Album Review by EDF
Once upon a time there were seven youngsters who were picked from obscurity to record fun pop songs and star in their own television show. They were called S Club 7 and it was scary to see the youth of the day embrace them with a lot of affection. As time went by, their televised adventures took them to far away lands but what were they really, actors or pop stars? Eventually, they recorded a track that everybody liked and it became a dance floor classic. And they all lived happily ever after.
Well actually they didn’t. One of the seven left and the group were renamed as just plain old S Club. Strangely enough, 8 little sprogs appeared at the same time and they called themselves S Club Juniors. How the world wept, although most of those that did done so out of depression that the S Club name was still being used by those money grabbing record executives.
Well, S Club Senior decided to call it a day by releasing one of the most depressing goodbye singles ever, causing a shortage of razorblades that this country has not seen since the Spice Girls spilt up. I predict that this will happen again when the Spice Girls reform but for now, we have the pleasure of the new S Club Juniors, now re-named S Club 8, to guide us to that glorious moment with their second album release, SUNDOWN.
If you were unaware that you were listening to S Club 8 at the start of the album, then I forgive you. FOOL NO MORE is a thumping dance track but it is the by-the-numbers approach and the young sounding vocals that even the impressive production fails to cover up the fact that you are listening to a bunch of teens. The title track and THE DAY YOU CAME has so much of ABBA in there, from the chord changes to the harmonies, that I am going to start a campaign to ban these songs.
DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE SORRY tries to sound street but comes over sounding watered down and contrived. From that point onwards, the rest of the album sounds predictable and cheesy, plodding on without any real substance or depth. It is difficult to take any of these young acts seriously as anybody above the age of 14 would lose all street cred if they admitted listening to this dross.
