As we know, the new album begins work in January 2009 then they have a
break before returning to the writing.

After the sinking ship of Catfights and Spotlights, anticiplation for this
album will not be as high as it would normally be on most people's minds. The
general idea is, for most artists, 50% of the sales margin is based on the
fans of the artist, and obviously the other 50% is the general public.

In the past, TIMW, Change, Three etc everyone was going through what I called
a Suga-craze.. take FMH out of the equation, and everything they did sold well,
yes I do count Denial and Change singles as both these songs made top 20#
marking them a general success, although not to the level AYN was of course.

Catfights and Spotlights brought about a side to the Sugababes we had sorley
missed since the Three era ended. It was all about dark, moody and emotional
Sugababes. What we had grown to love them for. TIMW and Change, while still
being great overall, lacked what the previous albums had brought about,
which was the edge and chrisima that made the babes a house hold name.

But their newest album was just a musical masterpeice. Not content with sticking
to the local vibe of the generation of Pop, the babes' yet again smashed the
mold and took their music to a new level and again, as proven in the end at
the wrong end of the scale this time, was a massive risk.

So, the question is, why did it fail?

Numerous reasons have come to light. Many point the finger ( myself included )
at their label. Island are shit. Plain and simple. They hardly promoted the
album, and not many people knew it even existed before it was out. Although
Girls charted well in the UK top three, nobody could even place it next to
album birth songs such as AYN and PTB for example. The fact of the matter
remained, the babes' did nothing wrong, but the fact they went for such a
mature sound was moulded into it's downfall.

Why dO I think that?

Simple. Look at the pop music market nowdays. Who do you have? Girls Aloud,
The Saturdays, Britney etc. They do not do a sound like the Sugababes overall.
As much as we, the fans, love the way the Sugababes hate to imitate artists
like these in their music, it does seem that the public overall, like this
sort of movement more than the mature sound Catfights and Spotlights offered.

It was quite clear, from the first offical chart update it was not doing well.
Production companys like Xenomania have created what is known as a crystalis
around the public's appreiciation of music. Sure, the babes have their fans
who will always follow and support them. But the bitter pill to swallow is,
the sound they tried for did not work as the public prefered the electro pop
scene - and still do.

So, what now?

The new album. has to be an electro-pop one with a mature sound ( credit
to Emma for the idea ). I think that is the only way the babes' are going
to get the public's attention again. Hardcore Sugababes fans will always
buy their music, but they need to create a movement to get the rest of the
world liking them again.

If that means going to back to the sound of TIMW and Change, then they may
have to do that. That is ok, but I do want them to lose the magic they
have generated on Catfights and Spotlights. We saw a rawer side to the babes
and they again proved they can stand up to most things.

The producers we do know about on the new album all be it rumors mainly do
sound encouraging - so I am very interested to discover what they come up
with. I just hope, that what they do generate puts them back into the public's
good books again musically.

If they fail again with this new one, it would spell the end. :(

I think C&S was yeah ok, a sound that made it a Sugababes sound.
But overall with Sugababes, they're not DIFFERENT in ways they sound.
Heck they have better vocal ability, but in the sense of their singles.
Hardy Diverse (with the exception Of One touch singles and NO CAN DO)

they can't end thier career with the next album, they have to pick themselves up + make the world listen,
i think the downward spiral started with the release of Change as a single, it was not the right choice.
Maybe the 60's was not the right decade to choose, but you have to admit that they did follow the crowd with other acts going for that same sound, even though the babes put thier own spin on it.
Every Heart Broken would have been an amazing second single
the next album MUST find the right balance between electo-pop + emotional soul with the indesputable essance of deep maturity.
As an example Girls Aloud had a different electro sound in thier most recent album compared to thier previous efforts.
Sugababes need to find the right sound, the right electo decade, maybe 90's dance? 70's disco? 80's rock?
but the only thing for certain is that they need to find a sound that willlead into the next decade that everyone else will copy instead of them following the pack.