One Touch

About

There’s never been a British girl band quite like Sugababe. When they first emerged at the turn of the millennium, their insouciant attitude was an achingly cool antidote to the hyperactive maximalism and primary-colored pre-teen pop (think Steps and S Club 7) that had ruled for so long. Sugababes’ coolness came straight from their founding members: Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena, and Keisha Buchanan. Still teenagers (15 and 16) when <i>One Touch</i> was released in 2000, the three had undeniable chemistry. Each had a distinctive voice, as well. Donaghy was angelic, Buchanan was bright and forceful, and Buena delivered the grit and soul. When brought together, it all melted into something akin to aural nirvana. And <i>One Touch</i> was hardly the work of manufactured music industry puppet. Out of the 12 songs on Sugababes’ debut album, the band members cowrote nine—including the distinctive debut single, “Overload.” That song remains a high point for early-2000s British pop: built around a now-iconic bassline and relentlessly shuffling drum, the intricate and windy production is pared back, pushing the group’s vocals forward in the mix. Then, out of nowhere, everything drops out to make room for a surf-guitar solo—only to swing back around for a momentous final chorus and the band’s signature ad-lib. The complexity of “Overload” wasn’t a fluke and, in the decades since its release, the rest of <i>One Touch</i> hasn’t lost any of its unexpected sophistication. The UK garage stylings of “Same Old Story” and the smoky trip-hop of “Lush Life” are still charged with electricity, while the gothic “Run for Cover” is every bit as haunting as it was in 2000: “You never seem to wonder/How much you make me suffer/I speak it from the inside,” the band members sing on the choru, their harmonies as tight an an impenetrable barrier. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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