The Sound of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits

The Sound of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits anthology by British and Irish all-female pop group Girls Aloud. It was released in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2006 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, making it Girls Aloud's first number one album.^[1] As of February 2009, it reached sales of over a million copies.^[2] The album has sold 1,000,000 copies worldwide, and continues to re-enter the top 75 on the UK Singles Charts to this day.

Background

The album includes Girls Aloud's first twelve singles from their three studio albums, two brand new singles ("Something Kinda Ooooh" and "I Think We're Alone Now"), and an additional new track entitled "Money". A limited edition with a bonus disc of rarities was also available.

Until three days before the greatest hits was manufactured, the Tiffany cover "I Think We're Alone Now" was going to be a cover of Irene Cara's "What A Feeling".^[3] Girls Aloud had called their record label on a Friday afternoon to say they'd rather record "I Think We're Alone Now" — the group recorded the song the following morning and the album was mastered on Monday, three days afterwards.^[3] The bonus disc was planned to include "Wicked Game",^[4] a cover of the Chris Isaak song that was planned for a single release in May 2005.^[5] A demo version of "Love Machine" was also included on the tracklisting,^[4] but instead appeared on the Popjustice: 100% Solid Pop Music compilation. However, other unreleased singles incluing "Some Kind Of Miracle" (Single Mix) was also supposed to be added to the album list however was removed indefinitely due to the complexity of the album. Girls Aloud manager, Hillary Shaw confirmed that the singles would have been included but we "Polydor" decided to use the official singles instead of unreleased tracks, but might be included on the next complimation of Girls Aloud: Greatest Hits.

Release

The Sound of Girls Aloud was released in Ireland on 27 October 2006, with a United Kingdom release occurring the following Monday. In addition to the standard edition of the album, a limited edition with a bonus disc was also released.^[6] The bonus disc contained unreleased songs (such as the Chemistry outtake "Singapore"), alternate versions of their singles (including the "Wake Me Up" demo), and various other material. The second pressing of the album included the single version of "I Think We're Alone Now", which is drastically different to the original version included. Along with Girls Aloud's first three studio albums, The Sound of Girls Aloud was released to the US iTunes Store on 26 June 2007.

Singles

The lead single taken from this album, "Something Kinda Ooooh", entered the UK Singles Chart at number five on download sales alone, a first for a British act.^[7] It peaked at number three the following week. It was the 36th best-selling single of 2006 in the United Kingdom.^[8] The second and final single to be taken from the greatest hits compilation was their version of "I Think We're Alone Now". The song managed to reach number four on the UK Singles Chart upon its Christmas week release, then remaining in the top ten for a second week.

Cover

The cover features the British union flag and is meant to include the Irish tricolour. It originally only featured the union flag until Nadine Coyle (from Derry, Northern Ireland) demanded the inclusion of the Irish tricolour. However, the cover actually features a horizontally flipped Irish flag, which is in fact the flag of Côte d'Ivoire.^[9]

Reception

The album received glowing reviews from all critics. Talia Kraines of BBC Music called it "a journey through the most exciting and daring pop music of recent times" and went on to add that "this reality band has surpassed all expectations".^[11] Paul Scott of Stylus Magazine described it as "an irreverent party through the last 30 odd years of pop, taking inspiration from the most unexpected of places" and hailed Girls Aloud as "the finest singles band Britain has produced this decade".^[15] Allmusic's Andy Kellman noticed that it "makes for an ideal introduction to Girls Aloud" and called it "a straightforward compilation that adds three new songs ... which will likely keep the group's remarkable streak of dominance afloat" and concluded by stating that Girls Aloud is "a group that has never had any form of stateside push".^[10] John Murphy of musicOMH gave a raving review and complimented all the songs, saying that they are "15 glorious examples of how to create joyful, hook-filled pop music that will sound timeless for many years to come". He felt that each song is "ridiculously catchy and packed with elements that you just won't hear anywhere else" as well as "positively overflowing with freshness, originality and wit". He went on to hail the band as "the greatest singles act since Blondie in their heyday" and described the album as "pure pop at its very best [which] should be a compulsory purchase for anyone even remotely interested in pop music".^[13]

Dan Cairns of The Times gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "these endearingly stroppy, gobby, messy girls breeze and brawl through unimpeachable, sugar-rush pop singles such as Something Kinda Ooooh, The Show and Sound of the Underground".^[16] Pitchfork Media's Tim Finney described the album as "a whirlwind trip through bizarre but lovable pop gadgetry that may leave the uninitiated reeling". He complimented on the songs' "deathless hooks and multi-genre pyrotechnics" and praised their diversity by saying that they start "from new wave drum & bass and expand[ing] to embrace elements of electroclash, big beat, and even skiffle, [while being] stuffed to the gills with two, three, sometimes four different choruses, sounding like patchwork assemblages of the best bits of a hundred fantasy pop songs, smoothly and effortlessly changing gears at a moment's notice."^[14] Leonie Cooper of The Guardian characterized the album as "slick ... near-faultless high-octane pop all the way", however she felt that the ballads were not really necessary, as "Girls Aloud sound far more exciting when they're simply having fun".^[12] Finally, Adam Webb from Yahoo! Music felt that the ballads and cover versions drag the collection down, but concluded by saying that "Girls Aloud have been the best British pop band of the new millennium".^[17]

Track listings and formats

Charts and certification

The Sound of Girls Aloud was the group's first LP to top the UK albums chart when it was released in 2006. It was the 16th best-selling album of the year.

After its first chart run in 2006, The Sound of Girls Aloud returned to the UK Albums Chart for several weeks in 2008, peaking at number 44. This came at the time of their fifth studio album and overall sixth album Out of Control. On 4 January 2009, the collection managed to re-enter the top ten at number six, partly thanks to it being sold for as little as £3 at music retailers such as HMV. Therefore, the band had two albums in the Top 10 at the same time: The Sound of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits at number six, and Out of Control at number ten. The album left the top ten the following week, only to return to number ten the week after.

The Sound of Girls Aloud has been recognised by the IFPI as a million-seller.^[2]

References