What Will the Neighbours Say?
What Will the Neighbours Say? is the second studio album by English-Irish all-female pop group Girls Aloud. It was released in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2004 by Polydor Records. Brian Higgins and his production team Xenomania were enlisted to produce the entire album, allowing for more inventive ideas. What Will the Neighbours Say? explores various subgenres of pop music.
What Will the Neighbours Say?
29 November 2004
April–September 2004
London, England
51:15
What Will the Neighbours Say? was released to mostly positive reviews from contemporary music critics. It yielded five top-ten singles and had high sales, going double platinum in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The album was followed by Girls Aloud's first tour, the What Will the Neighbours Say...? Tour.
To celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, the album was re-released on 8 March 2024 in three formats, a sky-blue vinyl LP, a picture disc vinyl LP, and a 3CD Deluxe Edition, as well as a digital download and streaming. The 3CD Deluxe Edition features the original UK album along with a number of remixes, alternative cuts, other rarities, and three previously unreleased tracks produced by Xenomania: a cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" originally slated as the lead single from Girls Aloud's 2005 studio album Chemistry and two new songs, "Disco Bunny" and "Baby When You Go."[1]
Conception[edit]
Band member Cheryl revealed in an interview that although Girls Aloud's debut album Sound of the Underground and its singles had been successful, in 2004, Polydor Records were considering dropping them from the label after what they perceived as underperformance of the album's sales, considering that the group was formed during Popstars: The Rivals, which drew 20 million viewers, which according to record executives was not "turning into 20 million sales." However, Polydor's then-marketing director, Peter Lorraine, appealed to the label and convinced them to allow the group to record a second album.[2]
Polydor enlisted Brian Higgins and Xenomania to produce Girls Aloud's second album in its entirety, following their production of six tracks from Sound of the Underground, including the album's three singles, and three more tracks: "Girls on Film", "You Freak Me Out" (for the film Freaky Friday) and "Jump" (for the film Love Actually), which all featured on the album's late 2003 reissue.[3] "When the second album came round, the label said, 'Listen, we're not going to do this group any more if you don't do it.'" Higgins explained.[4] "I think my initial reaction was to do a few tracks and he said, 'No, you have to do this because I think you're the only person who understands exactly what it is'. So, that's how we took it on."[4]
Higgins said, "The pressure to come up with singles was, as always, immense. But [...] we were able to have a lot of fun working on ideas that were maybe a little too odd to be on the radio."[3] The album was recorded from April to September 2004, although its lead single "The Show" was released in June 2004. The album title comes from a lyric in the song "Love Machine" which asks, "what will the neighbours say this time?" This lyric is a reference itself to a line from "Sound of the Underground", in which Girls Aloud sing "Neighbour's banging on the bathroom wall / He's saying 'Crank the bass, I gotta get some more".[5]
Music[edit]
Style and lyrics[edit]
What Will the Neighbours Say? explores different subgenres of pop, especially incorporating electronic dance music into electropop. Synthesizers are more prominent on the album. The usage of guitar was also prominent in several songs. The backing track to "Love Machine", composed by Xenomania musicians Tim Powell and Nick Coler, was inspired by the Smiths,[6] while "Wake Me Up" includes a guitar riff inspired by garage rock.[7][8] What Will the Neighbours Say? also includes a number of ballads.
