Catfights and Spotlights

Description

The sixth chapter in the life of Britain’s most indefatigable all-girl pop group finds Heidi, Keisha and Amelle facing a new generation of female pop competition. The question: to take on modern soul songstresses like Duffy and Adele at their own game, or turn up the glitz and war it out from the dancefloor? Catfights and Spotlights hedges its bets, which is to say it does a bit of everything. Luckily, it does it mostly well: the opening “Girls”, a horn-led pop-soul number is mostly shallow and unconvincing, but “Sunday Rain” is a tear-stained, vintage-flavoured torch song with husky vocals and rolling piano, and a handful of songs penned by Britney/Robyn songwriter Klas Ahlund are smart and original. “You on a Good Day”, in particular, stands out, a stomping Northern Soul number dealing with the predicaments of a dundering partner: “That’s you on a good day/Disaster is always just a beat away/But I’m sticking with you anyway”. The album highlight, however, comes with “Side Chick”, fluttering R&B from the perspective of the girl that won’t be shared, fatalistic about the prospects of getting her man, but too in love not to try. --Louis Pattison