The Sugababes Discography Rate

Jonathan27

Jonathan27

It had a good run but I guess Virgin Sexy had to go sooner or later.

Now if virtually all of the remaining Catfights and One Touch songs could survive until the top 40 that would be satisfactory.
 
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etienne

etienne

Is 'good to be gone' still here? Seriously namesake please!

Also joy division can go too as well
As mended and undignified
 
Solenciennes

Solenciennes

Staff member
londonrain said:
I know we're never going to agree on this, but I think we need to lose Disturbed and a bit more of the beige before we get onto Mended By You. It's not a Grade-A Sugaballad (and would have flopped hard as a single) but it's better than the likes of Good To Be Gone and Ugly.
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See, I gave Mended By You a 6 because, let's be honest, it is a perfectly fine ballad delivered to order. The problem with it, as a Sugababes track, is that it just feels so submissive, weak and a huge step backwards for a band whose previous ballads include themes of depression (Run For Cover) or self empowerment in the face of loneliness (Stronger) or a deep, uncontrollable love (Too Lost In You) or unconditional love being a guiding light (Follow Me Home), to pick an example from each album... to a dreary, soppy "I'm alright because you love me!" - it feels like a weak offering after the bold assertions made in all of the aforementioned songs so to me it represents the antithesis of all things Sugababes, it's not an assertive song, it's a passive one.
 
londonrain

londonrain

Staff member
Solenciennes said:
See, I gave Mended By You a 6 because, let's be honest, it is a perfectly fine ballad delivered to order. The problem with it, as a Sugababes track, is that it just feels so submissive, weak and a huge step backwards for a band whose previous ballads include themes of depression (Run For Cover) or self empowerment in the face of loneliness (Stronger) or a deep, uncontrollable love (Too Lost In You) or unconditional love being a guiding light (Follow Me Home), to pick an example from each album... to a dreary, soppy "I'm alright because you love me!" - it feels like a weak offering after the bold assertions made in all of the aforementioned songs so to me it represents the antithesis of all things Sugababes, it's not an assertive song, it's a passive one.
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That's a good point.

I do like the production and the overall sound of the song, though, and I can understand the sentiment. I see it more as "I had an awful time with someone who was absolutely wrong for me and really screwed with my head, and I unexpectedly found myself falling in love with you when I wasn't sure if I was ready for another relationship yet. Fortunately you're not also a douchebag and instead you're supportive and understanding and have given me the space to heal." So it's a bit of a thank you to a supportive partner, which I guess makes sense for them as women in their mid-twenties (Heidi had been in a long-term relationship for a while at that point, hadn't she?)

But it really doesn't pack the punch of the great Sugaballads, which as you pointed out are often about experiencing really strong emotions rather than the bit after you have had the really strong emotions.
 
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Solenciennes

Solenciennes

Staff member
londonrain said:
That's a good point.

I do like the production and the overall sound of the song, though, and I can understand the sentiment. I see it more as "I had an awful time with someone who was absolutely wrong for me and really screwed with my head, and I unexpectedly found myself falling in love with you when I wasn't sure if I was ready for another relationship yet. Fortunately you're not also a douchebag and instead you're supportive and understanding and have given me the space to heal." So it's a bit of a thank you to a supportive partner, which I guess makes sense for them as women in their mid-twenties (Heidi had been in a long-term relationship for a while at that point, hadn't she?)

But it really doesn't pack the punch of the great Sugaballads, which as you pointed out are often about experiencing really strong emotions rather than the bit after you have had the really strong emotions.
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It's a nice counterpart to Denial, which I understand to be about falling in love with a friend and not realising it. I think it's just jarring for fans who had come to expect their ballads to be packed with defiance and attitude to be met with this, despite it being a perfectly fine song.
 
beyoncésweave

beyoncésweave

There's a miracle in this rate with my name on it








































There's a healing in this rate and it's here for me





















































wooh-ooooo-aaahhh










































There's a breakthrough in this rate it's got my name on iii-hiiit



































tasha_article_image.jpg






























SO I'M GONNA PUT A PRAIIIISE ON IT:​

#69

5_9_Mended_By_You.jpg

Score: 6.840
Highest: 10/10 x 11 (@Voodoo, @Sprockrooster, @AlexD, @Terminus, @Shockbox, @supersoon, @High Heel Feminist, @AllSixSugababes, @Conan, @Mr.Arroz, @chanex)
Lowest: 2/10 x 1 (@DoggySwami)
My score: 4/10
––​

