GIRLS ALOUD | Call The Shots

LYRICS:

Static tone on the phone
Are we breaking again?
Must be something better babe
All the names that you called out in bed
Seem to fade
To sometime never, but

I won't cry for all the hunger in my heart, no
I won't cry because
I've made it through this far

Just 'cos you're raising the bet
And call the shots now-ow, on me, ooh
It really doesn't phase me
How you spend your time, oooh
Just 'cos you're raising the bet
And call the shots now-ow, on me, ooh
It really doesn't phase me
How you spend your time, oooh

Out of the fire that burns inside me
A phoenix is rising
If you don't feel that you can love me
I won't shoot you down

I won't cry for all the hunger in my heart, no
I won't cry because
I've made it through this far

Just 'cos you're raising the bet
And call the shots now-ow, on me, ooh
It really doesn't phase me
How you spend your time, oooh
Just 'cos you're raising the bet
And call the shots now-ow, on me, ooh
It really doesn't phase me
How you spend your time, oooh

I've seen life burn bright, seen it shimmer
Then fade like starlight to a glimmer oh oh
I've seen life flow by, like a river
So full-of twilight dreams that glitter

Just 'cos you're raising the bet
And call the shots now-ow, on me, ooh
It really doesn't phase me
How you spend your time, oooh
Just 'cos you're raising the bet
And call the shots now-ow, on me, ooh
It really doesn't phase me
How you spend your time, oooh

INFORMATION:

Available on:
x Girls Aloud - Tangled Up (2007) CD
x Girls Aloud - Call The Shots (2007) CD-S, digital download

Credits:
Written by Brian Higgins, Miranda Cooper, Tim Powell, Giselle Sommerville and Lisa Cowling.
Produced by Brian Higgins and Xenomania.
Keyboards and Programming: Tim Powell, Brian Higgins, Miranda Cooper, Matt Gray and Toby Scott.
Guitar: Nick Coler and Owen Parker.
Mixed by Jeremy Wheatley.
Mastering engineer: Dick Beetham for 360 Mastering
Published by Warner Chappell/Xenomania

Single information:
"Call the Shots" is Girls Aloud's seventeenth single and the second to be taken from Tangled Up. The single was released on November 26, 2007 and peaked at #3 in the UK charts.

Notes:
Xenomania went off for a songwriting session in Paris and, while they were there, they sketched out the song that would become "Call The Shots".

Miranda Cooper said that "Call the Shots" was actually "inspired by an article she read on something called (coincidentally) the Miranda Complex, named after the ambitious lawyer in Sex and the City, about how women are earning more than men and pushing ahead."

"Call The Shots" was almost put forward as one of the singles to promote The Sound Of Girls Aloud album but was held back as it was considered too downbeat, when a greatest hits single needs to be a celebration.

"Call the Shots" was critically acclaimed, with pop music journalist Peter Robinson calling it the "greatest pop song of the 21st century".

REVIEWS:
x By far the most subtle single of their careers it's an elegant electro-pop ballad delivered with a restraint and maturity to rival groups of twice their age. Writing team Xenomania may have been working behind the pop scenes since long before Girls Aloud were formed, but they remain adept at crafting lyrics to suit the group, all of whom are still just in their early twenties. The line "I won't cry because I've stumbled through this far" says more about the confusion, naivet� and bruised wisdom of youth at the precipice of maturity than a thousand Britney Spears ballads. John Lucas

x Having first heard it via a live performance on, God forgive me, The X Factor, I was at once at ease with its spacey synths, angelic vocals and chugging bassline. Although it is essentially a piece of Euro-Pop, it is a credible piece of Euro-Pop. More edgy and emotive than is typical of the genre, indeed more edgy and emotive than most of their back catalogue. Paul

x Smooth, sleek and saucier than a whole supermarket aisle of Heinz Ketchup, the single's based around a tinny early '90s dance beat and the girls' echoing "oohs" and "ah ah ahs" that reverberate around an infectious chorus. It's more tasteful than some of the more lurid, poke-you-in-the-eyes pop glories of previous hits and is an enticing teaser for the new album. Alex Fletcher

x Perhaps sensing that 'Sexy No! No! No!' was an electro-rock stormer too far, GA also look to pop history for influence - the result being a song that sounds very much like the disposable pop of old. Specifically, Steps. Yup, this song with it's big bright synths sounds like Steps, one of the worst bands EVER. But, and this is why Girls Aloud are one of the finest groups walking the earth right now, they've made it sublime. How this was accomplished, I do not know. Perhaps it is unknowable. After two listens, this suddenly becomes the best thing ever and I've listened to it about 5 times a day since last week. Awesome. Roo

x Call the Shots has a chorus that only anterograde amnesia could wipe from your brain, but its structure and production seem a bit commonplace coming from the people who made Biology, an audacious three-minute pop single on which the chorus didn't turn up for a full two minutes. Alexis Petridis

x (...) this really is practically perfect. Mixing the sweetly delivered vocals with sassy one liners and sex appeal in spades is pure genius and they continue to surprise all comers. Glenn Meads

x Mid-tempo, sophisticated and with a desperately infectious chorus, it doesn't clamour for attention but just subtly seeps into your head and doesn't go away. Paul Gallagher

LINKS:
x video on YouTube
x Wikipedia page

< Girls Aloud
< xenomania (a fansite)