GIRLS ALOUD | Something Kinda Ooooh

Available on:
x Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Ooooh (2006) CD-S
x Girls Aloud - The Sound Of Girls Aloud (2006) CD

Credits:
Written by Miranda Cooper / Brian Higgins / Tim Powell / Nick Coler / Jodie Lei / Giselle Sommerville .
Published by Warner Chappell / Xenomania Music.
Mixed by Tim Powell / Brian Higgins.
Keyboards & Programming: Brian Higgins & Tim Powell.
Keyboards & Guitar: Nick Coler.
Programming by Eliza Dodd-Noble.
(P) 2006 Polydor Ltd. (UK)

Single information:
Released on 23 October 2006, "Something Kinda Ooooh" served as the lead single for Girls Aloud's greatest hits collection The Sound of Girls Aloud. "Something Kinda Ooooh" made Girls Aloud the first British act to debut in the top five on the UK Singles Chart with downloads alone.

Notes:
Xenomania were asked to come up with a single that would launch The Sound Of Girls Aloud. On the first attempt, the best they came up with was "Dog Without A Bone", which ended up on the b-side to "Call The Shots". On the second attempt, the team came up with a song whose objective was to be an '80s song, or something along the lines of "Too Funky" by George Michael. "Something Kinda Ooooh" was one of five or six songs to fit the bill.

The track went back and forth between Xenomania and the band several times before completion. A restructure put Cheryl's opening "I've got to heat it up" line at the beginning as well as in the middle, and a third remix turned the song into a full on dance track.

REVIEWS:
x Probably the first completely standard Girls Aloud single that isn't a cover or a ballad - a pretty much straight ahead dance-rock number. Of course, the 'dance' is dance-pop and the 'rock' is pop-rock, which makes it mostly pop anyway, but its textures are that little bit harder and faster than anything they've done before. So obviously the thing to put on top of it is none-more-white girl rap which makes it that little bit more playful vocally than its deep bass bursts, rapid fire beats, ascending pre-chorus noises and sparse middle-eight backing would be. It's essentially a fast mainstream dance track with the added bonus of the endlessly interpretable, projectable, all-conquering fivesome going, bolstered even further by the naughty, insidiously sexy lyrics of Miranda Cooper. The least complex thing to emerge from Xenomania ever, but all the better for it. Edward Oculicz

x As usual with Xenomania productions, the song has an unpredictable structure: very brief vocal intro, then the chorus, then the verse, and of course a pneumatic bridge to die for. And also as usual, we get the best genius/stupid lyrics a mega-selling girl group has to offer: "Something kinda ooooh/Jumping on my tu-tu/Something inside of me/Wanting part of you/Something kinda ooooh/Makes my heart go boom boom/Something inside of me/Wanting what you do/Something kinda ooooh/Bumpin' in the back room." Elisabeth Vincentelli

x 2006 was the year we found out that dance is back and pop and this is living proof. Unlike 'All Good Things' and 'Crazy', this is no revelation in songwriting. But it was never going to be. Also unlike them, this is British. Thank fuck for that. Imperialism at it's best. Jumping on the new-rave bandwagon, Xenomania and Girls Aloud shake off the ballads, borrow from C&C Music Factory's 'Gonna Make You Sweat (Everbody Dance Now)' and create the biggest dance record of the year.If you want to dispute their punk credentials? Who else brings nine year old girls this close to a head-fuck without the bat of an eyelid? Punk that! Pop Boy

x "Something Kinda Ooh", the single from the group's forthcoming best-of, Girls Aloud jump right into a club track that feels like it's about 90% chorus, trying really really hard to get something kinda ooh bumpin' in the back room. And of course they do. They come on pretty strong, all power-synths and cardio-facilitating throb, and you can't resist the hooks. But they're not irresistible, just relentless. Not necessarily a criticism-- you can dance to it (you kind of have to)-- but there's nothing hiding in the corners, no quirks to explore. It scorches, but the trade-off is that there's no room to get comfortable, no room for them to charm or wink. They say they've only got until it's 2:59. David Moore

x OK, so it's not Biology, but given that Biology is the best pop single of the last decade, that's no reason to be giving it the high hat. What it is, is an effortlessly lascivious, ecstatic 198 seconds of thundering medium-NRG brimming with the Alouds' trademark nonsense lyrics (what "something kinda oooh/jumping on my tutu" means, we may never know, although it seems to suggest a ballerina being menaced by a spider) and synth stabs employed as cudgels. It's been said before, but they are one presentation of Nicola Roberts' P45 away from being a truly great band. Peter Cashmore

x Something Kinda Ooooh is the girls' thirteenth single and is more proof that they are this country's finest pop act. It's another head-spinningly inventive number from the Xenomania team, totally different to what they've done before and Girls Aloud's most obvious move into dance. The lyrics manage to sound both fantastically nonsensical and incredibly dirty ("something kinda ooooh, jumping on my toot-toot"), while there's a huge, futuristic, almost rave sound to the single, while still having more hooks than a fly-fishing box.
They've promised that the forthcoming compilation doesn't mean that Girls Aloud are on the verge of splitting, but if they do go their separate ways they couldn't wish for a better sign-off than this. More glorious stuff from Britain's best singles band. John Murphy

x Xenomania once again redefine the rules of writing a truly great pop song by having two completely different types of verse, a winning 'slow' moment (bless Kimberley), and a whizz-bang chorus.
The song triumps on all levels. It comes over so simple when it's actually fiendishly clever, the girls have their personalities stamped all over it, and the song is almost impossible to listen to without shaking your shoulders or imitating the girls' rather amusing choreography.
Girls and gays everywhere will love it, and so should everyone else. Stuart McCaighy

LINKS:
x video on YouTube
x Wikipedia page