Hits 21 - 2008 (5): Kings of Leon, Pink, Girls Aloud

Episode Date: April 28, 2024

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every UK #1 hit single of the 21st century - from January 2000, right through to the present day. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail] Vault: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5O5MHJUIQIUuf0Jv0Peb3C?si=e4057fb450f648b0 Piehole: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2FmWkwasjtq5UkjKqZLcl4

Oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh Everybody was kung fu fighting Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21 where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Lizzie all look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century from January 2000 right through to the present day. If you want to get in touch with us you can find us over on Twitter, we are at Hits21UK and feel free to email us, just send it on over to hits21podcast at gmail.com.

Thank you so much for joining us again, we are currently looking back at the year 2008, almost at the end of 2008 now, because this week we'll be covering the period between the 14th of September and the 1st of November. So almost, almost up to our Christmas episode for 2008. Last week, poll winner, Dizzy Rascal, Calvin Harris and Chrome, Dance With Me. Walked away with it in the end actually. I Kissed A Girl got a couple of votes got a few votes there but Dance With Me was the clear winner there. Before we begin this week's episode you might have noticed that we brought

you in with Carl Douglas this week instead of our usual theme and Andy is here to explain why so feel free to take it away Andy. Thank you Rob yes I just wanted to break from the norm to briefly pay tribute to a member of my family not Carl Douglas but I have kept it under my hat all this time that actually I have a family member who has two UK number ones. Yes I'm not having him on there, nothing that we've covered so far. However my uncle called Frank McDonald, my great uncle, he sadly passed away a few weeks ago and I was hoping to pay tribute to him in a couple of months time because it would have been the 50th anniversary of a number one single that

he appeared on, which was indeed Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas. So my uncle Frank, he was a session bassist, a studio bassist for all sorts of artists in the 70s, 80s, even into the 90s, and he played the bass on Kung Fu Fighting. Not any kind of knock-off, there's no catch to that. He plays the bass on Kung Fu Fighting. You have heard that bass a million times, and that's my uncle Frank, Frank McDonald. So that's his first number one that he had and that was number one in September 1974. At the time of recording it's April 2024 and I was planning to do a big celebration of the 50th anniversary of his number one in September but he has sadly passed away but I wanted to celebrate it anyway and it's not his only number one. He also plays the bass on I love to love by Tina Charles, which

reached number one in 1976. And if you have a look at the name, Frank McDonald, which I'm going to post on our social media, post his, um, discogs page and some information about him and some appearances and top of the pops and stuff like that. He was very well traveled. Uh, and I think probably one of the most impressive facts about him is that he entered a song for Eurovision in 1976. He co-wrote the song,

"'Do You Believe in Love at First Sight' by Polly Brown, which entered to the selection competition, a song for Europe in 1976 and finished fifth out of 12. So not too bad overall. It was beaten by Save Your Kisses for Me by Brotherhood of Man which won Eurovision that year. So yes in the year that we won Eurovision in 1976, yes one of the songs that was up was written, co-written at least, by my uncle Frank. So yes two UK number ones, a whole host of TV and studio appearances and all sorts and a Eurovision

entry to his name. I just wanted to pay tribute to my uncle, Frank McDonald, to wish him well wherever he's going now and post that all over our social media to celebrate the life of my uncle Frank. So thank you for allowing me the time to do that. And I hope you will all look into him and learn a few more things about him. He was very interesting and very, very lovely man. He'll be very sorely missed. Very lovely tribute, Andy. And thank you, Andy.

Yeah, no, there's really not much of a way to follow it. So we will press on with this week's episode. And as always, it is time for some news headlines from around the time. The songs we're covering in this week's episode were at number one in the UK. The 2008 international bank crash begins, in earnest, when the Lehman Brothers, an American bank, files for bankruptcy. The crash sparked a great recession, which at the time was the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s. Around the same time, several other banks and investment firms either collapsed or merged with other companies.

In Switzerland, scientists switch on the Large Hadron Collider for the first time. The particle accelerator aimed to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang in order to better understand how the Earth and surrounding solar system were formed. Situated at CERN, the LHD is still the largest operational particle collider in the world. And I do remember those one or two weeks where we all thought there was a small chance of the world being destroyed in a black hole because of that. Good times. And the crash site of American businessman and pilot Steve Fossett is found on the border of Nevada and California over a year after his death.

Fossett, who was 63 when he died, had been flying a small aircraft when it crashed into the Ritter Mountains. And 10 people are killed when a gunman attacks a college in Finland. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Tropic Thunder for two weeks, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People for one week, The House Bunny for 1 Week, Burn After Reading for 1 Week and High School Musical 3, Senior Year for 1 Week. The BBC receives a record number of complaints after a pre-recorded edition of the Russell Brand show causes outrage on Radio 2. Brand and his guest star Jonathan Ross recorded themselves

making lewd prank calls to the actor Andrew Sacks, chiefly concerning Brand's relationship with Sacks' granddaughter Georgina Bailey. Afterwards the BBC were fined £150,000 and Brand resigned from the show. And also at the National Television Awards, David Tennant uses his live acceptance speech for winning Best Actor to announce his upcoming departure from Doctor Who. His successor will be announced in the new year. I wonder who it is. And in football, Sheikh Mansoor completes his £200 million takeover of Manchester City Football Club.

Mansoor's Abu Dhabi United group assumed full control of the business, wiped out over £300 million worth of debts, and made Manchester City the richest club in world football at the time. What a day September 1st was. Andy, album charts, how are they doing at the moment? So we opened this period with Death Magnetic by Metallica at number one for two weeks going platinum. I know, yeah.

It went number one for two weeks before that's toppled by the highest selling album of the year retrospectively that is. So earlier in the year we had Rock Fairy by Duffy which within 2008 was the highest selling album of the year. But we've got one that has sold more since going 10 times platinum and number one for two weeks, it is Only By The Night by Kings of Leon. Yeah. Yeah.

I did have that album and I found it somewhat underwhelming to say the least. Yeah. So that spends two weeks at the top before that is toppled by the final studio album from Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul, which went to number one for one week and went double platinum. Only double platinum, that's a bit of a sign of the times for Oasis. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. After that, it's One Week at the Top and Single Platinum for Perfect Symmetry

by Keen. And finally, we close out this period with some more classic rock with ACDC with their album Black Ice, which went number one for one week and went platinum. So yeah, we've got Metallica, Kings of Leon, Oasis, Keen and ACDC. Lizzie, how are the states at the moment? Well, for the most part, this period is taken up by whatever you like by TI, but there are a couple of one-weekers in there as well.

The first of these is So What by Pink, which spent one week at number one in the US and was her second US number one single after Lady Marmalade in 2001. We will talk a little bit more about So What later, but before then we have Live Your Life by T.I. again featuring Rihanna. It was T.I.'s second singles hit number one in the US and the second this year for T.I. and was eventually certified three times platinum. It spent six weeks at number one in the US and just missed out on the top spot in the UK peaking at number two in November of this year. Finally for singles this week we have Womanizer by Britney Spears. Can you... Right, this is unbelievable by the way. It was her first single to hit number one in the US

since Baby One More Time in 1999. That's mad, isn't it? Wow, I'm gonna have to look at where they all ended up because there's at least three or four that I just think surely... at where they all ended up because there's at least three or four that I just think surely. We had like three or four here. We had... Toxic, oops I did it again, every time. That's extraordinary. Wow. Yeah. So that was eventually certified six times platinum and it spent one week at the Mourn in the US and also narrowly missed out on the top spot in the UK, peaking at number three in December of this year. So over to albums first up this week is All Hope Is Gone by Slipknot. One week at number

one in the US, number two in the UK. Then we have The Recession by Young Jeezy, very timely. One week failed to chart in the UK because it was a recession. I thought you were just gonna say then, Ben we have the recession. Then we had the recession. Then we had Young GZ. Then we had Death Magnetic by Metallica. Three weeks, as you've already mentioned, Andy, also got to number one in the UK. Next up was Paper Trail by TI.

One week, only number 42 in the UK. That's still better than Lucky Old Son by Kenny Chesney, which spent one week at number one, but failed to chart in the UK. And that's it from me this week. Thank you both very much for those reports. We are going to move on now to the first song that we're going to be covering this week, which is this. Play where you're laying Don't make a sound I know the watching Watching all the promotions That kill our faith

Have people talking Talking Yeah, oh Dissex is on fire Just like a civil fire The dog of the alley The bregan of day The head while I'm driving I'm driving

The sockets are open The knuckles are pale It feels like you're dying Okay, this is Sex On Fire by Kings Of Leon. Released as the lead single from the band's fourth studio album, titled Only By The Night, Sex On Fire is Kings Of Leon's 10th single overall to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2024, it is their last. Sex On Fire went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, knocking Katy Perry off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for three weeks! In its first week atop the charts, it stayed at number 1 for 3 weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 45,000 copies, beating competition from Thank You For A Lifetime by Cliff Richard, which got to number 3. In week 2, it sold 51,000 copies, beating competition from Lies by McFly,

which climbed to number 4, Cookie Jar by Gym Class Heroes which climbed to number 6, Miss Independent by Nioh which climbed to number 9 and Changes by Will Young which got to number 10. And in week 3 it sold 45,000 copies, beating competition from In This City by Igloo and Hartley which climbed to number 5, You Make It Real by James Morrison, which got to number 7, Girls by Sugar Babes, which got to number 8 and There You'll Be by Faith Hill, which re-entered the chart at number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Sex on Fire dropped 1 place to number 2.

It initially left the top 100 in, get this, May 2010, but re-entered the chart in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and was most recently back in the chart as of April 2024. Why? It has currently spent a total of 127 weeks. Inside the Top 100, the song is currently officially certified 5 times platinum, so just like Viva La Vida, it is quintuple platinum in the UK as of 2024. Andy, Kings of Leon, Sex on Fire, you owned the album, how do you feel? Oh god, yeah, I mean that's a bit of a regrettable purchase for me. But I think every- well, not everybody, I won't speak for everyone, but so many people just bought that album on a whim because they thought, you know, it's got to be something to this, got to be something that The Fuss is all about. And that is entirely why I bought it.

I didn't buy it because I liked this song or because I was in any way, like, being swept up in Kings of Leon in this moment. I bought that album because I thought there must be something I'm missing here because Sex on Fire does not do it for me and neither did You Somebody and I thought there must be something that I'm missing because why is this so popular? And it's not me kind of trying to wave around my street cred by saying even at the time I felt that way, but I really did. I felt so out of the loop on this one because it had already been number one, I assume, by the time that this came around. Like I hadn't listened to it until way after it was popular and

I was listening to it and I remember listening to it while walking through Liverpool after college one day and just I put it on like five times on the run on my iPod and I thought What am I not hearing that everyone else is hearing? This is just like any basic Like any off-the-rack indie track like why is this took off in such a big way? And I still don't understand 16 years later. I think All I can really think of I'm sorry is the most kind of snobby, most insulting thing I can say about it,

which is that it's so basic that it can't fail. It's just, it's lowest common denominator music, which I said that about all summer long. And I do think this sits in that same world, unfortunately, that it's not really got a hook at all. It's got the most basic, inoffensive little guitar thing ever at the beginning of the,

womp, womp, womp, womp, which is just sort of like something that you too would have dismissed for being suit to boring. And other than that, it mentions the word sex. So that's interesting, isn't it? Like shrug, shrug. I don't know. I really don't know why this was so big. And it's rubbish. I think the worst sin is that it's actually really boring

despite the fact that it's very upbeat and that it's about having sex and it was such a huge hit. It's really boring. There's just very little to it. And I'm really struggling to find things about it that I like because I really did try because I thought this must be a big, huge classic for some reason or other. And most of the other ones that sit in that category like Mr. Brightside for example I can

kind of see the appeal of whereas with this all I can really pull out of it is that it does have a big kind of driving rhythm to it that you could kind of bop your head to it put it on in the car sing along to it but like that's that's really it and that's so bass level. There's been so many other rock songs of this era that didn't make it to number one that should have done and I think the fact that this is what's cutting through something as uninspired as this is part of a bit of a broader picture that's happening at this time that is sort of the death of rock music in the UK at least to be honest. I think it's a triple punch between this, Viva La Vida to some extent because I think that moves like one of the more popular

rock bands in the UK basically away from guitars and Human by the Killers which I know I won't be alone in thinking that but these all coincided around the same time and it felt like the indie bubble was bursting with huge force and at huge speed. It was a very sad time to be honest for the bubble to be bursting and for like mums and nanas and all of our families to be listening to something like this as if it was cool and it's like like, this isn't cool. This is really bad. Like it's really boring. And the likes of, you know, awesome getting to number one with No Tomorrow,

you know, just random things like that, or even Razorlight getting to number one with America. It's just, those days are over now because this kind of generic schlock is what's in in 2008. It's the last thing that can really be called a rock song at all that gets number one for a very long time as far as I can remember and that's a really sad thing to be going out on this note. I think it's only recently been broken hasn't it that something got to number one a few weeks

ago in in real time that's a rock song but yeah it's a very very sad note for basically a whole genre to be bowing out on it on the charts. And I think it is purely a case of like dumbing down to the extent that the genre is no longer interesting and it loses pace with the rest of the industry. It's really sad. If I could find one thing to compare it to, the song it reminds me of the most is Dakota, which sits in that world as well. You don't say. sits in that world as well of being very basic but like everybody loves it. I think Dakota is a much better song than this to be honest. I think this is some combination of a total fluke, probably good marketing and word of mouth that sent it viral in an emperor's new clothes kind of way. I've got nothing else. It's boring, it's rubbish. can we not play it anymore let's move on

yeah before I start this I will say that we are now like on the on the podcast we are now firmly in the era of me starting to just fully dislike a lot of radio pop you know at this point in my life I've spent the last kind of 12 to 18 months discovering that you can find great music on the internet that's not really getting played on mainstream stations and then getting annoyed when those songs and artists don't get added to popular playlists and stuff like that. You know, at the age of 14, I feel like the charts have stopped representing me, you know, like proper Morrissey type, you know, the music, there's nothing to me about my life, you know, but like, so just making it clear that

like the next few years of the podcast are going to cover my eventual journey away from pop, you know, like this podcast has kind of inadvertently covered my kind of experience with pop as like, you know, when I'm really small, something that I don't quite understand but want to get in touch with, to being a fully active participant listening to the radio all the time, to someone who still listens to the radio all the time out of habit but doesn't like the songs that are being played anymore, to someone who by like 2012 just doesn't listen to the radio anymore and is kind of on another planet with the music that I'm listening to and Kind of turning my nose up everything that's on the radio

But going back through the charts of this time more recently I think I've realized there's a good chunk of stuff that's gone up in my estimation now that I you know I don't now I don't just live in opposition to it Like I don't define my existence by how much I hate the things on the radio. You know, like especially things in like 2009, you know, for years, I thought 2009, I had it down as a just a bad year for number ones. But I think it's probably stronger than, say, 2004, which I remembered a bit more fondly. And it's, you know, I think one of the best things about doing this podcast

actually is that I can sort of pat my 14, 15 year old self on the head and be really patronizing with him about how we just needed to live a little longer and cool down and grow up and not try to find, not try to find a resident, you know, like find resonance in the last minute or so of panic by the Smiths. But Sex on Fire is not one of those situations. When I talked to my 14 year old self about this song, he laughed back at me this week because he's always hated it and I think he was always completely justified. I always go back into the Sex on Fire thinking,

surely you don't hate it as much as you think. Like, you know, you like Molly's chambers and bits of A-Ha Shake, Heartbreak, you always lament that rock music doesn't really feature in the charts much after 2008, surely, you know, give Sex on Fire a break, you know? But then it starts and... Ugh... Grrr... Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go and in a lot of ways... yeah, yeah, it's those rubber hammers coming back out again beating me over the head. In a lot of

ways though I appreciate Sex on Fire because over the years it's helped me work out what ideas are in pop music and I will stress that an idea in songwriting isn't the same as an idea in real life. Because like an idea is like, oh, I have an idea. And then you follow that through. It's kind of different in music, I think. Because there are differences, I think, between ideas and hooks, between ideas and chord sequences,

and between ideas and melodies. And I have worked out over the years that this song has no ideas. Literally just I go looking for ideas every time I listen to this and it has none. The opening riff is not an idea. As someone who plays guitar that's not that isn't an idea that's just something that happens by accident when you're running through scales. It's not really a riff at all. No it isn't really it's it's just something that happens by accident when you're running through scales. It's not really a riff at all It isn't really it's it's just something that happens when you're doing basic finger exercises That opening vocal melody. It's not an idea. It's a practice rehearsal thing that they've decided to repeat the chorus isn't an idea It's just one line of melody that hasn't had anything done to it