Yas finally praise the lawd hallelujah this is OUT! I am surprised this lasted this long; the Change stans carried this through, aided by its seeming appearance of not being quite a wash which tricked the other voters. I have something between apathy and outright disdain for this. I just really can’t get past the idea of being “mended” by someone, which has always seemed like a really … distasteful concept to me but one which is recurrent in pop (see: “Fix You”, “Beautiful Cos You Loved Me” etc.). It might less of an issue for other bands, but it seems particularly regressive for the Sugababes who, up to this point, had built their career on ballads that centred the individual as their own entity, be it in traversing despair or self-affirmation or overwhelming love. The net effect of that was this quiet sense of empowerment, which gave agency to the songs’ narrators, and of course by extension, the girls themselves – something deeply meaningful for women writing their own songs. Conversely “Mended By You” ties self-worth to another person in a really reductive way, subsequently casting the narrator as damaged and incomplete, and resulting in this sense of submissiveness and meekness. The contrast with songs like “Stronger”, and what makes the band such a punchy and headtstrong force within pop, could not be starker.

This really overpowers any positives I could find about it. The vocals are perfectly fine, particularly the harmonies for the nascent 3.0; the extended layering on the middle eight is really quite nice. The production, however, whilst likewise fitting – the acoustics and strings work well together – again holds the song back. There just isn’t enough of a kick here to stave off the lethargic pace, and to counter the terrible lyrics. Even the tier 2 Sugababllads like (possibly unpopular opinion alert) “2 Hearts” and “Follow Me Home” emulate the tier 1 classics by including punchier guitars/drums or trip-hop elements to carry them through. Here, there’s nothing to really grab onto. The swelling strings are fine, beautiful even, but so somnambulistic at a stretch.

The end result is something that is really dreary, which becomes grating as it plods on and along the way highlights a lot of what was going wrong with Change. After the sugar rush of its opening, its ballads and mid-tempos largely fail to rescue it, and drag it into generic, vacuous territory. This was completely not the case for each of the four preceding albums, thus raising alarming question marks over 3.0. Could the song with same lyrics have been pulled off by Mutya? Was her absence the reason why it was lyrically deficient? We know, of course, through Catfights that these were not fatal questions for 3.0, but “Mended By You” is emblematic of some very nervous jitters after the band’s third mutation.

Let’s start with the tragic. tylerc904 (9) gives me flashbacks of his Sweet 7 stanning ass with terrible taste: “Another Taller cast off I believe. Not sure what they were doing rejecting this and Never Gonna... over tracks like Gotta Be You, Better, and a (rather fantastic) cover.” I mean, those three are all good to great. Sprockrooster (10) once again makes a disastrous comparison: “A copy from 'Too Lost In You', but refreshed and stands strong in its own quality as the perfect sister-song to TLIY. On this album it is a much needed oasis compared to the lifeless desert that is the second part of this album.” I mean, “Too Lost In You” is about uncontrollable, deeply submerged love, but love which nonetheless treats the other person as a person, and not as a “fixer”. Also hopelessly thirsty is Chanex (10): “August 23rd should be declared an international holiday. I can't with this fucking tour de force. Heidi's opener is transcendent.” Voodoo (10) is sadly also hung up on the date: “I just realised I forgot to tweet “August 23rd, do you remember” on August 23rd this year.” Is Voodoo’s twitter him just tweeting the days of the year? Robinho#1 (8.5) answers that “August 23rd do you remember? Nope but I love it.” Well, on August 23, the Golden Horde led by khan Tokhtamysh laid siege to the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1382; the Battle of Stalingrad began in 1942; and Gulf Air Flight 072 crashed into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain in 2000, killing 143. That’s what was up on August 23.
 
