GIRLS ALOUD | Sexy! No No No...

Available on:
x Girls Aloud - Sexy! No No No... (2007) CD-s, digital download
x Girls Aloud - Tangled Up (2007) CD

Credits:
Written by Xenomania, Nazareth and Girls Aloud.
Produced by Brian Higgins and Xenomania.
Keyboards and Programming: Tim Powell, Brian Higgins, Matt Gray, Nick Coler, Miranda Cooper and Toby Scott.
Guitar: Nick Coler and Owen Parker.
Mixed by Jeremy Wheatley, Tim Powell and Brian Higgins.
Mastering engineer: Dick Beetham for 360 Mastering
Published by Warner Chappell Music Ltd./Xenomania/Carlin Music/EMI

Single information:
"Sexy! No No No..." is Girls Aloud's sixteenth single and the first to be taken from Tangled Up. The single was released as a download on August 31, 2007, with the physical format following on September 3, 2007.

Notes:
"Sexy! No No No..." is three songs welded together - one with a sort of samba rhythm, another with a crazy sample that had been sped up and had a breakbeat added to it, and an intro from where else.

The guitar riff is lifted from Nazareth's "Hair Of The Dog".

REVIEWS:
x If this is the first Girls Aloud song you've ever heard, you need to know right away that it's not even the best, or even the most intense. While most mainstream and indie rock bands are busy mewling and meowing in this decade, Xenomania has been crafting loads of pumped-up pop songs for Girls Aloud and other UK pop acts that drastically exaggerate the dynamics of both rock and dance-pop to such extremes that it makes most everything else seem relatively flat and lifeless. Xenomania isn't just trying to do a catchy tune -- they want to hijack your body and throw you around, and keep pushing you to new levels of manic elation over the course of a three minute song. Girls Aloud may seem a bit blank on the surface, but the singers are ideally suited to Xenomania's material, especially in the way they convey catty contemptuousness and a creepy sort of chick-lit nihilism. Matthew Perpetua

x After a stunningly weird chorus - all atmospheric synths, vocoder vocals and a strange sense of doom (honestly), it just explodes into a big burst of electro-pop that sounds like it's been beamed down from another planet.
The thing that makes Girls Aloud one of our greatest pop bands is still intact - their willingness (or rather Xenomania's willingness) to experiment and do something a little bit different. Sexy! No No No isn't even structured like a proper pop song - there's no verse-chorus-verse and it's not even that catchy. Yet it still sounds like perfect pop to dance around your bedroom to. John Murphy

x Sexy No No No is nothing if not bracing, but someone carelessly forgot to pack a tune amid the fuzzy guitars and synthesizers, distorted vocals and Sympathy for the Devil-esque whoops. Alexis Petridis

x Taster single "Sexy! No No No..." is one of the most daring songs they've yet released. A pounding electro-punk number with an extended, vocodered intro and a chorus which, while catchy, could hardly be described as danceable (...). John Lucas

x (...) a noisy riot of multi-layered guitar riffs, whipcrackin' call-and-response vocals and euphoric "woo woo-oo" harmonies. As ever, the Xenomania hitmaking team sacrifices conventional song structure in the name of keeping those hooks coming thick and fast - and quite right too. The feisty five, meanwhile, restyle themselves as teasing minxes, claiming that they've "dropped their d-d-dirty style". Hmm. Do we really believe that Sarah Harding and co are capable of sexual restraint? Nick Levine

x Sexy! No no no..., the album's first single, is representative of where Girls Aloud get it wrong on Tangled Up. While it's initially fun to hear the girls trying something a bit heavier, it soon becomes clear that the song doesn't have a tune to speak of - it's basically shouting and a big beat (...) Paul Gallagher

x (...) GA have spun their raw appeal into the sort of pan-generational pull that makes everyone from dribble-happy toddlers to hairy great men literally weep with pleasure at the mention of their name. Which is good. As is the intro to this. Sadly, after the intro it gets a lot less interesting. Oh well. Rob Fitzpatrick

x Sexy No no no takes a while to get started but once it does is full of feisty vocals and thumping beats, it's quite grown-up by Girls Aloud standards. I do have two major quibbles with the song though - firstly the lyrics are hard to understand in most places (after a couple of listens I was still unsure what the song was supposed to be about), secondly the style of the song is very erratic and seems a bit jumpy in places. Kate Ingham

x "Sexy! No No No..." is quite brilliant, but it's incredibly jarring on first listen just because it's so far removed from what we're meant to expect from pop. The intro - hushed synth pads with enough effects on the vocals to stop them sounding even human - gives way to the kind of 80s rock guitars Xenomania are so fond of and vocals that that are even MORE removed from the natural sound of the girl's voices (I think this part is Sarah, but it could honestly be any of them). It's not until 1:14 that you hear anything resembling an actual tune sung by an actual person. Okay, it's a great song, so let's not make too much of the complaints, but the production overshadows the intended stars of the show to the point where this almost sounds like sabotage. It's indicative of the theme of the album - Xenomania audibly muscling GA out of the picture. They might as well rename themselves Egomania. Nick Butler

x This song isn't as immediate as most of the Girl's previous tracks, seemingly because the vocals are so layered, and covered by an immense wall of sound, that its hard to figure out the lyrics. I wonder if this is where the title comes from with the 'No No No' being the most easily singalong able part... along with the sexy! at 1.27 and the intermittant woo woos- although for me they slip in and out between listens.
While this may seem to be its flaw, its also wherein lies its charm. Every time i listen i hear different lines and different aspects of the song. Critically there is no hook. Its catchy and draws you in but its as radical as 'Sexyback', and beats hands down 'Biology' for daring to break the pop mould in ways only wet dreamed about.
The Girls, and perhaps here more importantly their producers: the oft lauded Xenomania, deserve full respect this time for this track. Too often our love of pop hyperbole heralds Xenomania as the stardust that can make any pop dud sparkle, but here they truly prove their inventive worth. pop-hyperbole

LINKS:
x video on YouTube
x Wikipedia page