It's probably the first thing they came up with hasn't had anything done to it. It's probably the first thing they came up with when they were writing it. This whole song has this feeling of like being a toss-off that's like a label exec heard and went, ooh I could turn that into a single! Because not a lot else, I'm not really a big fan of Only By The Night, but not a lot else on the album actually sounds like this in terms of the way that the songs are structured and stuff. It feels like, you know, last month of the recording, can we get a single single just quickly knock something together guys um the one bit that sounds like an idea is the bit towards the end when they do the chorus slightly softer and they chop the chords up a bit

where the chords go do do do do do do do but that's not really an idea either it's just the same two sections repeated forever and ever and it really drives me at the wall this, like how underwritten it is. Where are the vocal harmonies? Where are the counter melodies? Where are the overlapping guitar parts? Synth pads? Like anything, you know there's so much empty space in this song and they do, they don't fill it with anything, they don't even try to fill it with anything. I also think I blame this for the emergence of something we discussed away from the podcast on Twitter a couple of weeks ago this idea you know corporate pop rock that sounds a bit like post El Camino

black keys you know the TC Tuggers commercial from I think you should leave yeah things like imagine dragons or like any band who has tried to write their own Seven Nation Army or that fucking, is it Portugal the Man, the uh, I can't finish that line. Cannot finish that line. That song makes me feel physically fucking sick every time I'm out. I have to, it's one of a few songs where I have a physical visceral reaction. I have to get out of whatever situation I'm in if that song is ever playing. If I'm in a supermarket, I will leave. If I'm in a car, I'll get out. If I'm in a room, I will walk through a door. I hate it. It's horrible. That chorus line is...

It lives somewhere within me constantly gnawing at my organs. But where with Viva La Vida, it just kind of happened by accident afterwards because the song just happened to catch on Despite being you know, like a pretty unusual bit of pop. I completely agree with you Andy I think this is just straight kind of like lowest common denominator like deliberate attempt to just make a noise that vaguely sounds like alternative rock but has no sense of development or progression or grit and crucially as well, I think given the title no sex either zero sex in this song and your song is called sex on fire where's the sex where's the fire it just all feels like a bit of an ironic like

because I know that the original version was like set us on fire and they realized it sounded like sex and they were like, oh that's a funny joke. And that's without getting into the similarities with Dakota, which you mentioned Andy and make me feel like I've heard the song before. I think this is the simultaneous peak and death of the whole alternative indie movement of the mid-2000s. I just think this is an empty, vapid nothing. I just think this is an empty vapid nothing. Like you know that bit at the end of season three of the thick of it where the opposition gets the fucker in? Yeah. And part of his speech that he says to everyone is, this used to be a green and pleasant land,

now it's the colour of the fucking BBC weather map. It looks like anemic dogshit and that anemic dogshit description It's just this it's so I can't I find this offensively anemic actually, I find this to be so empty and substance less and just Yeah, and every time I listen to it. I think oh you're being harsh You're being harsh and I don't want people who like this song to feel like you know that they're like you know I don't want to feel like I'm insulting their

intelligence or anything like that but it just it's got to the point with this song where it just hurts like personally I I wish I didn't care so much about pop music when songs come along like this because I know that I would be happier in life if I could hear a song like this and just go oh yeah you know me decent foot tapper that one I just wish I could feel ambivalence towards this but I don't Lizzy how about you? To say something in its favour it's not use somebody. Yeah small mercies indeed. Yeah, no it isn't. Use Somebody sounds like what dental,

local anesthetic feels like. The best way I can describe it, it's not good. It's a horrible, horrible song. And yeah, going forward, there's a lot more mainstream indie rock like this, which is big, overproduced stadium rock things like this and glass vegas and the vaccines and that gives way to the the festival core sound like mumford and sons and the lumineers i mean indie rock in general in the uk was kind and winding

down at this point a lot of it a lot of that post-arctic monkeys boom had turned into like your dad with a paul weller haircut like the courtina's that sort of shit so I think it was kind of a matter of time I don't think this killed it I think this was just the peak before a very long trough just like like the top of a roller coaster and then you're straight down this is this is it like before now a lot of the best indie music had a chance of breaking into the charts and even hitting the top spot but the best indie music of 2009 and beyond doesn't come within an arse's roar of the top 40. This combined with the financial crash meant that labels were much less willing to take a chance on an indie band, and especially not if they don't sound

like this, because that's what sells. I mean, to talk about the song itself, it is, as you say, it's bland, it's predictable, it's overproduced, and to top it all off, it's a blatant rip-off of Dakota the Stereophonics. Same key, same melody, same tempo, you name it. Worst of all is Caleb Follwell's vocal on this. It's like he exists in a world without consonants or like he's singing with a mouthful of peanut butter, like he's barely saying words. It's like the Cocktoeeau twins would be proud. It's just a really depressing experience listening to in isolation, but more so for me because I associate this with a place and time. I associate this with, well, late 2008 when I've just got my first job

and that just happens to coincide with the arse falling out of the world and and that just happens to coincide with the arse falling out of the world and the old world I knew growing up very quickly sort of, well, dying. It just kind of all comes to a grinding halt and yet here I am trying to find my way in it just like a wayward 16-17 year old, like trying to go in on things like nights out and hearing this everywhere. And for me, this has been the soundtrack to far too many Irish exits from bad nights out. This is just what the end of the party sounds like for me.

It's all I associate it with. It does tend to clear the dance floor these days. Does it? I thought it was one of those like Mr. Bright side where everyone goes, ah, it's this. It definitely was that for the longest time, but I think this is starting to die now. I think- Good, thank God.

There is a secret kind of list of songs that DJs have for that for when they wanna clear the dance floor without making it incredibly obvious. They don't put on the Millennium Prayer or something like that, but this is one. I've been told that like, it doesn't sound like they're winding the party down, but if you put this on,

it will generally clear the floor a little bit if you put this on. Yeah. These days, yeah, I think it is finally starting to die a little bit, this song, which I'm glad. Yeah. I think to be honest, the one thing that sends this over the edge is just the chorus, because

it's just... And then that's... And then they do it again. And it's just... Again, it's this... It's kind of like what I was saying about how... When that instrumental section, the... Well, kind of instrumental section, but when

that kind of bit of Viva La Vida comes in, the, um, but it comes in at the end and it's like, well, yeah, bit of a release there, but this is the start of people thinking, oh, we'll just do that at the start. We'll just get people yelling like, and then it's this illusion of catharsis, if you will, and people like the illusion of catharsis. It's like how if I am the resurrection by stone roses, like if the chorus didn't arrive after like over two minutes, or like if the chorus to tiny dancer came in early instead of making you wait over two minutes and it's like people I guess it's the unfortunate effect of

