ABOUT A GIRL

Sugababes 3.0 or 4.0

And so the revolving door to the Sugababes JobCentre spins round again, this time ejecting the last remaining founder member onto the street. Seven albums, four line-ups and a 100% turnover in staff along the way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before - a band transforming itself from a self-created trio doing their own thing into little more than a brand name. Fair enough, Oasis have had a few changes over the years, but the Gallaghers were there to the end, or at least Liam was. If you ask me, Sugababes 1.0 was the real deal with Version 2.0 not too far off, but Version 3.0 was when things started getting silly. When Mutya got replaced I came up with two theories. First off, somebody obviously thought the band could ONLY work as a trio, and secondly, it was likely that same person also thought that the brand (not band) could last forever with the aid of an occasional reshuffle to keep things fresh, hence the new look Sugababes 4.0. Pop bands aren’t like football teams you know, you need to keep at least one original in otherwise it becomes a tribute act. With no founder members left, I don’t think they can still call themselves the Sugababes and expect people to keep a straight face, especially not when Version 1.0 could now reform (around the same time that Satan builds a snowman) and go head to head with them. Can the new line-up get away with singing Overload? Of course not. This whole mess is pop music at its most ridiculous. Anyway, the song. I’m almost certain the 3.0 version I’ve heard isn’t the one that’ll be released (yes, I’m that cynical), but as the singers are interchangeable anyway it doesn’t seem to matter unless your name’s Keisha and you’ve recently been made redundant. This would’ve been a far better final outing for her than Get Sexy was, because this doesn’t have any gimmicks, it just stomps around in an eighties Madonna mixed with nineties disco fashion for three and a half minutes. In fact, given all the comings and goings and the fiasco that’s surrounding the release of this single, the biggest surprise is that this is comfortably their best release in some time. It genuinely is a good pop song, it’s just a shame it’s being released by a band whose credibility, in my view, has now been shot to pieces.