Alright, the other day
Shane hooked me up with the leaked Girls Aloud album
Chemistry and wanted my opinion on it. Since, in the recent past, I've been posting nothing but a few sentences on things that are amusing me at the time, I decided that I would put my thoughts here and have something like a real post.
Keep in mind, I've listened to the album two to three times as of the moment so my opinions could change with time.
The
Intro is fairly disposable in my opinion. It's not bad or anything, but it's also not the intro to Anniemal which requires repeat listens on its own. That said, it does make a nice lead-in to
Models though which is a fairly excellent fast paced start to a good pop album. I don't have much else to say about the track other than I like it.
We then get to
Biology, one of the singles already released. For the most part it's a great track. I think Shane has already talked about the fact that it seems to be 3 songs mashed together, but I think it works because the transitions between sections of the song are smooth so that it doesn't feel forced. The only thing about this song that rubs me the wrong way is the chorus. After repeat listens, I've finally figured out that it's the whole spoken crap in the background "the way that we talk... etc." It just doesn't work for me. I'm not sure what should have been done differently and it doesn't ruin the song, by any means.
Wild Horses is a good track but for some reason I keep thinking of the bar scenes "Coyote Ugly." I know that sounds bad because I've criticized that movie a lot, but I don't mean it as a negative. On the other hand,
See The Day is crap an I know exactly why. It's too big and grandiose for a broken heart song. Something like this needs to be more personal and focusing on the vocals works a lot better. The music is way to extravagant and overshadows the human emotion. The thing that really frustrates me is that I know that Xenomania can do these songs the right way because they were right on with
Hear Me Out on the last album.
Watch Me Go hasn't done much for me yet but isn't bad.
Waiting is deceiving because it starts out great but then just kind of flatlines. If something more had been done with the chorus, it could be one of the best tracks on the album, but as is, it goes nowhere.
Whole Lotta History is the first song that I listened to on the album and thought, this is perfect. It's simply a beautiful pop ballad that sounds as if it was pulled out of the 50s. I really don't know much more to say except think five sad girls in poodle skirts and you could make a great video.
Long Hot Summer is also great but has been around for so long it's hard to comment on except to say that it still works even though it's November. The other day I was listening to Jay-Z's volume 3 (I think) and there's the part in the intro where he says something to the effect of I don't care if it's Winter, roll down all the widows and crank it (paraphrase). The same can be said for this song.
Swinging London Town is another one of the amazing tracks here. It explodes and just hammers through until it suddenly drops off (not in a bad way) midway through. The rest of the track is spent building back up until it explodes again to finish out dropping out loops until the end. I feel drained after this track.
It's Magic is a great track to follow as it slows things down but keeps them flowing. Everything about this track is great and it just needs to be heard.
Things fall off a little with
No Regrets which can basically be described as some generic song with a Latin American feel. All is forgiven quickly though as the last track (and my favorite on the album)
Racey Lacey starts. The toybox feel of this song (think Austin Powers score but try not to let the annoyance of the idea of Austin Powers carry over) is just perfect with the description of this... well, slut. The song stays strong the whole way through and then just stops and suddenly ends the album... "Fuck You! I Want More!" Holy shit, that's the way to end an album. Leave me craving another few tracks.
So yeah, good album. Starts out with some pretty decent stuff, but ends incredibly strong. I think that "What Would The Neighbors Say?" had a stronger set of tracks that jumped at me as possible singles but this album has less tracks that I just skip outright because I think they're just plain bad. I don't know, that's my take. If you have any opinions