What I would say is like how pop music is Broken down into sound bites over time because they're obviously the bit of everybody everybody remembers of tiny dancer is The chorus but the chorus is over two and a half minutes into the song. It's a long succession of verses that takes you there. And even the stuff like, a bit of a random example that I'm actually going to bring up later, but like In Dreams by Roy Orbison, you know, it's just this slowly building thing that's entirely linear. But because everybody only remembers the

HOMIC OF THE DAD then they think that like oh just that bit on its own works very well in isolation. They don't see it as part of a piece they just see it as like oh that's the bit that works let's extract that and put it at the beginning

and it feels a little bit like this with Sex on Fire where it's like it feels like it has the ingredients to build. It's very sparse, the composition is very, very sparse, and it has this... There's so much room to put things in and build things up and construct this machine, so that by the time you get to the point and then you go, waaaaah, ohhhhh, that would feel something. But all I really think about when I hear this song is just being 18, being invited, well, 17 actually, and being invited to all these 18th birthday parties of people in my school year

who were older than me by six months, five months, sitting in the corner looking at everybody dancing along and singing along to this and then thinking like will I ever find my people? Will I ever not feel this alone when it comes to art and Entertainment like will one day will I be sat with a bunch of people who also don't like this song But are waiting for something else to come on later. Oh here we are up Yeah, yeah. Well to that point. It it's also like well am I the problem? Yeah. Yeah, exactly Yeah, that's that's what I meant by the Emperor's new clothes thing where I think probably quite a lot of people felt this way

But because it was just so pervasive it was weirdly taboo to say oh sex on fire shit like it it was a very much kind of don't say it like No, no one was talking about how this song is completely pants It was really weird how there was no one around me even people who share like Musical tastes to me usually weren't talking about how bad this was I knew a Kings of Leon fan at the time and it took them a while to admit that this was shit They were like no, no, it's it's good. It's just like their old stuff like Yeah, it's good. It's just like their old stuff. Like, it's not. It's really not. And he actually said in an interview around the time, didn't he, Caleb Follewill, that he was like,

oh yeah, we did, yeah, our old stuff. Yeah, we don't really know what we were doing with that, to be honest. Bollocks. We don't, they kind of disowned it. It was all a bit like, oh yeah, this is a new era. This is like, you know, as if Only By The Night was like their debut album. It was, that was kind of disowned it it was all a bit like oh yeah this is a new era this is like you know as if only by the night was like their debut album it was it that's kind of how it felt in the press yeah and in the media at the time and I had been a fan of Kings of Leon I like I say I liked Molly's Chambers fans by Kings of Leon I downloaded that from I think I ran through that in my iTunes series when we were covering 2007 2006 and I just remember thinking like oh yeah Kings Leon yeah and no just

it's never worked on me I've never gone through a phase where I think oh maybe it's just never I've really tried you know I try with absolutely everything but sometimes I just think songs are very ugly and they represent very nasty things to me in just in my life. That's just a personal thing. But like it just, yeah, I've never I've tried to invite this in so much and then I can only let it in so far. Kind of like, you know, never push the Q-tip too far in, you know, stop pushing when there's resistance.

I just wanted to say as well that that's actually a really good shout Rob about how there's like no sex in this song at all. That it could have succeeded and could have sold itself to me if it was actually quite a fiery sexy song. But it's not. Like I don't want to get too graphic about it. But can you imagine someone actually putting this on and like trying to have sex with this song on? I'd probably just go home and have an early night like you put the sex on fire on. Just yeah it's so like not a match

for what it's saying at all. Like if it was actually quite smooth and flirty and you know you could kind of have that naughty vibe to it then it could really work but it's not. it's like music to put on over your Sunday dinner. It's the least sexy thing possible. Yeah. And because of Caleb Falwell's voice, it doesn't sound like he's saying sex.

It sounds like he's saying sax on fire. Sax, sax! Yeah. They should have had like a sax solo in there to really sell it. And that would make it sexier as well. Would have been more interesting. Yeah.

Yeah, it would have bumped it up to like sell it. And that would make it sexier as well. Yeah, it would have pumped up to like a three. Like... Well we will move on then to the second song this week, which is this! I guess I just lost my husband I don't know where he went So I'm gonna drink my money I'm not gonna pay his rent I got a brand new attitude And I'm gonna wear it tonight I wanna get in trouble I wanna start a fight

I wanna start a fight I wanna start a fight Na na na na na na na I wanna start a fight So, so what? I'm still a rock star I got my rock moves and I don't need you And guess what? I'm having more fun And now that we're done I'm gonna show you tonight I'm alright, I'm just fine And you're a tool, so so what? I am a rock star, I got my rock moves

And I want you tonight Uh, check my flow, oh The waiter just took my table And gave it to Jessica Sims. Shit, I guess I'll go sit with Drumboy and Lisa know how to hit. What if this falls on the radio that somebody's gonna die? I'm gonna get in trouble, my ex'll start a fight. Na na na na na na na, he's gonna start a fight.

Na na na na na na, we're all gonna get in a fight. Okay, this is So What by P.I.N.K. Released as the lead single from her fifth studio album titled Fun House, So What is P.I.N.K.'s 18th single overall to be released in the UK and her third to reach number one. However, as of 2024, it is her last as well. So What first entered the UK chart at number 38, reaching number 1 during its second week on the chart, knocking Kings of Leon off top spot. It stayed at number 1 for 3 weeks! In its first week atop the charts, it sold 53,000 copies, beating

competition from The Shock of the Lightning by Oasis, which got to number 3, and I Love You Anyway by Boyzone, which got to number 5. Boyzone? Boyzone, yes, as we live and breathe. In week 2, it sold 44,000 copies, beating competition from Never Miss a Beat by Kaiser Chiefs, which got to number 5, and in week 3, it sold 45,000 copies, beating competition from The Winner's Song by Geraldine McQueen, which got to number 2, Don't Call This Love by Leon Jackson, which got to number 3, Up by The Saturdays, which got to number 5, Take Back the City by Snow Patrol, which climbed to number 6, and Raindrops by Sash, which climbed to number 6, and Raindropped by Sash, which got to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, So What dropped 1 place to number 2.

By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 36 weeks. The song is currently officially certified 2x platinum, so double platinum in the UK as of 2024. That must have been horrifying for Leon Jackson when the parody of what made you successful is more successful than the real thing. Oh I know poor Leon. I know he didn't deserve that. Yeah for all disclosure I don't have much on this because it's the sort of pink that I'm largely not keen on. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the song. I have more of a problem with the production of it, which is just far too loud. I find it borderline unlistable at points.

Yeah, we've kind of praised Pink before because of particularly early on, like, she did manage to sort of make a niche for herself with how honest she was and how straightforward she was about things like trauma and depression and substance abuse. There's none of that here though, this is the other side of Pink, like the, you know, the get this party started sort of thing where it is just I described it as stompy music because it is just yeah the real sort of British stomp which is fine in its own regard there's kind of a glam sort of Suzy Quattro element to it maybe but I sort of see a through line between this and that sort of hashtag girl boss kind of music that reared its head in the early tens. Like, Raw by Katy Perry, Fight Song by Rachel Platten, Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys.

