As telegraphed by the title – which presumably alludes not to pubescence or menopause, but the itchy caniptions of early 20s angst – Sugababes are all grown up. Innocence lost is the music’s gain: this process of maturation grants the trio license to add a crucial new element to their emotional range: regret.
Relax though. Change is not a pop transposition of A Girl Called Eddy or Magnolia, but the ’Babes handy knack of turning out instant-minted boutique pop classics has been tempered by a thoughtfulness that well becomes them. Take, for example, the rather splendid single ‘About You Now’, co-written by veteran pop mechanic Cathy Dennis. Initial listenings mistook it for a new spin on the classic Xtina/Strokes mongrel mash-up of ‘Genie In A Bottle’ and ‘Hard To Explain’. Repeated plays reveal a winsomely lovely melody, with new girl Amelle Berrabah at last being given something to do, revealing a serious alto to go with the Vogue cheekbones.
This reflective, almost melancholic sensibility is equally conspicuous on the near-power ballad oomph of the title tune and ‘Never Gonna Dance Again’, whose elegant radio-friendly airs echo George’s ‘Careless Whisper’ in sentiment but not sound. It’s an exquisite bittersweetness that harks all the way back to the Spector girl groups, lovelorn songs like ‘Denial’ and ‘Back When’ exploring the fundamentals rather than the fundamentalism of love.
By contrast, the record’s second act (‘My Love Is Pink’, ‘Back Down’, ‘3 Spoons Of Suga’) is something of a let-down: standard dancefloor fodder veneered with a patina of urban and/or Afro-Caribbean sophistication, chased by the odd slurpy ballad (‘Mended By You’). But there’s enough substance here to suggest that Sugababes, always a superlative singles act, are becoming a most interesting longterm proposition.