Island
Pop, 2005

The Sugababes have lost much of their edge in their previous album Three and their bleeding into mainstream continues with their latest CD Taller in More Ways. But if this is the sound they have and will stick to, selling out is never more glorious.

Comparisons to the now-defunct All Saints are perhaps inevitable with Sugababes’s “late-night coke party at some penthouse” sounds, such as in Better and Bruised which have hypnotic trance-like hooks reminiscent of All Saints’s Pure Shores and Black Coffee. A dip into cheesy disco comes off as stonking fabulous instead of contrived in Obsession and Red Dress. There’s even a song with American East Coast vibes, Gotta Be You. The lead single Push the Button is probably the cheesiest song on the CD as while it is too catchy for words, it sounds like something Rachel Stevens will try to pass off as a lead single. Other than that misstep, every song on this CD comes together perfectly like some simultaneously divine yet campy and fabulous yet kitschy discotheque.

For the Sugababes, Taller in More Ways is so much better in so many ways. It’s a perfect reason why pop music is so fun. If you are tired of listening to the likes of the latest pretentious git bands trying to recreate Radiohead’s brand of whiny lamentations, pop in this CD, lose all inhibitions, and embrace the magic that is fabulous pop music at its finest.