That sort of thing which I really don't like. So yeah, I don't... I'm not a huge fan of this. I like it more than Sex on Fire, don't get me wrong, but I did kind of expend a lot of energy on that song this week, so this one I just... I didn't give it much time other than realizing that yeah, the production on it is horrible. It's really bad. I think this song is such a waste of a good chorus man. It is, yeah. Because that chorus is yeah that chorus it's pretty simplistic and it's pretty broad but this whole thing really works I

think when it's been a good kind of chest BT slightly vulnerable and melancholic empowerment anthem thing you know it's a solid kind of kiss-off track written in the aftermath of a separation slash divorce situation which ultimately didn't actually amount to anything. It was through a period of separation which then resolved itself later and the person who is the target of the song is in the music video for it playing the part of the villain if you will. The backstory behind the song and the relationship and everything is curious, it's interesting to read into. But Pink is leaning on this kind of glammed up stomper thing, you know, saying she's alright, just fine and you're a tool, so what. But there's

just this little inkling constantly present in the melody that something isn't quite right, that there's just this feeling that she's not feeling as brave as she sounds, that when the song ends she's actually going to be quite upset about the whole ordeal. And it all gets revealed I think in that bridge where she's saying, you know, you weren't there, you never were, you let me fall. All these lyrics about feeling abandoned and useless and like, you know, half of it works. Well, maybe, yeah, yeah, half of it works. Which means it's such a shame that the actual hook into the song

is one of the most skull-scrapingly annoying things I've ever heard in my life, that guitar line. Like, obviously it's written to be bratty and provocative, kind of like the whole Ting Ting thing that we were discussing actually a couple of episodes ago. It also feels a little bit Hollaback Girl as well. The B-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A and then changed up the vocal melody for the verses, I'd be completely fine with like all of this. It would be not exactly pushing vault territory, but you know, it's just, I actually think that the riff, for as irritating as it is, it's kind of bland, but it's the thing upon which the whole song is built and it makes it feel like less of an effective kiss-off and more of like,

Andy, like you were saying about the ting-tings,s I feel like this I feel it's kind of juvenile and I get that that's the point anyway but then I look to other parts of Pink's discography that's kind of similar to this stuff like you and your hand and leave me alone I'm lonely where she does the slightly silly innuendo thing combined with a bit of personal vulnerability, combined with a bit of pride. And, but like it's just, this song it just feels part of like a bigger question for me at the moment, which is like, what happened to pop in 2008? Where like, it was like we couldn't be trusted with stuff that was a bit subversive,

or wasn't entirely on the surface. I feel like, you know, the vulnerability is kind of there, but with that riff, it's like I'm speaking more about the verses really. Well, like that riff is like, like if that just happens once and then they go into the verse with a different melody, I think I would be, I've said I'd be more on board with it, but it's the fact that it keeps going in the vocal melody, which kind of makes me think that like, when they were writing this, it was just sort of like, oh, well, we need to keep, there just seems to be this, like this obsession with like, the listeners are suddenly very impatient and they won't wait. They won't wait for choruses. They won't wait for interesting things. They won't wait for emotions., they won't wait for interesting things, they won't wait for emotions. They want everything at the front.

Like producers have suddenly, like in the last sort of six months, it's like everything that the song is needs to be within the first minute. And you need to have it delivered and it needs to be there. And I just, I don't know what happened. Because as we're going to see the following week, the following song, sorry, that like if you delay the catchiest bits of songs, if you maybe don't repeat things all the time, people still go out and buy it. and money men basically like deciding what's best for us and kind of just only giving us things that i mean yeah people go out and buy it and that's our fault and there's this like you know this this constant war between like is it our fault when shit things get put in front of us or is it their fault that shit things get put in front of us and it you know it's like chicken or the egg but there's something slightly unusual coming up next from a pretty mainstream act whereas with this it's like chicken or the egg. But there's something slightly unusual coming up next from a pretty

mainstream act. Whereas with this it just feels a bit like all of the potentially messy complicated stuff with regards to you know the stuff that Pink does. I feel like from the moment she does start it starts doing stuff like Stupid Girls is a kind of point with Pink where it's like there's nothing below like there's nothing to dig at it's just this is my point I am going to make it in the song and don't go away and think about it because you don't need to I will have the all of your all of your questions answered in three not even three minutes actually what I'll do is I'll have them all answered in 30 seconds and I'll just repeat it six times and it feels a little bit like we're trapped in a weird place in the back half of 2008 I really don't I'm not

a fan of this period at all and it gets so much worse next week as well it somehow gets even worse next week but before i go mad andy uh how are we feeling on so what yeah i do i do agree about the end of 2008 and how we're entering into a very fallow period for sure um but this song uh i'm kind of in two minds you know because the more i've listened to it the more i've actually secretly quite liked there like it's kind of grown on me a bit, to be honest. Oh, thank God, because I was so worried that it was just going to be like six consecutive negative...

Well, I'm not hugely shound from the rooftops about it, but much for the same reason you said, Rob, this has kind of grown on me in that musically, just purely in terms of the nuts and bolts, you know, sheet music version of this, like it is actually quite good. Like it's quite well written, really. Like it's got a good hook. It's got a very good chorus. Pink performs it really well. Her vocals really suit this. Like as just a single audio kind of commodity, it is quite good, except for the fact, I'm very glad you said this, Lizzie, because yeah, one of my main notes here is, it's just too fucking loud.

Turn it down. I'm just, I'm there with my broom on, you know, my child's bedroom above me, like turn it down, turn that racket down. It's just, it's way, way too much. And if it wasn't for that- Choring the loudness walls. Yeah, and if it wasn't for that, you know,

I do actually think this would be quite good. I think it borders on the juvenile a little bit with that like to me it's like someone in the playground going nah nah nah nah nah you know it's it's yeah that kind of childishness but that's kind of deliberate like that's what it's leaning into. I agree about the two types of Pink and I do like Pink. She's definitely a very good performer, an excellent songwriter, great work ethic, she's had far more longevity than almost any of the contemporaries in this era, like got a huge amount of respect for her. I do think though that she is that she is leaning into something quite lazy here, which is kind of bordering on generic kind of rock chick statements with a good melodic hook behind it with that diddle-dee-doo-doo-doo, a good chorus. You've kind of got all the parts you need there to get people listening,

so the lyrics are basically kind of generic, like, yeah, I like rock music, boo stick you, a blown raspberries at the audience you know it's kind of a bit generic to be honest and so it's quite easy points I can see how you know when this was put together it was like not a surprise to anyone that this would get number one because it's just a very corporate, very commercial package. So that's kind of, you know, again, I kind of shrugged to be honest, because it feels a little bit low as common denominator in that sense again, but it's so much better than Sex on Fire, just because this is actually a good song

with interesting elements to it. And I was never bored just because it's so damn loud and there's so much going on in it that I wasn't bored. The Jessica Simpson bit. This right, it's just, it's so, it's so unnecessary. Why does she throw that in? It just jumps out at me every time. She doesn't even say Jessica Simpson, the Jessica Simps? Like why? Jessica Simps shit. She's just just like it's just random shit it really reminds me of the fanfic my immortal that just that does this with

like female celebrities all the time where the lead character Ebony starts starts a chapter by saying I was just sat there thinking about Hillary Duffer in an ugly fucking face when someone else looked at it. Stupid fucking face! I just really thought that's just throwing shade at Jessica Simpson for no reason at all. And I thought that was a bit weird, like Choose Your Targets a bit more forcefully than that. Yeah, so that really made me laugh and I think that knocks a solid point off because it's so strange. But yeah, it is actually quite a fun pop song this. It's just way overproduced. It's quite generic and It's pretty frothy and throwaway to be honest

I would love Lizzie if you were to coin a genre name for this micro genre that has emerged here of solo female artists with loud rocky free spirited bops Like I kissed a girl like so what like my life would suck without you. That kind of stuff. I definitely think it does link directly to the girlboss stuff of the tens. But if we could get something for this little micro genre, I think that would be nice. You don't have to do it right now, but I'm gonna leave that one with you. Pixie Stomp. What was that one?

Oh, I like that. Pixie Stomp. Pixie Stomp. Hmm. Interesting. Because of the haircut that Pink was rocking at the time. I was going to say Glam Bag. Glam Bag is great. Glam Bag. So yeah, I think this is fine for what it is.

I just think Pink is capable of so much better than this. You know, she's done stuff like Who Knew in the past, which is really sincere, really interesting music. Yeah, of course. And she's going for easy points here. But the past, which is really sincere, really interesting music. Yeah, of course. And she's going for easy points here, but you know, we've all got to pay the bills. We've all got to fill the fridge, haven't we? So, you know, whatever, I don't mind.

