"! "Hole In The Head"! "Red Dress"! "Follow Me Home"!).

Best songs on Three: "Situation's Heavy", "Maya".

Best songs on Taller: "Ace Reject", "2 Hearts".

agree re: three, would choose "bruised" ahead of the others on taller

Haha "bruised" was my number three.

prolego otm though some people here take what Popjustice says way too seriously.

...I mean basically they've always had a very spontaneous approach to pop. When Peter's excited about something he doesn't care to hype it to ridiculous proportions. He's not thinking "oh, is this going to sound relevant x years from now?" etc. I don't really have a problem with that. In fact I think it is the right approach. With most pop music, retrospective evaluation is in many ways irrelevant anyway imo.

Agree totally with Lex and Tim on Taller choices, that is probably my favourite album of theirs. Three is mostly great, Conversation's Over was always my favourite album track on there.

I used to value Popjustice a lot more than I do now. They give way too much time to the same few bands. Everytime JLS or The Saturdays have a new single they always give them way too much attention. I get that they are two of the biggest pop bands but their songs just blend into each other and they are not great popstars in anyway.

I remember losing a lot of respect for them when they claimed the last Girls Aloud album was great and put it as their second favourite album of the year, then a year later they claimed the reason they didn't give Electrik Red anytime was beacause their album was too patchy, I mean it just does not compute. They continue to say how they hate Olly Murs (with good reason) but put one of his singles in thier top ten last year and made a post saying they were obsessed with his last single. I get that they want to try and rate songs not based on the artist singing them but can't they spend more time writing about iamamiwhoiami or Dawn Richard? The way they just ignore some artists existence and coninue to write about such average acts just gets so tiring.

Was a lifelong reader until they started saying that The Feeling were good

Yeah, those pics of them are utterly amazing and I am so frigging excited. I LOVED the original line-up so so much.

this is one of those things that I think would be amazing, then think I'm silly for dreaming, then it happens. i love all three of them (siobhan's last solo album was flawless, mutya's last one...wasn't but that's ok) and am glad that they're back and back together.

i also used to subscribe to PJ very closely but agree that when every single and album is PROPER AMAZING POPPERS OCLOCK LITERALLY THE GREATEST PIECE OF RECORDED MUSIC IN HISTORY it makes it challenging to use them as a guide. recommendation exhaustion is a real thing. which is too bad because i heard a lot of excellent music thanks to them.

http://www.popjustice.com/interviewsandfeatures/the-full-length-actual-mutya-keisha-siobhan-interview/99561/

AFROBEATS! EARLY 90S R&B! I knew I could trust them

What do you think people will call you?
Mutya: They’re going to call us the Sugababes anyway. Guaranteed.

:D

If Comic Relief came to you and said, ‘HIYA, we’d like you to do the next Comic Relief single with the current lineup of the Sugababes’, would…
Keisha: (Immediately) No!
Siobhan: What was the question?

…would you do it?
Siobhan: Oh right! When you said ‘the current lineup of the Sugababes’, I thought, “that’s us, right?” (Amid uproar) I got really confused!

:D

awesome

it's great how they can cut a bitch without even trying

this performance is so goodddd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2atW3VRJddY

it really is

that said I'm not sure i've ever seen such aggressively placed ads on a YouTube video in my entire life

That was a total blast. <3