Angels With Dirty Faces

Although this album was released in 2002, it still contains retro vibes from the 90s. Angels with Dirty Faces is one of the band’s most signature albums. It shares the name with the classic 1938 noir film. Bristol rapper, Tricky also released an album in 1998 called Angels with Dirty Faces. In many ways, Angels With Dirty Faces is the perfect follow up to One Touch. I don’t know if this album choice was done on purpose, or if it’s just a coincidence, but it’s such a cool album.

If I ever go round to somebody’s house and they have at least one CD of the Sugababes. This is the album I’m most likely to see.

In One Touch, the girls are young. There’s a lot of times of trying to find one’s self and moving on from first loves and broken hearts. The debut had a whole sense of innocence. In Angels with Dirty Faces, the girls are older and a bit more wiser and have a stronger sense of who they are. There’s just one twist to this. Siobhan is no longer a member of the band and here is where they welcome Heidi Range into the second and classic line-up of the group.

Siobhan Donaghy is a great vocalist, so the dynamic changed a lot with Heidi in the picture. I feel that in the end, this line-up change was nessecary. Mental health was not discussed as openly as it is now. The direction of the Sugababes could have been very different had Siobhan had stayed in the band. But they still had their signature sound, only it was more different. Siobhan went on to make two wonderful solo albums, and the band continued to have great hits with Heidi.

The line-up change became both a blessing and a curse. Everybody has their opinions on this. I know this line-up is the most popular and beloved, but it’s still sad that not many people know who Siobhan Donaghy is. It’s most likely my personal bias coming in, but I love the original line-up and their members. That’s not to say, I don’t care about their replacements, I find that the original members were more to my taste.

The first single, Freak Like Me is a genius cover of Edina Howard’s R&B hit. It samples Gary Numan’s ‘Are Friends Electric?’ which gives the song a whole new life. This mash-up was created by a producer called Richard X. As he could not get permission to use Adina Howard’s original vocals, the Sugababes were enlisted to re-record the vocals. It became the Sugababes’s first number one in the UK.

Although Sugababes in their prime, took pride in writing their own songs and sharing harmonies and song-writing credits, their covers have always been sublime. I remember watching the music video for the first time as a little kid. I was amazed. I thought wow, this underground club looks so cool.

I think the reason why this album was such a big hit was because it kept some of the elements from the original line-up with the different ethic backgrounds and the different voices that harmonise well. There’ also a big element of growth on this record. My favourite song on this record is stronger, because I feel it’s uplifting and the production is excellent.

There were some brilliant music videos attached to this album. I love music video to Angels with Dirty Faces because it makes me feel nostalgic. I love the Powerpuff girl’s essence to it. The video for Round Round is simple and iconic, but the song always makes me think of that scene in Corrie where the Platts are dancing in the kitchen to it.

As for the album tracks, I think the best ones for me are Just Don’t Need This and Blue. I love the orchestral production at the beginning of Just Don’t Need This and I think the tempo is perfect, especially the way it slows down in the middle-eight because it adds so much emphasis on the vocals and the lyrics.

Definitely a great album that’s worth listening to.