Girls Aloud’s “What Will The Neighbours Say?” at 20: revisiting a modern pop classic

One thing I have tried to curb a little bit coming into this year is the expansion of my vinyl collection. Some of this was borne out of necessity (I had to upgrade my storage trunks over Christmas, as my collection had outgrown the original ones I stored them in), but also to try and only invest in artists or albums that I really love on 12″, and try to limit buying into the seemingly endless variety of formats that are on offer these days with almost all new releases.

That resolution to invest wisely, however, was not going to apply whatsoever to an album that is so dear to my heart, and which this week, finally comes to both coloured and picture disc vinyl and an expanded 3CD deluxe edition to celebrate its 20th anniversary since its original release, all of which I invested in quicker than you can say “Geek or unique, hell, get on with the show”. The album I am talking about, is of course What Will The Neighbours Say?, the double platinum second studio album from 2004 by my long time 00s girl group favourites, Girls Aloud.

It is the second in their extensive reissue project of all their studio albums, following the repackage of their first album, Sound Of The Underground, from 2003, in June last year. Now, readers with long memories will know that this, admittedly, is not the first time I’ve written about this album on this blog, so at the risk of repeating myself, it is one of my all time favourite albums for a number of reasons.

Some wider scene setting is probably worth it here, though, if for nothing else than context. Two years on from winning the ITV reality show Popstars: The Rivals, Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding had amassed the first four of twenty consecutive top 10 hits, a platinum debut album and were quickly establishing themselves as one of Britain’s biggest new pop groups of the 21st century.

Strange to relate though, however, that their career was almost cut off prematurely before it even properly got started. This was because execs at their record label, Polydor Records, were scratching their heads and nervously crunching the numbers, wondering why 10 million viewers of the TV show from whence they came wasn’t immediately turning into 10 million record sales, as it had done with the first Popstars band, Hear’Say.

True, their iconic first single, “Sound Of The Underground“, was a big selling and well deserved Christmas number one (and modern pop classic), but the next two singles after that – “No Good Advice” and “Life Got Cold” – both debuted a place lower than the single immediately before it. There was very much a feeling in the air that the projection of them as the “moody bad girls” of pop was, for one reason or another, not winning over the wider audience.

In short, there was a very brief moment in time where, with out and out pop groups becoming an expensive thing to market and promote in the age of the digital download and the rise of indie rock, R&B and hip hop, and the age of “authenticity”, the girls were at the risk of being dropped from the label altogether. It was their cover of The Pointer Sisters‘ classic floorfiller “Jump”, for the soundtrack of the Richard Curtis romcom Love Actually that ultimately saved their bacon, and gave them another massive hit in November 2003, and that secured them their second album, as they tapped into a new, fun way to channel their edgy sound.

There was one condition attached to this, however; at the insistence of Colin Barlow, their A&R at Polydor at the time, the entirety of the album – and albums to come – was to be exclusively produced by Brian Higgins and his team at Xenomania, who had worked with the girls from the very start, as he felt Brian was the only producer who really got the sound and style and the very personality of the girls musically. It was a bold decision in an age where pop groups flitted from producer to producer in search of their next hit.

Thankfully, for the second album – and the other three that followed it – it was a decision that was bang on the money. Because truthfully, along with his main songwriter, the phenomenally talented Miranda Cooper, no one else managed to musically capture the madcap essence and spirit of these five young girls, plucked from obscurity in the North of England (or Derry in Northern Ireland in Nadine’s case), thrown together in a band in London and with all the odds thrown against them, whilst going through the normal things girls in their late teens and early twenties experience.

The best records that Xenomania produced were brash, daring and sonically ventured outside the box in a way that a litany of guitar toting urchins in winkle pickers could only dream of achieving with anywhere near the love or craft. Girls Aloud, as their star muses, had the best examples of this; and this album demonstrates that by the truck load. The fuzzy, post-rave synths and detached vocal stylings on the lyrics “Shoulda known, shoulda cared / Shoulda hung around the kitchen in my underwear” on the first single off the second album, “The Show”, are a perfect example of this.

So too, is the jaunty and utterly weird guitar riff that announces the intro to the song that became its second single, “Love Machine”, a track which none of the girls were sure of at first, due to the fact it was recorded in 18 parts and contained a veritable word salad of lyrics (“We’re gift wrapped kitty cats / We’re only turning into tigers when we gotta fight back / Let’s go, eskimo, out into the blue”), but which won them admiration from the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay to name but two.

It was also this album that gave them their second number one hit, with a beautifully sung cover of The Pretenders‘ classic from 1994, “I’ll Stand By You”, which further underlined how much of a big deal they had now become, when it was chosen to be the official single for that year’s BBC Children In Need appeal, putting them amongst esteemed past company such as S Club 7 and Will Young.

The album’s fifth and final single (if one includes “Jump” in that tally, which was also on the album) was a real belter: the thrashing techno hair rock anthem “Wake Me Up”, with its iconic chorus (“Wake me up before I drop out on you / You treat me rough to show that you care / And I just can’t refuse baby / If I had promise from you / I’d get up and out of my bed / Instead of being subdued”) and tongue in cheek soundbite lyrics (“Was it just the margaritas / Or are you looking at me?” … “Dressed up and put on my make up / My best face just for you”).

One thing that is crystal clear is something that is true of almost all of Girls Aloud’s albums – but is particularly pertinent to What Will The Neighbours Say? – is that this was most definitely not an album with several great singles padded out by filler. In fact, this was one of those happy dilemmas for both them and the label to have, in that they were spoilt for choice, as every track sounded like a hit single.

“Graffiti My Soul” is unquestionably one of said moments, with its tongue twisting verses and a killer of a hook line repeated throughout the song – “Spike heels and skin tight jeans / I gotta fist full of love, it’s coming your way baby” – intermeshed against thundering guitars, dirty synths and charging beats. Originally demoed by Britney Spears for inclusion on her In The Zone album, but rejected by her label, Jive Records, on account of its lack of chorus, what was her loss was evidently the girls’ gain.

As indeed is “Deadlines & Diets”, a sophisticated sounding, slinky mid tempo with lyrics recounting the search for love and the regret of one night stands with toxic men over hangovers the morning after: “I’m cool until reality, hits me in the face and drops the phone in the tea / And you left no number, left your wedding ring / There’s nothing left to do but kick back and sing”.

This, in many ways, could be argued to be the first proper Girls Aloud album, in that it solidified several things; it was the first album where the girls all got to co-write and take lead vocals on a song each. Sarah’s song, “Hear Me Out”, even took on added poignancy, when she named her autobiography after the song in 2021, just shortly before she sadly passed away from breast cancer – it even topped the iTunes chart in her honour.

But it was also the album where they really defined their personalities more, something that was asserted in the bright and bold visuals for this album campaign, created by Paul West and Paula Benson, the hugely talented design team at FormUK, who also worked on campaigns for All Saints, Natalie Imbruglia, Busted, East 17, Rachel Stevens and The Saturdays, and who oversaw the creative and conceptuals for all the singles and the album, and also for their following album, Chemistry, in 2005.

They’ve written about it themselves in more detail on their own blog on their website, which we’d highly recommend, and it’s fascinating to see firstly how each stage of the campaign progressed, but also see how much of their original archive of test shots, mock ups and Polaroids they have lovingly and carefully kept, and has been incorporated into the artwork for this new deluxe edition of the album.

It was also asserted in the music videos that accompanied this album; Trudy Bellinger’s fantastic treatment for “The Show” saw them reimagined as beauticians (Nicola as Chelsea Tanner, Nadine as Frenchie, Sarah as Supa Styler, Cheryl as Maxi Wax and Kimberley as The Boss) running a fictitious salon called Curls Allowed, playfully tormenting their male clients through all manner of painful treatments, as well as her stunning, simple yet dramatic desert set promo for “I’ll Stand By You”, Stuart Gosling’s fun jazz bar hijinks for “Love Machine”, where they hit the tiles at The Eskimo Club in a rainbow of coloured dresses, and Harvey and Carolyn’s turbocharged promo for “Wake Me Up”, which saw the girls dressed as the world’s coolest biker chicks, careering down a dusty highway at sunset, riding atop Harley Davidson motorbikes.

As well as collating together all the B-sides, bonus tracks and remixes from this era of the band’s career, the new deluxe edition has also dug deep into the archives to unveil a total of three previously unreleased songs, all of which are worthy additions to this chapter of their career and their illustrious back catalogue as a whole.

Their cover version of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” (one of the most sensual songs ever recorded, in our view), was long whispered about as being a single in May 2005 – it had even got to the planning stages of a video – but was pulled at the last minute. Far from being a bog standard, note for note cover, however, it is one of those joyful instances where it is a cover that does something different with the song to make it their own, whilst retaining the intimate feel and energy of the original. We dare say it is their best cover by far.

“Disco Bunny”, as the title might suggest, is a pounding, all killer floorfiller that ranks up there with the mighty likes of “Girl Overboard” and “On The Metro”, whilst the gentle, wistful acoustic midtempo strum of “Baby When You Go” (originally recorded by Xenomania’s in-house vanity project, Mania, for their unreleased album Do You Know Your Daughter’s On The Roof?) brings a fantastic contrast to the album’s pacier songs.

Revisiting the album over this weekend, with the new and additional material to complement it, has reminded me just how much I still love this album 20 years on. And the reason why is perhaps because both the girls and everyone that was around them at that point – and for the large majority of their career – cared deeply about making everything sound and look as exceptional as it could possibly be. And boy did they do that.

The deluxe 20th anniversary edition of What Will The Neighbours Say? is available for streaming and on coloured and picture disc vinyl and an expanded 3CD set now through Polydor and Fascination. Girls Aloud’s new UK tour, The Girls Aloud Show, kicks off in Dublin at the 3Arena on 17th May 2024.

Are you a fan of Girls Aloud? What do you think of the new anniversary edition of the What Will The Neighbours Say album? What were your memories of the album? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.