Cheryl. Nicola. Nadine. Lil B. Who’s the fifth one again?…

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[4.00]
Pete Baran: It’s so much easier to review solo Girls Aloud stuff now that more of them have released singles. You no longer have to compare them to GA; rather it’s easier to say, “Not as good as Nicola, better than much of Cheryl’s”.
[4]
Martin Skidmore: She’s the strongest singer out of Girls Aloud, but her solo career has been a flop so far. I hope this changes that, as it is a strong single, with punchy electropop production and a very catchy chorus, and she puts the whole thing over with an impressive divaish force and plenty of urgent feeling. Excellent.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: When Nicola Roberts hijacked all of Google News for a day, I decided I’d be contrarian and say Nadine Coyle’s new song was much better. What wrecked the argument, of course, was that it wasn’t; the song has hooks, but they’re drowned in a sluice pipe of oversinging and extraneous synths and an obligatory “dubstep” “breakdown.” The song I was listening to, incidentally, was “Insatiable.” This is the same.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: A few of Girls Aloud’s songs — I’m thinking “Watch Me Go” and “Long Hot Summer” — are proof that Coyle knows how to have fun and communicate this to the listener effecively. By contrast, this proves that she’s capable of showing no convincing sense of enjoyment but willing to be forced through the motions in service of what is perceived to lead to a hit. I don’t know what’s worse, really: the shamelessness inherent in the process, her boredom despite the obvious hunger, or the inept Ultra Nate-lite (Ultra-lite Nate?) powder-puff itself.
[3]
Brad Shoup: If I read one more Wikipedia page with the phrase “is a singer, songwriter, actress, and model,” I’m going to defenestrate some office hardware. I don’t care a whit about her pop pedigree; I can barely imagine a Real Housewife singing this.
[2]
Ian Mathers: Never let anyone tell you that Jukebox scoring isn’t (partly) contextual; I would be at least slightly more well-disposed towards “Sweetest High” if Tove Styrke and Florrie hadn’t already hit this kind of song so solidly out of the ballpark this week. “Sweetest High” has some of the sonics down, but the lyrics/vocal performance just don’t have the depth and shading of “High and Low” or “I Took a Little Something.” I guess if you’re a sucker (like I am) for that kind of emotional richness in your dance pop singles, it’s intrinsically harder to find it in this kind of “isn’t clubbing aweosme!!!” song, but not impossible. For example, err, Girls Aloud managed it repeatedly. Here, Nadine gives it some gusto, but she might as well be the Dancebot 3000.
[6]
Alfred Soto: She hungers for energy, she says. Which makes two of us.
[1]
Michaela Drapes: It’s catchy enough, this bland and perfunctory paint-by-numbers club banger. I’d like to care that it’s Nadine singing, but I just can’t be bothered.
[3]
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