Tangled Up - Music (Girls Aloud)

Watch your backs, people, for the armour-plated Girls Aloud stretch hit-machine is swinging in to dock again and it will not wait for you to move out of the way. Au contraire--it literally has you in its full-beams. The girl group that many had, as a matter of course, written off the moment the TV talent show they won ceased transmission, hit the ground dancing furiously with album number four, covering as dizzying a myriad of styles as we have grown accustomed to, courtesy of celebrated pop production house Xenomania, with all the propulsive force of a freshly cracked atom (and the ability to still apply their make up without smudging). Tangled Up is draped in neon with strobe lights matching every throb of its very up-for-it pulse--there's plenty for clubland to get excited about from the sleek Kylie-esque "Call the Shots", 80s chart-house of "Girl Overboard" and full-on drum `n' bass (with not a hint of irony) on `What You Crying For'. Elsewhere the likes of the excellent styled disco "Can't Speak French", Gwen Stefani overtones on the irresistible "Black Jacks" and vocoder future-power-funk of "Sexy! No No No..." amount to some of the best material they've released. If you wanted to be critical you could deem them mere mannequins off which these peerlessly crafted songs hang, but everything's such a perfect fit those complaints seem moot. Sets a high benchmark for pop music in 2007. --James Berry