Sound of the Underground is the debut studio album by English-Irish girl group Girls Aloud, released by Polydor Records on 23 May 2003. The group recorded the album following their formation on the ITV talent series Popstars: The Rivals and the chart-topping success of their debut single, "Sound of the Underground". Its production involved several British and European songwriting teams, although Brian Higgins and Xenomania substantially reworked the project shortly before completion, replacing several songs with newly recorded material.
Musically, the album combines pop, new wave and power pop with electronic styles including big beat, drum and bass and UK garage. Critics frequently compared its guitar-led production and vocal arrangements to Blondie, Bananarama and the Bangles. The album produced the singles "Sound of the Underground", "No Good Advice" and "Life Got Cold". A November 2003 reissue added the group's cover of the Pointer Sisters' "Jump", recorded for the film Love Actually.
Sound of the Underground received generally favourable reviews, with critics praising its singles and regarding it as unusually accomplished for a release by a reality-television act, although its ballads and later tracks attracted criticism. The album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). A 20th-anniversary edition, including previously unreleased material and the album's first vinyl release, followed in June 2023.
Background Girls Aloud were formed through ITV's Popstars: The Rivals, a reality television series presented by Davina McCall that sought to create a boy band and girl group who would compete for the Christmas number one spot in the UK Singles Chart, a traditionally competitive time in the British music market. Broadcast from September to December 2002, the programme followed the success of the original Popstars, which had produced the band Hear'Say in February 2001, and attracted several thousand applicants at auditions held across the United Kingdom. Judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell selected ten girls and ten boys to proceed to the televised stages of the competition. The finalists subsequently performed in a series of live Saturday-night shows, with the public determining which contestants would remain through telephone voting. Following a series of eliminations, Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding were selected from the remaining six female finalists to form the girl group Girls Aloud and sign with Polydor in November 2002.
As part of the programme's format, Girls Aloud were placed in direct competition with the newly formed One True Voice, the winning male group, to determine the 2002 Christmas number one. Chosen by their manager Louis Walsh as their debut single, the group rapidly recorded "Sound of the Underground," along with a cover of East 17's "Stay Another Day." Released on 16 December 2002, "Sound of the Underground" entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, defeating One True Voice's "Sacred Trust" to become the 2002 Christmas number-one single. It remained at the top of the chart for four consecutive weeks and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in March 2003. The result was unexpected, as One True Voice's more traditional cover had been expected to appeal more strongly to a Saturday-night television audience. The single nevertheless received unusually favourable critical attention for a reality television release, with critics viewing it as pop that transcended its origins, and also marked the beginning of Girls Aloud's association with Brian Higgins and his Xenomania production team, who would become central to the group's subsequent sound.
Recording Following the success of the single, Girls Aloud began recording their debut album, which was eventually also titled Sound of the Underground. Executives at Polydor assembled a range of predominantly British songwriters, musicians and producers to contribute to the project, including Betty Boo, the Beatmasters, Graham Stack, Steve Anderson and Tim Kellett, with Boo and the Beatmasters contributing the majority of the material. Separate sessions were also held with Swedish musicians Anders Bagge and Arnthor Birgisson as well as Henrik Korpi and Mathias Johansson from duo Korpi & Blackcell. The resulting material reflected a range of styles and production approaches, from the emerging indie sound of the period to the distinctive pop style developed by Xenomania on "Sound of the Underground."
Higgins and Xenomania also reunited with the group, initially producing one further track, "No Good Advice." After hearing the other ten tracks recorded for the album, Higgins expressed concern to Polydor's A&R director that the material lacked cohesion, describing the collection as a "disaster." He later recalled that the album comprised "two completely separate groups," with the Scandinavian-influenced material and the work of the other producers contrasting sharply with the sound developed by Xenomania, and proposed replacing six of the tracks to create a more unified sound. Polydor accepted the proposal, and Girls Aloud returned to the studio with Xenomania to record four additional songs they had developed, including "Some Kind of Miracle", "Life Got Cold", "Stop" and "Love/Hate." The new material replaced tracks by Anderson, Korpi & Blackcell, Nigel Lowis and Paul Meehan, some of which were later issued on subsequent editions of the album. Completed in April 2003, Sound of the Underground was subsequently described as a blend of "Blondie and Bananarama, with a smattering of the Spice Girls at their best."
During the summer of 2003, Girls Aloud would again work with Higgins and Xenomania, recording a further three tracks – a cover version of the Duran Duran hit "Girls on Film", which would become the B-side of "Life Got Cold", "You Freak Me Out" for the film Freaky Friday and a cover version of The Pointer Sisters song "Jump" for the film Love Actually. They also re-recorded "Some Kind of Miracle", which was originally intended to be the fourth single from the album before it was scrapped in favour of "Jump". These four tracks, alongside an altered mix of "Life Got Cold", would eventually surface on a reissued version of Sound of the Underground, which was released on 17 November 2003.
