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REVIEWED: Stooshe - London With The Lights On


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Old 16-07-2013, 11:18
lovelife7292
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Hello This is my 12th review, and the album review today is of funky london girl group Stooshe's debut album London With The Lights On. Enjoy

With a number of girl groups trying and failing to set the charts alight and quickly splitting up as a result (Parade, Girls Can't Catch, SoundGirl, Mini Viva etc.), Stooshe came along to try to buck the trend with the attitude laden tunes; their debut Love Me and teaser track Betty Woz Gone gave an early indication that this trio (Alexandra, Karis and Courtney) were here to make their mark and be noticed. And the album delivers in bucketloads.

Their huge top 5 hit Black Heart is their most successful song by a long way, but after listening to their album, it is filled with songs that could potentially have been released and it has been hard to find a dud because their attitude, their voices and harmonies make every song catchy and fun to listen to. Opening track Slip shines with its motown-esque vibes, followed by their releases Love Me and Black Heart still sounding remarkably fresh. They have managed to create an album that mixes the funky attitude of Love Me and the emotional power ballad side introduced by Black Heart, making the album incredibly versatile and diverse and again fun to listen to.

On the Love Me side of the spectrum, there's Jimmy, Hoochi Mumma and Put The Kettle On that mix the trio's brilliant and powerful vocals with their cheeky ad-libs that give the songs personality as well as originality. On the Black Heart side of the scale, their are more motown slices of pop in Round 2, Your Own Kind Of Beautiful and See Me Like This, focussing more on the girls' harmonies. Their are a few surprises that hint at other sounds they could explore in the future; the reggae vibes of new single My Man Music is the perfect summer jam, while Kiss Chase and the piano led Fly Again show they can do any style and make it work for them.

After the disappointing flop of their cover of TLC's Waterfalls (which I thought was quite good) I was surprised to see two covers on the deluxe version that I was intrigued to listen to - Whatta Man, originally by Salt N Pepa, is a nice addition with its trumpet in the backing track bringing out Stooshe's carnival side, again filled with attitude. There is also their take on Here Comes The Hotstepper, which again they make their own and shows more obviously their diverse music tastes. Great album, great debut and great girlband - big things to come for Stooshe me thinks.

TOP 3 TRACKS = Slip, Black Heart, See Me Like This

DUD = Perfectly Wrong

RELATED ARTISTS = Little Mix, TLC, Destiny's Child

OVERALL RATING = 8.5/10


Thanks for reading
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Old 16-07-2013, 11:35
little-monster
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Good review
Pretty much how i viewed the album as well
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Old 16-07-2013, 13:14
Journal
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Interesting read.

What did you think of Perfectly Wrong? Why did it deserve to be classed as a DUD?
I thought Little Mix was a bit of a lazy choice for 'related artist'. In what are they related besides both being girl groups?
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Old 16-07-2013, 16:11
lovelife7292
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Interesting read.

What did you think of Perfectly Wrong? Why did it deserve to be classed as a DUD?
I thought Little Mix was a bit of a lazy choice for 'related artist'. In what are they related besides both being girl groups?
hello - i just felt Perfectly Wrong didn't really make an impact and I wouldn't say I hated it I just didn't enjoy it as much as any of the other songs. I have to say this was the hardest album i've reviewed so far to pick a dud track, but it was too middle of the road for me.

I think Stooshe and Little Mix are very similar other than both being girlgroups; for example, when I first heard How Ya Doin' on the radio, just from the first verse I thought it was Stooshe and after listening to the full song I could imagine Stooshe doing a good if not better version of it, especially with Missy Elliot on the track - the only reason LM managed to have Missy was because of Simon Cowell's influence; i think Stooshe are a much better girl band and I really hope with their 2nd album they can have far more success as the UK need a new R&B girl group to rival America's TLC, Destiny's Child etc.

Hope these responses help
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Old 16-07-2013, 16:30
kryskrys
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Good review. I wouldn't disagree with Perfectly Wrong being the dud actually. The beginning is nice, then the last two minutes are literally just the chorus being repeated over and over again. It wouldn't have taken them five minutes to write a proper middle eight and then cut 30 seconds off the end of the song.
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Old 16-07-2013, 19:11
Journal
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I had a feeling you would mention How Ya Doin? simply because it stands out as Little Mix's 'quirky' song. It was still a lazy choice I feel!

I don't disagree that Perfectly Wrong is a dud, the album is so strong that you could probably pick any of the deluxe tracks in struggling to pick elsewhere.
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Old 16-07-2013, 20:11
mgvsmith
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Actually I didn't think it was that great a review at all.
I didn't' learn anything I didn't know already about the album.
I think Stooshe do have attitude which I like and which makes them quite different from Little Mix and Destiny's Child.
The phrase you were looking for was sense of humour, Stooshe include a bit of wit and wry social comment, it's lazy just to call that attitude.
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