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beyoncésweave

beyoncésweave

DJHazey (9) of course stans this: “This is exactly how you make a girl group ballad. Glorious sweeping melodies coupled with a chill enducing prechorus from Queen Keisha provide the essential moments. Prepared to watch this be severely underrated.” uno (9) is very forgiving: “Keisha really carries the chorus so beautifully, and Heidi opened the song so perfectly. Amelle's verse is the only slight problem I've got with it, but doesn't take away from the song as a whole too much.” Queen of the cows CasuallyCrazed (8) serves us two dairy products: “It may veer to the cheesy side, but those vocal harmonies melt like buttah.” Runawaywithme (8) is similarly willing to overlook the schmaltz: “very very soppy but I also find it beautiful and I can’t help but get a bit swept away by it, it gets a bit too sticky in the middle but by the end I’m left feeling very warm and fuzzy and like I have just listened to a good song with a hint of personality and charm unlike what else is lurking at this point in the album.” “Gorgeous,” coos P'NutButter (8). kal (8) tries to hint at the production woes: “a beautiful ballad, but the airy instrumental needs some beefing up.” And “quite a nice ballad,” says a senseless londonrain (8.5).

“It's well made, it fits the musical style of the album, but it's not for me,” says Epic Chocolat (7). Queen of patience Constantino (7) opines that it’s “Not quite a return to the glory of the earlier tracks, but the vocal melody is pure and beautifully sang so I can’t exactly complain. It doesn’t outstay its welcome either, which is nice.”

Filler (3) was put under by this: “I got through the album, realised I hadn't given this a score, thought, shit, I must have skipped it by accident, played it again, then realised I was halfway through 3 Spoons of Suga, so, confused, I went back and put it on again, then by the end realised I hadn't taken in any of it at all, so I put it on AGAIN, determined to concentrate, and, look, I've done my best, but whatever is going on in this song it is just not physically possible to pay attention to it. I put it on and I swear it just ends. I am listening to it as I type this, and I can't remember anything about it. I'm sorry. I tried” Blayke (3) is unimpressed: “A weak attempted at recreating the magic Follow Me Home brought to us. I also think this was possibly a Mutya song too. Amelle sounds good in this song however.” “I have never cared for this one tbh,” says Mina (4), who later in the day says she loves all the songs equally.

Solenciennes (6) is also underwhelmed: “this has all the right ingredients for a great song and Heidi’s opening verse is beautifully delivered, but the chorus is too saccharine for my liking. Beautiful instrumentation and the sound fantastic, it just doesn’t quite tick all the boxes for me.” The song is “pleasant if somewhat forgettable,” for mrdonut (6.5). PCDPG gives this a 6.5 which seems generous considering it’s “Nothing special. Neither good nor particularly bad.” My fellow Little Cobbler VivaForever (6) grades on a curve: “A nice attempt at a love ballad, but not a very successful one.”

Ironheade (6) once again captures everything going right and wrong: “OK, the string section is pretty. And so are Heidi's vocals in the intro, hesitant yet blissful, and far richer than they had been in the 2.0 era. But this one falls prey to the slushiness that the Babes never allowed to devour any of the 2.0 Sugaballads, with a piano and lyrical sentiment that could make your teeth hurt, and the descending electric guitar arpeggios in the bridge just adding another layer of corn. You can't say the Sugababes don't try, and they certainly let you show that they've come a long way as technical vocalists, so this doesn't get a lower score. But the lyrics they're delivering are pretty lame, without the genuineness and emotional punch that their previous ballads had. Or maybe that was a Mutya-delivery thing?…” acl (5) was clearly seized by the Holy Spirit of Natasha Tameika Cobbs as they were the only commenter to come THRU with my own gripes about this: “maybe I need to chill out but I can’t get on board with a song where the sentiment is that you can be mended by someone.” And I'll put a praise on that.

​


The beat from the second verse onwards on this demo is actually a step forward, as are the subtle synths underneath and the extra harmonies. Bafflingly, all of this was discarded for the final version.

​


Now cleanse your palettes, and your souls.



​
 
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londonrain

londonrain

Staff member
Solenciennes said:
It's a nice counterpart to Denial, which I understand to be about falling in love with a friend and not realising it. I think it's just jarring for fans who had come to expect their ballads to be packed with defiance and attitude to be met with this, despite it being a perfectly fine song.
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Let me put it this way: The fact that I restricted my commentary to "Quite a nice ballad" says a lot, given how much I've written on most of the songs.

I don't hate the lyrics but that is actually because the oohs and the aahs in the chorus are more memorable than a lot of the actual words.

In retrospect, I overscored this - basically because of those oohs and aahs - but I do still think it's quite a nice ballad. That's about as strongly as I'm willing to feel about it. It's massively outclassed by the best of the Sugaballads, but then again none of the good ones got less than a 9 from me.
 
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