Gossip - A Joyful Noise

Forgive me whilst I reminisce but it doesn't really seem that long ago that the trailers for the TV series Skins were coming into the fray, soundtracked by Standing in the Way of Control and launching the Washington trio into the heights of mid-2000s indie coolness. Their singer Beth Ditto topping the NME's Cool List for 2006 and generating more than enough publicity through her interviews, appearance and that Rolling Stone cover, the band really seemed to be going places. Their 2009 effort, Music for Men, however, was met with little more than a damp squib, peaking at #18 in the UK. Thus, the band have done what all mainstream pop/rock bands should do - work with Xenomania's Brian Higgins. The music production powerhouse behind virtually all of Girls Aloud's hits, Cher's Believe and the greatest band of all time: Mini Viva.

Not exactly a massive boost to their indie credentials and I honestly thought Xenomania had done more to warrant such a good reputation, but oh well. Ditto's solo EP last year contained some fine pop songs - Open Heart Surgery and I Wrote the Book impressed just about everyone. But dragging the band into this new direction - has it worked? Well the album was released last week and charted at #47. Is this the end of Gossip?

A very Garbage grunge-pop feel is apparent from the get-go with opener 'Melody Emergency', which sees Ditto cooing and urging for primal energy: "You gotta go a little crazy/ release the animal". The chorus' riff is stable and fine but is undersold by the track's rather slow, lagging rhythm. However, 'Perfect World' is so brilliantly pitched and emotionally charged that it's quickly forgotten. Its melodrama and theatricality ably captured by their sepia-church music video, the track finely treads a line between 1980s new wave melancholia and more modern rhythms, and boasts one of the year's finest pop choruses. "I'd love to stay and party but I've gotta go to work" begins 'Get a Job', an oddly repetitive and synthesized track that, again, lingers moodily before a rousing chorus, and it's a little unsettling to the pace of the album. Nonetheless, it's a fine song.

Fred Falke comes into play on 'Move in the Right Direction', giving the band a much more conventionally 'pop' acoustic. Sounding oddly similar to Kylie's Can't Get You Out of my Head in pace and rhythm, it's another notch in favour of their new sound. Ditto's vocal For every Sugababe and Kylie song Higgins has helmed, there's been an ill-advised Texas song. 'Casualties of War' certainly looks set to be one such creation; dragging along in the verses with an acoustic guitar that rather typifies Higgins' approach to rock. The chorus is relatively fine, though, and Ditto's vocals are quite pleasant. 'Into the Wild' however wholly lacks one, and is a dreary listen from start to finish. Late 80s piano-rave makes its way into 'Get Lost', though, and it's a fantastic genre for the band to experiment with, throwing in some country guitars to the verses to vary it up a bit.

Quickly though they return to tense pop with 'Involved', a relatively safe but solid song that doesn't really go anywhere. 'Horns' sounds like the theme tune to a Channel 4 makeover show, which is both a good and bad thing (quite catchy, quite forgettable). At their most synthesized though, on album #5 (apparently they had two before SITWOC, who knew?), they're the most compelling. 'I Won't Play' has one of the album's strongest hooks and is remarkably catchy, and injects new life into their somewhat tired indie-cool shtick. "I put my makeup on and head for the other side of town" opens 'Love in a Foreign Place', our closer, that has the unfortunate coincidence of a chorus slightly similar to Rihanna's We Found Love, if backed by guitars rather than Calvin Harris' grating synths. Quite lovely though.

Given the quality of Ditto's EP last year and its fresh lease of life for all things associated with her music, and the excellence of the first song from this record I heard (Perfect World), I'd anticipated a little more from this album. They seem reluctant to change, and try to stamp their older brand onto a selection of pop songs rather than perform them originally. What is achieved though is an injection of new life into a very tired band, and it's a far better record than their past two. The commercial failure, though, is worrying, and whether there'll be a sixth, balanced with the critical reception that greeted Ditto's solo material, is looking doubtful.

Rating: 7/10

Highlights: Perfect World, Moving in the Right Direction, Get Lost

Avoid: Into the Wild

Artwork Watch: I don't...why would you put your hand on the sleeve if it looks like that?