The Singles Jukebox

Pop, to two decimal places.

Sugababes – Get Sexy

It’s a collage…



[Video][Website]
[3.92]

Iain Mew: Amelle is bluffin’ with her muffin, the synths ape “Boom Boom Pow” and the “Shut up and watch me walk!” exclamation is basically The Ting Tings. That’s before we get onto the trainwreck chorus, which manages to take Right Said Fred’s comedy posturing and make it both less coherent and, seriously, less believable. Playing spot the steal is the only way to salvage any fun here.
[2]

Ian Mathers: I usually like Sugababes, and I like “I’m Too Sexy”, but I think I’d prefer it if they just did a straight up Right Said Fred cover. And then the intro to this just makes me think of Girls Aloud’s “Sexy! No, No, No”, which just makes me want to turn this off and that on.
[4]

Edward Okulicz: Personnel changes aside, how did they go from “Run For Cover” and “Freak Like Me” to this? Right Said Fred, “My Humps”, some very dated Europop, a bit of “SexyBack” and goodness knows what else, all put in a blender until it’s got the consistency and quality you’d expect from such a mess. Rather than write a compelling song, which in the past wasn’t an issue for the girls and their producers, they’ve looked at their recent lack of success (which was down to bad songs) and incorrectly assumed it was because they couldn’t cut it in this post-Gaga landscape and gone and tried to create some kind of Frankenstein’s monster out of the last couple of summers’ worth of pop. And what comes out is not just bad, but creatively bankrupt, calculated, cynical and deeply embarrassing.
[1]

Alex Macpherson: A welcome change of direction: “Pussycat Dolls-style banger” is infinitely preferable to either the soporific ’60s pastiches with which the ‘Babes were last seen boring us senseless, or the cheapo, trebly electroshit currently blighting our charts.
[6]

Sophie Green: Their once distinctive voices have blended into a characterless pop girl hybrid, a sort of generic “ft.” vocalist.
[3]

John Seroff: Every element, from the THX-opening squeal to the hypertypical stuttering anti-climax, is lifted from other, better-known sources; it’s a sort of pop smoothie. That said, it’s also very fun.
[7]

Martin Skidmore: I guess they have gone for this kind of overtly contemporary American sound to have another go at cracking there – and because only one of their last five singles has gone top ten here. Good luck to them – they’ve been one of the most consistently superb acts of the decade.
[8]

Martin Kavka: This is elitist bullshit: the Sugababes are too sexy to be in this club, but for those who are not as sexy as they are, they encourage you to dance (even if you only “feel sexy,” although you may not be in actuality). This is offensive bullshit: the video places the Sugababes in cages and handcuffs. This is boring bullshit: once you know that the song is mainly a hard-house version of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy,” it sounds just like you expect. God, this is such bullshit.
[0]

Anthony Miccio: Sexy like the alien in Species, leading us on with the verse only to joylessly jam their tongues through our skulls on the chorus.
[5]

Alex Ostroff: The girls’ marvelous pose as sassy spoken-word boss bitches gets completely undercut by the awkward and unnecessary interpolation that serves as a chorus. The Sugababes new label owner at Roc Nation may be too sexy for jail like he’s Right Said Fred, but Get Sexy is guilty of high treason against good taste.
[4]

Additional Scores

Chuck Eddy: [4]
Keane Tzong: [3]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments