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Story filed Monday, 11 August 2008

Sugababes albums are becoming something of an annual British institution - like Wimbledon, the Chelsea Flower Show and, er, Girls Aloud albums.

Anyway, their new collection of tunes is due in a few months but their comeback single is out next month and it's called 'Girls'. It is literally quite brilliant.

Here are the main things you need to know about it:

THE MAIN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SUGABABES COMEBACK* SINGLE 'GIRLS'

1. It's based around a rewritten version - ie use the chorus, Sugabung in some new verses and bits - of 'Here Come The Girls', which UK readers will be well aware soundtracked a series of Boots commercials last Christmas and is therefore a song lodged firmly in the British psyche yet surprisingly underexploited by The Usually Quite Opportunistic Pop Industry.

So those are the main things ou need to know.

One of the clever things about the track is that as well as not sounding like anything the Sugababes have done before while simultaneously sounding like a brilliant Sugababes single it also fits in perfectly with the brassy, Ronsonised soul sound of pop in 2008 (well, 2007) but, unlike a lot of stuff cluttering up the music industry at the moment, it doesn't sound like it's trying too hard to pull the sound off - one of the Sugababes' main selling points has always been how effortless their hitmaking seems, and it's a theme that continues with 'Girls'.

We would also like to mention here that there is a COMPLETELY EXCELLENT portion of the introduction where the intro drops out to make way for a brilliantly deranged waily Sugababes 'WHOAH OAH I DON'T NEED NO [SOMETHING OR OTHER] ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME" before the track launches properly with a big chorus.

There is a good marching band bit and the four best lyrical bits on the song are:

1. "Monroe's got nothing on me."
2. "Tonight we rule the world, beware cos here come the girls."
3. "With or without a man I feel complete."
4. "Stop speculating, I'm a regular girl."

While it's perhaps slightly deflating that the comeback* single isn't a brand spanking new song, and whiie releasing the tune from a Boots ad might prove an easy target for people who like to keep themselves busy talking about how the band have lost their edge, it's a great track, it's unexpected and, like 'About You Now', it's a reminder that one of the luxuries the Sugababes have as the UK's longest-running girlgroup is that they needn't endlessly position themselves as genrebending sonic pioneers with every new release. Rather, they can just concentrate on banging out the hits. Which is what we have here.

Don't be surprised if you hear this track everywhere - not least in ad a few breaks - as the year draws to a close.

* 'Comeback' in the sense of 'their last single was released five months ago'

http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2840&Itemid=206