Music and lyrics Sound of the Underground takes influence from a number of 1980s genres, such as synthpop, power pop, and new wave, and 1990s styles like big beat, drum and bass, and garage. The album received comparisons to girl groups such as Bananarama, The Bangles and Spice Girls. Similarities to Kylie Minogue and Madonna were also noted. A majority of the songs make use of guitars and electronic beats. The rise of indie rock also inspired Brian Higgins to "blur the edges between commercial music and so-called "indie" music." He continued, "pop music was on its backside and indie music was about to rise, through The Strokes and everything else. We were an independent company and we were as indie as the other bands around us."
It was said that the album's "lyrics [were] curiously insistent upon Girls Aloud's musical credibility and autonomy of thought." Higgins said that "No Good Advice" reflected his general mood of failure after a special deal between Xenomania and London Records fell through in 2000, and about persisting in spite of what people told him to do or not to do. "Life Got Cold" was labelled "surprisingly poignant."
Songs "Sound of the Underground", which opens the album, drew comparisons to Fatboy Slim. It was labelled "an enticing blend of spiky guitars and Fatboy Slim beats topped off with an irresistibly catchy chorus." "Sound of the Underground" was further described as "a mechanistic sashay of twangy surf guitar and sultry gang vocals – Girls Aloud explodes like a five-headed Kylie Minogue." "No Good Advice" was labelled "a disco track with guitar – a cross between Blondie and The Bangles." Unlike many other songs, it was said to be "not obsessed with trying to be a cutting-edge club hit, [...] with at least three different killer hooks welded together" that borrowed heavily from the 1980s. "Some Kind of Miracle", which is "a breezy summer pop song about trying to bag a guy", follows. The Xenomania production had "layered vocals with its slow tempo despite being more formulaic." The song was compared to "a 21st century Bangles", as well as former Spice Girls member and Popstars: The Rivals judge Geri Halliwell.
"All I Need (All I Don't)" was described as "a Kylie-type tune set to squelchy techno", as well as "a disco-funk workout with traces of Cameo and Bedtime Stories vintage Madonna". "Life Got Cold", the album's first ballad and third single, was a late addition to the album, completed by Xenomania shortly before the album's release. The song received attention because of similarities between the guitar riff of "Life Got Cold" and that of the Oasis hit "Wonderwall" (1995). Warner/Chappell Music has since credited Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher. The song was called a "charming ballad" that was "a sweet but slightly sad pop song". The song begins with a rap. "Mars Attack", produced by Betty Boo and the Beatmasters, "is hip hop-referencing surf punk."
"Stop", a Xenomania production sung entirely by Nadine Coyle apart from the chorus, "starts like the Skids' "Into the Valley" but gets sultry instead of surreal." The album's eighth track, "Girls Allowed", was co-written by Westlife member Brian McFadden. It was described as both "Basement Jaxx meets Spice Girls" and "Donna Summer meets Dannii Minogue". "Forever and a Night" was described as "a soppy love song earmarked as a Christmas single", but slated for sounding like "every girl-group slushy song ever written." "Love/Hate", another song crafted by Xenomania, "lays vocals over garage beats." A second contribution from Betty Boo and the Beatmasters, "Boogie Down Love", follows. It was said that it "mixes the hook of Blondie's "Call Me" with the bells from "Rapture"", as well as being deemed "electro stomping". "Don't Want You Back" was co-written by Anders Bagge, who also wrote Samantha Mumba's "Gotta Tell You", which bears similarities. It was labelled as a "love song" in which Girls Aloud are "swooning over bois [sic]". "White Lies" was co-written and produced by Tim Kellett, a former member of The Durutti Column, Simply Red, and Olive.
The original UK edition of the album featured two bonus tracks. "Love Bomb", another Betty Boo collaboration, was compared to Boo's "Where Are You Baby?". "Everything You Ever Wanted" borrows its opening line from The Rolling Stones. In December 2003, the album was re-released with the omission of "Don't Want You Back" and the bonus tracks. Three new songs appeared instead. "Jump", a cover of The Pointer Sisters, was recorded for the soundtrack to Love Actually (2003). Cheryl Cole noted in Girls Aloud's autobiography Dreams That Glitter (2008) that the single "was the point when we realized everything we'd been doing was quite down and moody [...] and that's not what people wanted." "You Freak Me Out" is a pop-rock song that was written and recorded for the Disney film Freaky Friday (2003), It also included was Girls Aloud's cover of "Girls on Film", originally a Duran Duran classic, that originally appeared as a B-side to "Life Got Cold".
Release and promotion