Sometimes you just have to roll with the surefire selections of the random jukebox, and today it picked Call The Shots by Girls Aloud; a defiant, pristine slice of pop perfection so admired by Pet Shop Boys that they snaffled the Xenomania production team for their next album, Yes.
It‘s easy to forget that Girls Aloud were a pre-fabricated band that came out of yet another reality/talent show. That in itself is some testament to how the quintessential quintet not only matched their original brief but clearly exceeded it. A rash of positive reviews greeted Call The Shots and its parent album Tangled Up, as it generally did with latter-day Girls Aloud releases. Happily, there is a willing for them to succeed and become The Supremes of our generation, or at least something similar.
Oh, hello then Bananarama, you fruity minxes, you.
This isn’t them.
Call The Shots marked a change in the sound of Girls Aloud and simply is one of the most perfect pop songs. That soaring chorus, their vocals that have never sounded better before, the lyrics, the subtle way the backing vocals are produced; everything about it is like a warm bath. Did I just die and end up in Synth-pop Heaven!?
Not at all coincidentally, the 45 entered the UK singles chart ten years ago today. The 1st of December 2007 also happened to be my father’s 60th birthday. And no, he doesn’t fancy Cheryl Whatverherlastnameistoday.
Well, not as much as me anyway.
Happy birthday Dad.
Steve Pafford