Just before we move on, you've got me thinking about things like Get This Party Started and Who Knew Now. They've all got, in the verses, quite complex, like, vocal rate. Like, let's say Get this part started like it's not static but can you imagine if the guitar riff in the background just like tried to sync up with that it would sound stupid and it sounds stupid on this I think yeah just do away with that like pair back. That would be an improvement straight away.

Yeah. Well, there's that bit right at the end, isn't there, where only the bass plays it at the end where she goes, bada da da da da, at the end. When everything cuts out and it's just the bass, I'm like, oh, interesting decision there. Shame it's right at the end. It's like the best thing you could do with that riff and you just left it until like the moment where the radio DJ starts to talk over the song at the end but nah. Yeah. Never mind. We will move on to our third and final song this week which is... this. 1, 2, 3, 4

Everything he does is better than anything ordinary Everything he wants he gets, cause everything he does is kinda necessary So I believe in love, tell me can anything last forever? Life can live up to nothing In a hand on my heart I'm never saying never You're gonna make me, make me love you Nothing at all, nothing that I do Promise I made, promise I made

Starting to fade, starting to fade, fade You're gonna make me, make me love you Nothing at all, and I can't, I do Promise I'll make, promise I'll make It's starting to fade, starting to fade Maybe next time I'll take a ride home by When I feel you near Cause I can play this like I'm into now

My leaden slump is down and I got a fear Oh baby right here Giving up just looking into windows, yeah I've had enough of wishing I found you Baby don't you know I've had as much as I can take up falling, yeah Alright, this is The Promise by Girls Aloud. Released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, titled Out of Control, The Promise is Girls Aloud's 19th single overall to be released in the UK and their fourth to reach number one. However, as of 2024, it is their last.

The Promise went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Pink off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for... ONE WEEK! charts. It stayed at number 1 for… One week! In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 77,000 copies, beating competition from Infinity 2008 by Guru Josh Project, which got to number 3, Wire to Wire by Razorlight, which climbed to number 5, Hot and Cold by Katy Perry, which climbed to number 7, and Love Lockdown by Kanye West, which climbed to number 5, Hot and Cold by Katy Perry which climbed to number 7 and Love Lockdown by Kanye West which climbed to number 8. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, The Promise dropped 1 place to number 2.

By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 30 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK. As of 2024. So Lizzy 2024 so Lizzy promise how we feeling yeah girls allowed really were underserved by the charts weren't they oh my god yes to think that we've only covered them four times out of 19 and yet they were probably the biggest pop group in britain at the time. Maybe Sugar Maze? One of the most consistent.

You look at that discography and there are very few misses there. Yeah, and in a way this isn't the only number one of theirs that gets to number one on its own merits. Even Sound of the Underground, which is one of their best singles, was the culmination of Pop Star's arrivals. In the six years between that song and this one, they're only number ones in cover songs for children need and comic relief respectively. And some of their strongest work like biology, love machine, can't speak french, call of shots,

kept missing out on the top spot. Compare that to sugar babes, whose best singles hit number one more often than not and I've been very glad to cover those. I just wish we could have had more Girls Aloud. With that in mind, I'm so glad we get to talk about this one because I think it's among their best songs. It's definitely part of that 60s style pop revival that happened in the wake of Amy Winehouse's success but Girls Aloud managed to make it their own. I think it's one of those perfect marriages of sound and image in that I can't hear the song without thinking of the video and the group all wearing those amazing gowns that catch the light and reflect it back in that way that's always blinding.

Yeah I think it's a solid, solid pop song. There's definitely, as I say, that very strong 60s, like, Spectre influence which does work for them. I could see how some people might think, oh this is going to be a bit tacked on, like, a bit trend chasing, but they absolutely nailed it. I love how it feels like each member gets their own individual moment in the spotlight. It's not like it's dominated by just one singer as it often tends to be with the groups. There are some issues with it, like I've mentioned to you this last couple of weeks, on the single edit, there is a,

you get the big key change, which I don't mind. I'm usually not a big key change fan, but I'm okay with this one. But on the single edit, the song just stops. There's a really weird cold ending where it just goes, promise I'm a promise I'm a bae. And that's it. Yep. I want to talk about that as well.

Yeah, absolutely. but that's it. Yep I want to talk about that as well. Yeah absolutely there is an album version which has a fade out with like a repeated earlier line. I still think that could have been better but it's better than the weird cold ending and there's also another issue I have with this song it's maybe unintentional but I wish I hadn't figured out the true lyric of Sarah Harding's bit which is, oh I know! Yeah, here I am walking Primrose. Beautiful. So the implication is that Sarah Harding is walking in London which is not particularly evocative or interesting compared to what I assumed

the line was for the best part of 15 years, which was, here I am, our walking Primrose. Which is- Which shares on Spotify, it still has that on there, yeah. And it should be that because that is a much more interesting line. It's kind of strange, but it's also quite haunting and beautiful. Like, in what sense is she like a walking primrose? Is she delicate like a flower? Is she sort of light on her feet?

Like, there's a lot of meanings you can construe from that. And it's because of that, it's a line that sticks in your mind rather than just Sarah Harding is in London. But yeah, that's my... I mean, that and the ending are my nitpicks, I suppose. But otherwise, yeah, I love this song. I love the verses with the... The big brass in the backing, the strings sound lovely on this.

The chorus is fantastic. And the moment I cherish the most is, well, I've already kind of said it, it's Sarah Harding getting her moment in the spotlight. And when she passed away, I want to say it was Pop Justice who did a tribute to her. And they posted that image of her, you know, like on the sort of screen, like high up with all the lights shining on her. And when I think about Sarah Harding now, that's the image I think of. That's the image and the line, the walking primrose.

And that's what I remember for. And I'm so glad I have that. Because yeah, I think at this point it was becoming kind of clear that Cheryl was going to become the big star of Girls Aloud when it was all over but for this moment like Sarah was the star and I love it all the more for that. Yes Andy the promise Girls Aloud how are we? I mean Lizzie has absolutely nailed that like you've said literally everything that I was going to say about this song and I completely agree with every point you've made so I won't repeat I won't repeat things too

much but I adore this absolutely love it you know you know when occasionally a song comes along that you could you could almost believe it was written for you specifically but it just hits so many of your buttons that you like and 60s girl groups I just like always loved as a genre and I adore Girls Aloud as well and this is just such a perfect marriage of the two of them. I've got the same note about the trumpets in the background on the verses in particular, like just that production where they're very deep in the mix under the vocals but they're there, that it just creates that feel around the song. It is a spiritual successor of girl groups past and also unmistakably a noughties production so it's kind of past and

present and kind of taking us into the future as well because this is a trend at the moment. It isn't a pastiche, it isn't just riding the trend of Amy Winehouse and Duffy and all that stuff. It is genuinely looking to the canon of what girl groups have done, what they can do with it, what that sounds like in a girls allowed context and making a huge success of it. I think it's a really great example of how you can actually do that stuff without it being pastiche, that you can pay genuine respect to the past with what you're doing without just mugging it off essentially. And I think it's a really, really great poster for actually like looking at the genre and looking at your

contemporaries and your previous people in the genre and making something beautiful out of it. I have one thing that keeps us from being a solid, easy 10 for me. It's not walking primrose, because I want to talk about walking primrose, because I absolutely love that line, actually. It doesn't detract from the song for me,

because it's a weird running thing of Girls Aloud that they have these strange lyrics they throw anything every now and again that's just like what what does that line mean they over they've always had this kind of vaguely unhinged like edge to their lyrics words like occasionally they'll say something that's just like did I just hear that right that's a strange line like basically everything they say in biology, like the magic numbers in front of me and stuff like that, like what they are about. And some stuff in Love Machine as well, like gift-wrapped kitty cats and let's go Eskimo out into the blue, like they come up with these really odd lines. And so Walk in Primrose just feels like another glorious addition to that canon of strange girls allowed lyrics. Yeah, fair enough.

And I don't think, I think even with the explanation of what it means and walking primers in London and stuff, I don't actually think that makes it any less weird as a line. It's still a really strange way to word it. But I love that. I just think that it's delivered so sincerely that it stands out so much that everyone who knows this song will immediately come to this line and point it out I think is kind of a seal of how iconic it

is to be honest and not in a bad way I think it's iconic in a good way but maybe that's just me cutting it too much slack and you know indulging in my love of girls allowed a bit too much it's so sad that this is the last one for them I would call out all basically all the same ones that you did Lizzie. Like Call of the Shots, Biology, probably no good advice to throw in there as well. Certainly Love Machine, Sexy No No No, always loved that one as well. Can't speak French, yeah there's so many that we didn't get to celebrate at number one and they were a fantastic group. They were so likeable and you felt like you

could be mates with them and you felt like you could be mates with them and you'd have a great night out with them and have a really good time. But also they were really fun at the same time and a genuinely like powerhouse girl group. They kind of had the whole package really and it's such a shame that we don't have them around anymore. The one thing, the one thing that I don't like that stops it from being a solid gold 10 out of 10 is that ending. Is that ending that's on the single version of it which is the version that I think we have to judge it by really. It's so weird. It's really really strange. I completely agree with what you said Lizzie that it feels like odd that it's come to a sudden stop. I generally like, I don't really like fade outs. I'm not like massively against them. I wouldn't fight against them or anything,

but I don't think there are many songs in the world that like have a fade out that you couldn't just put an end to it if you had to. But this is a really rare example. I can't think of many more songs I can think of that actually are crying out for a fade out instead of a stop where it needs to fade out. It needs to keep going

because that stop that it comes to is so sudden and so forced it's really weird and it does knock like a whole point off the song I'm afraid because it's such a weird sudden end into the song. Other than that this is just a absolutely lovely celebration of girl band music and my abiding memory of pretty much all of Girls Aloud to be honest I know what you said about Sarah Harding But when I hear this song and when I think of Girls Aloud in general I think about them performing this on the X Factor where they were all stood in a row in the identical dresses on their podiums

Doing simple basic but very smooth dance moves to go along with this Just living that vibe and it's just if I remember watching it at the time thinking, God, they are so great. They are just so great. And it felt like they were becoming the ultimate version of themselves. So I'm so happy that it's gotten number one and we're able to celebrate it. It's brilliant, it's classy, it's gorgeous.

And it's by far my favorite song that we've covered in 2008. Absolutely love it, yeah. A little note before I begin, not only is this the last Girls Aloud number one, but it's also the last Zenomania number one. Oh, damn it. I think I'm pretty sure it is. Shame. Big shame. They have been a loss, I think. It's the end of an era this episode. It really is. I do think that this is like, we are now in the period where like the 2010s are not only coming into view, but the noughties are kind of withering and, because I think that the

actual beginning of the 2010s, like the concrete beginning is literally the first three seconds of the first song of 2009 that we're going to cover. Absolutely. Just like that's the future there. So clear. This with the promise I don't think it's my favorite song of the year but I think it's probably my favorite song we've covered since American Boy which feels like a long time ago right now and I have definitely appreciated it more this week because of the two songs that we've just covered because we've gone from a song like Sex on Fire, which as I went to great pains to explain has no ideas, and through Pink which had

some good ideas and some very bad ideas, to this, The Promise, which is just ideas upon ideas upon ideas and the majority of them are solid. This is like if in dreams kept returning to that, you know, in dreams I walk with you, that after every other verse, just to kind of ground the listener back in reality, obviously, because in dreams, I love, love the fact that like in dreams acknowledges that like one bit of a dream does not necessarily correlate with the next bit of the dream,

but your consciousness kind of strings it all together anyway, but it only moves forward. You know, dreams never repeat themselves and anyway, that's a discussion about Roy Orbison there. But I think that in a way, even though it's Girls Aloud and even though it definitely stays within the lines of pop convention, I think this is very risky pop because this keeps moving forwards and only forwards apart from those occasional returns to the you're gonna make me make me look you know they've identified the loudest most kind of cathartic bit of the song and they you know they stitch that back in a couple of times because it's like every new verse is a new thing to be excited about a new thing to remember, you know, every member gets their chance to shine. I always think it's quite a tricky thing to navigate

when pop groups sing about a single romance, you know, like a one you know, one love story, because you've got this weird equation where like all five of them are either in the same relationship with the same guy or are they all thinking about the thoughts of the same person or are they all in five separate relationships and we're hearing snapshots of them all but I think that kind of questioning is served really well by the way that this doesn't let itself rest it just keeps adding new bits and new pieces and it's great to realize as the song goes on that you've probably heard something for the last time, even though you're only two minutes in. Like a particular line or a particular melody and I think fair play as well to the instincts of girls aloud themselves because they fought their label over this.

Their label were like, no, it doesn't really work as a single, but apparently Nadine threatened not to come out for some kind of photo shoot if the label didn't back down and let them release it. And so because of that, we have the promise as a big single. So thank you, Nadine. I said before, not all the ideas here work for me. I do think I'm not a huge fan of the here I am walking Primrose thing. Because for years, like you, Lizzie, I thought that Sarah Harding was describing herself as a flower. A walking Primrose because of the way that she internates, but apparently, nope, it's a much less interesting image to me. But the way, even the way she kind of delivers it in that kind of strained whale is probably

It's the only moment on the song that's a little bit unintentionally funny I think but I will say that like you Andy I've also written this that the charm of girls allowed is that despite all the fame fortune Popularity and all that they were never cool Worthy like sound of the underground was cool, and No Good Advice was to an extent, but they have the same kind of charm as Atomic Kitten. Obviously they've all become famous now and Cheryl is on the X Factor at this point, but their songs still have this energy that's slightly cringey and slightly goofy. The things that fans have picked up on over

the years, the missing choreography steps in music videos, funny little vocal mistakes that have been left in songs, that famous bum note that Sarah does on GMTV. Oh, it feeds my soul. I know. But it is such a beautiful moment for a lot of reasons I'll go into now, because I think that the walking primrose bit, it's another one of those though, that does add to the dossier. I don't like it, but it's charming. And it does make me, it appeals to me, as like a bad moment in a song where I'm like, it is a bad moment, but like, or it's a moment I don't like,

but it's also a moment where I'm like, I don't like it, but I do love it. I do feel like, you know, you just can't help but smile. But I think that was their appeal to me looking back and you know because I didn't dislike Girls Aloud but like they just weren't my thing when I was a kid but as I've grown up I've realized that like they weren't perfect and they couldn't always convincingly sell everything they were asked to occasionally Andy like he was saying because some of the lyrics that they were asked to sing and

Even some of the lyrics that they wrote as well and the way that they perform them and stuff like that There's just this thing where it's like the two things don't quite come together But something extra happens where it's like there is no there isn't really an effortless call to them The key change at the end of this as well were like apparently that was literally added in the day before the girls came in to record, and everything up to that bit is gold, I think, just that key change, which is fine, but I don't think it's very well executed. But I would argue to this day that apart from Cheryl, the reason that I love all of this stuff is that it makes Girls Aloud recognizable to normal people in some way or another. Like, I really don't want this to sound crass, but I think even in the tragedy of Sarah's death, like I'm not saying this doesn't happen to Superstar Pop Stars

because it does, but her death was really unfortunately riddled with the kind of bad luck that only seems to happen to people you know, like regular people from everyday life. And I think that, you know, being from Stopport, you know, the people of Stopport felt it doubly so because she wasn't born here, but she was one of us. Until the likes of Phil Foden and Blossoms came along, whenever anybody mentioned Stopport in the wild, you'd say, oh yeah, Sarah Harding, she's from Stopport, she's one of ours. Because before she was in Girls Aloud, she went to Hazel Grove High School, she went to Stopport College, she worked at the swimming baths at Grand Central, and then as a waitress at the Pizza Hut that's gone now.

And there's every chance she could have served me and my parents at that Pizza Hut. We were there quite a lot in the late 90s and she died of breast cancer at 39. It's the tragic but also ordinary story actually of a normal person who just happened to have a glittering pop career in the middle of it and like I say apart from Cheryl who I think is the least interesting and therefore the most prepared for fame out of all of them there's always been the enduring appeal of Girls Aloud present in my mind because not only have I gone back and

realized that a lot of their pop was more complicated and interesting than I gave it credit for, but it's also more human and full of foibles in a way that their image was like, they always struck me as so clean and sophisticated, but there's actually a real charm in their lack of sophistication as a pop group. They were just teenagers plucked out from their lives and turned into, I think, the greatest girl group to ever come from the UK. Ever. That not only... Because Spice Girls, for example, are probably the big point of contention,

and maybe Sugar Babes, you know, like they're the two that people would like, now hang on a minute, you know, like... But the Spice Girls had a wonderful, wonderful singles collection. I would play their greatest hits album from beginning to end, No Fuss, but their individual albums, I don't know, I'm not sure. I think that those three albums that they did, they're a bit up and down overall. The ups are so high and it's a similar thing with Sugar Babes where singles are excellent, their albums are occasionally interesting but mostly kind of middling and geared towards like you know the singles whereas with Girls Aloud, Tangled Up, what will the Neighbours

say? They're great records, like they're just good, so Tangled Up especially is a great record. Control of the Knife, never released as a single, it's a banger! It's so, so good and so many of their deeper cuts are just so like, whoa I didn't know about this, why wasn't this released as a single? Like why didn't, why wasn't I aware of this at the time? They're a group I've gone back to and have been like, whoa, like, what a surprise! All this stuff I didn't even know about and all the material and stuff like that and I just think

that like, you know, that but at the center of it all, that all of them are slightly awkward. Like even just things like something kind of ooh jumping on my tutu, like what? That doesn't mean anything but the way that they like perform it there is this just sort of like they're just so human to me i think we are entering an age and i think we have been ever since sort of like Beyonce came along on the podcast where like pop stars are not really recognizable human beings anymore you know they become so perfect that they would not descend upon top of the pops or anything like that but girls allowed oh they would so be on top of the pops they'd be on all the bloody time yeah there's just something so you know how like when you watch an old something from the 70s at top of the pops or like an act from the 90s there's this is something

i've been thinking about as we've been doing the podcast there's something i saw a tweet the other day that was like um what the hell was going on in this era of the charts? And it's like the number one singles on the billboard and you've got Mariah Carey and stuff, but you also have like Roxette and Wilson Phillips and you know, there's all these other things as well. And it struck me that like for a long time what pop has not been, and I mean this for like the last 20 years, I'm thinking pop has not been tacky and pop should be tacky parts of pop should be tacky and it feels like for too long pop has been aiming to just be cool and even if it's not you know super cool super sophisticated it's not allowing itself to be

open and naked and sincere in the way that Girls Aloud just kind of were, you could tell that as much as a label were managing them and as much as Cheryl was more than happy to kind of like just polish all the edges of herself, you just have like, even now when they're on TV presenting like, because one of them does, it Kimberly that presents Morning Live now on the BBC. Maybe. But like even when she's just like, just, oh, who's that? Who's that? Oh, it's her from Girls Aloud, isn't it? And it's just like, she doesn't, none of them like,

look like celebrities. They just look like people. They still just look like human beings and human things happen to them and they can only behave like slightly awkward humans and it's why I love the bum note on GMTV, the loving kind. I love it so much and I think it also says a lot that Pet Shop Boys decided to cover the loving kind shortly after it came out. But the Pet Shop Boys kind of have a similar appeal, where it's like all their music is so polished and sophisticated, but there's so much humanity underneath a lot of Pet Shop Boys material. And it's the same with this, where like Girls' Lad, it's this expensively produced pop act, but it's just five girls, well four girls and Cheryl really I think Cheryl's kind of different I think that Cheryl is too she's too famous it feels

like you know but they none of these girls were ever they weren't nepo babies they weren't born into like you know that their careers they weren't set up from the age of 12 and detached from reality by the time they got there. It's like they couldn't let go of reality the further and further they disappeared into the industry. Yeah, I just, I find them so, so great and this is a good way to go out, but I'm still slightly outraged that like, this and Sound of the Underground are like the only two number ones they had that were like an actual representation of what they were as a group. And then like the other two were just charity singles. They were like you're saying Lizzie, they were so underserved. They were so well loved

but only to the extent that like they would get number three or number five or number nine like can't speak French. Like barely making it into the top ten and ugh. like can't speak french like barely making it into the top 10 and ugh but yeah they have been the best part of growing up and looking back at the charts actually girls allowed because like i said they weren't my thing at the time at all this would have passed me by as like you know just kind of pop detritus but it's so much more than that um but yeah I will call time and ask if you two want to say anything about them. No, just I completely agree that their appeal was always that they were not like some ivory tower celebrities. They always seemed like it was completely plausible that you might

bump into them on the last train home with them trying to steal your chips. Like it always seemed like that could absolutely happen. Yeah. I think Cheryl in her own way, yes, she, you know, reached a higher level of stardom and it did sort of go to her head for a while, which is completely forgivable. But I do think even her in her own way is still, certainly these days she's sort of gone back to being quite normal and relatable again, to be honest.

And I think even her, she does have have a very quirky strange sense of humor and she also is unintentionally funny all the time like that was part of her appeal on x factor not just that she was the nation's sweetheart but that she was sometimes she would drop some real clangers or say some really weird things that just endeared you more to her and I would say that of all five of them really Nadine Coyle all the things she says in that very particular accent of hers which is I'm not just making fun of the Irish accent I'm really it's it's her accent in particular I think we've all probably seen the clip of her talking about Flauier how she loves cooking with Flauier or when there's a wasp on the stage and she goes,

A WASP, A WASP! Just all of them are so funny. Every time I use FLOIR, I say FLOIR. The main thing with Cheryl is that clip that I think Harry Hill made it a big thing at the time, but it's resurfaced of her and Tracy Cohen just saying over and over to each other okay you're ready well whenever you're ready oh you said that with some enthusiasm whenever you're ready oh i'm ready and it wasn't like edited that way they just genuinely kept

going back and forth she's just like even Cheryl as polished and as like nation sweet as she is she's not really very TV ready and she does behave quite strangely sometimes and all five of them are that way or were that way and yeah I love the bones of them. I'm really gonna miss talking about Girls Aloud yeah adore them. So Andy, sex on fire so what the promise? How we feeling? Pie hole? Vault? where we going? Well, Sex on Fire, the reason it might be on fire is because it's inside a flaming hot pie. So that's going into the pie hole for sure. As for so what, so what, it's not a vault star, it's not a pie hole. No, it's staying in the middle. And as for the promise, well, you're gonna to make me make me vote

you. Nothing at all that I will not vote. Yes. Absolutely adore it. Straight to the vault. Yeah. Lizzie, I imagine based on our comments that we may all be exactly in sync this week. Maybe. Let's see. So Kings of Leon, pink, girls allowed. Where where they going sex is on fire our pie hole is terrified sex is on fire so what is going nowhere and yeah the promise is going straight into the hole it's just yeah just put it straight in there here. It is. I'm not even a joke walking vault words Yeah, exactly. I

am exactly the same as As both of you pie hole for sex on fire. So what is going nowhere the promises in the vault? So we have perfectly matched up We'll need to go back into the records for hits 21 to see if we've ever done that before and we will find an answer next week. Lovely. So we will see you then along with the rest of the episode as well. That's not the main thing that we'll be focusing on next week. Yeah, we have unfortunately got some songs next week. Yes. Oh, God.

I'm sorry. Maybe this podcast was a mistake. We will see you soon. Bye-bye. See you now. Bye. this podcast was a mistake and we will see you soon bye bye now bye And I know you may be disinclined To find the love we've left behind But kiss me, then make up your mind I'm not the love in kind

Look at us now Whatever happened to the way we are And how we used to be Thanks for watching!