It is almost impossible to seperate this song from its video. On its own this piece takes a lotta listens to grow on you. And even after that, Long Hot Summer - which I'm sure is some kind of apocalyptic sex-reverance to global warming - has a "buh bah baaah" Banannarama-ism in its chorus that remains irritating.
The Girls' songwriters, Brian Higgins and Miranda Cooper of Xenomania, suffer from the weaknesses of their strength - which is the courage to try something "pop-new" each time. The old in this case was the strong melodies and over-powering production of What Will the Neighbours Say. The new is a kind of Girl Band AOR/rock, with an edge of sexiness slipping back into teenie. In some ways it is a pleasant departure from previous Xenomaniarisms, though I am a tad disappointed with the form over content nature of this piece.
But half of the Girls Aloud phenomenon is about these ladies "forms", so I'm "content" to merge this piece of media into its stylist-driven and over-thinned orange-tinted video. As the old Republika song goes "when I look at you, you're forgiven."
VIDEO:
