Sugababes - Sweet 7

As pop groups go the Sugababes have seen more than their fair share of controversy. With numerous accounts of infighting and the current line-up no longer baring any resemblance to the three teenagers who first emerged on the pop scene in 2000, there are many claiming that the current line-up of Heidi, Amelle and newcomer Jade Ewen have no right to perform under the Sugababe name. Sweet 7 marks the first album containing none of the founding members with Keisha Buchanan having been ousted last September, so can the girls live up to the name they have now inherited?

That is really an unfair question since the Sugababes have never been able to recover since the departure of Mutya Buena back in 2005 with falling album sales and singles only reaching the Top 10 if they are either the first off a new album or if they are released during controversy. Mutya’s departure also led to the increasing sexualisation of the group which ironically transformed them from the sexy chic band who were critically lauded into one who utilised songs featured in pharmaceutical adverts in order to create a half-decent single.

With Sweet 7, the overwhelming thought that goes through the head is why did it need to be created? True, the singles ‘Get Sexy’ and ‘About A Girl’ marked a slight recovery in their song credentials with the latter being their first decent single since ‘Denial’. As such, with an apparent increased care and attention to their singles, the attention of the hopeful fan contingent sat up and took notice. Maybe for the first time in years the group had finally pulled their socks up and concocted the modern pop album that would be a true successor to the pop-masterpiece that was 2004’s Taller In More Ways.

Sadly this is not the case, with Sweet 7 actually being a rather painful exercise in pop music. The main problem is that the cohesion has now well and truly vanished (in no small part due to the departure of founder Sugababe Keisha) with each song being a mix of solo performances rather than the group harmony that always gave them the edge over rival group Girls Aloud. Now the album has more or less become a competition between Amelle and newcomer Jade with them apparently hashing it out on most tracks whilst Heidi rocks back-andforth in the corner desperately trying to keep the group together (as, let’s face it, she isn’t an original Sugababe but she has been around for 6 albums and is as good as).

Sweet 7 also displays how the Sugababes are no longer writing their own songs and instead having to sing what they are told by new record label Roc Nation. One such song is ‘Miss Everything’ which is a mindless collaboration with Sean Kingston, showcasing one of the many reasons that this group should be allowed to die. Also rather damning is the excessive use of Autotune on many of the tracks, in particular ‘She’s A Mess’, a trick that the Sugababes never had to use before. As a group they had a sound, they had a message and above all they had a member who was able to take promotional photos without baring her teeth like some form of SugaShark.

If you are a Sugababe fan the best advice is to not listen to this album at all, not even for free on Spotify. Just flick through your iPod, put the first four albums on in chronological order and start to mourn. The Sugababes are now officially dead.

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