The lyrics focus on a number of more adult topics, often dealing with sexuality, as well as themes of teenage rebellion and heartbreak. The lyrics to "The Show" contain an anti-promiscuity message.[9] "Wake Me Up" faced a slight controversy due to its "boozy lyrics." The song references Bud and margaritas in the first verse.[10] Unlike Sound of the Underground, Girls Aloud became involved in the writing process.[11] "We don't let them out of the room till they've given every ounce of melodic instinct that they've got in them, [...] at the end, you find they've contributed really well," Higgins stated in an interview with The Observer.[11] Nadine Coyle admitted, "I needed to be pushed into songwriting, because I wasn't really interested".[3] The album's lyrics were praised by critics,[12][13] noting "the girls are usually singing something interesting. Someone at Xenomania has a knack for writing witty couplets".[7]
Songs[edit]
The album begins with its lead single, "The Show", described as "a feisty, thumping track with a positively rude bassline" and a "rush of thrilling synth stabs and natty vocal hooks".[14][15] It was also compared to "an early-1990s rave record."[7] "Love Machine", the second single, follows. The Guardian called the song a "perfect example of Xenomania's uniquely rousing approach to pop."[7] It was called "three and a half minutes of pure joy, taking in a guitar line that sounds like it's been nicked from an old rockabilly tune, some mid-'80s synth pop and a rousing chorus."[8] A cover of the Pretenders' "I'll Stand by You" was recorded especially for Children in Need.[16] The first version of "I'll Stand by You" that Xenomania created was described as a "weird, modernist breakbeat version", which was scrapped upon deciding an updated version of the original song would be better suited for Children in Need.[17] Critics felt it was "arguable whether this cover adds much to the Pretenders' original."[3] Girls Aloud's version has also been compared to Shakespears Sister.[12] "Jump", a cover of a song by the Pointer Sisters, was originally taken from the re-release of Sound of the Underground and the soundtrack to Love Actually. Cheryl Cole noted in Girls Aloud's 2008 autobiography Dreams That Glitter – Our Story 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." The album's fifth track is its final single "Wake Me Up". The Guardian's review said that the song sounds like what would happen if "you married an alarmingly fast techno thud to an implausibly dumb three-chord garage-rock riff."[7]
"Deadlines and Diets", originally released in 2000 by Moonbaby (a pseudonym of Xenomania songwriter Miranda Cooper), is a song about one night stands.[18] The song received comparisons to All Saints,[12][15][19] specifically their breakthrough single "Never Ever".[14] "Big Brother", co-written by Cheryl Cole, was labelled "crunchy electro."[13] It was noted that the song "could be about anything, up to and including the admittedly unlikely topic of sexual subservience to a totalitarian dictator."[7] The "voyeur-themed" song was compared to ABBA, New Order and the Thompson Twins by one reviewer.[19] "Hear Me Out" was co-written by Sarah Harding. The ballad received comparisons to those of the Spice Girls.[13] One of the album's most noteworthy songs, "Graffiti My Soul", was intended for Britney Spears's In the Zone.[11] It was turned down for its lack of a chorus; Higgins said that they wanted "essentially "Sound of the Underground 2".[11] The track was described as "a full-scale collision between Madonna, Michael Jackson and the Prodigy" and "frighteningly sharp and sassy."[11][13] The Guardian said the song makes you question: "What if the Prodigy hadn't turned down the chance to write with Madonna?"[7] "Real Life", the album's tenth track, "unexpectedly evokes Martina Topley-Bird's Tricky tracks."[13]
"Here We Go" was also originally recorded by Moonbaby. Aqua singer Lene Nystrøm Rasted, who co-wrote Girls Aloud's "No Good Advice", also recorded a version of the song for her 2003 album Play With Me. "Here We Go" is also the basis for the theme song to the television cartoon series, Totally Spies!. The track has been described as "a relatively filthy '60s romp".[13] "Thank Me Daddy", co-written by Kimberley Walsh, is a "saucy disco romp".[15] "I Say a Prayer for You", a bonus track co-written and entirely sung by Nicola Roberts, also received comparisons to Spice Girls' ballads.[5][14] The album's final track is "100 Different Ways", which Nadine Coyle co-wrote and sings solo.
Commercial performance[edit]
What Will the Neighbours Say? became Girls Aloud's second top ten album in the United Kingdom. It debuted at number six on the UK Albums Chart,[32] spending two further weeks in the top ten and a total of 17 non-consecutive weeks on the chart, and was eventually ranked 44th on the tally's 2004 year-end chart.[33] On 10 December 2004, the album was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).[34] It reached Platinum status on 14 May 2010, surpassing sales of over 300,000 units.[34] In 2024, the album's deluxe edition reissue, released on 8 March 2024, re-entered the UK Albums Chart at number 35.[32] The same week, What Will the Neighbours Say? debuted a number six on the UK Vinyl Albums chart.[35] On 26 March 2024, the album was certified double Platinum by the BPI for shipments in excesss of 600,000 copies.[34]
In Scotland, What Will the Neighbours Say? peaked at number four on the Scottish Albums Charts.[36] In Ireland, the album debuted at number twelve, remaining in the top twenty for eight weeks.[37] By 2005, it had been certified double Platinum by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) for shipments of more than 30,000 units.[38]
All tracks were produced by Brian Higgins and Xenomania.[39]
Sample credits
Notes