Album Review: Sugababes – Three

The Sugababes’ third studio album Three is a bit of a weird one. Releasing at a point where the Sugababes were at a career impasse, and managing to not be the album that I think many expected. And it also seems to be an album where different people had different ideas of the type of album it should be. But we’ll get to that.

Three is generally a pretty low key and sombre album, which put it very out of step with the landscape of not just pop, but all music at the time. 2003 was the year of colourful pop, rock and Hip Hop. Freak nasty R&B. The year of whinin’ up in sweat pum pum shorts. But separate from ‘the rest of the world’, Three being as sombre as it is threw me at first, because I simply wasn’t expecting it — which is crazy, because the Sugababes’ music has always had a sombreness to it. They’ve never been known for having an effervescent discography, despite having songs within it which are. But even so, I guess it was just HOW sombre this album was which caught me off guard, mainly because of the lead single “Hole in the Head”, which is not representative of Three at all.

When I first listened to Three, I was like ‘Wow, this album is pretty depressing’. But I eventually really grew to adore it because of this. “Hole in the Head” was a good song. I liked it. But it did feel like it was trying to retread “Round Round” to a degree, which I get. “Round Round” was a game changing song for the Sugababes, which really cemented them as the UK girl group. And it was also massively responsible for the shift in sound we see for girl groups in pop. The name of the game would become these weird pop songs with a rock edge and gobbledigook lyrics which make no sense, but are memorable and sound cool. Something which would become a signature of Brian Higgins and the Xenomania posse – the team responsible for “Round Round” and “Hole in the Head”, who would also go on to write and produce near enough all of Girls Aloud’s music and continue to contribute to the Sugababes’ albums up until Mutya’s departure. Unfortunately, the Sugababes would end up with songs more fitting for Girls Aloud. [Looks over at “Red Dress” and “My Love is Pink”]. But that’s a whole other post.

Sugababes – Three | Universal Island Records

After the initial ‘dis album depressing’ bomb, I found myself drawn to the more sombre songs on this album. Now that I think about it, Three may have been hugely responsible for me becoming the fan of sad bitch songs that I am today. The slower, darker, downtempo moments on Three are the songs that largely define it, and for good reason — they are the highlights. The poppier songs on Three just don’t fit the album as well as they did on Angels with Dirty Faces, which creates this stark divide between the two styles of songs that make up the album. Angels with Dirty Faces had its fair share of sombre moments. But I think the difference as to why they sat with the poppier songs better, is that the sombre songs still had the same sass. Angels With Dirty Faces cut (and highlight) “Just Don’t Need This” is dark and downtempo. But it’s not a song about being so lost in someone, contemplating life or mourning a loved one. It’s a song about some crusty old man in the club that needs to back off. None of the slower songs on Three are about such a thing. They’re just…traditional ballads in a sense, which I think is also what threw me. There wasn’t the Sugababes edge or snark that I was expecting off the back of Angels With Dirty Faces and Three’s lead single “Hole in the Head”. This isn’t a bad thing. But it did make me go ‘OH’. And I have theories as to why Three ended up how it did and how a song like “Hole in the Head” wound up as the lead single.

There is a fitting title for this album. Not just because it is the Sugababes’ third album and they are a group with three members. But it seems there were three different things at work, which resulted in Three turning out the way in which it did.

One. Three was supposed to be the album which would introduce the Sugababes to North America. Hence the gloss of the sound of “Hole in the Head” and “In the Middle” and their music videos. Two. But it’s also a Sugababes album. So of course there had to be those stirring sombre-ass songs in the vein of “Run for Cover” and “Stronger”. But also, the huge success of “Round Round” shifted the Sugababes into this whole new space and exposed them to a far wider audience than they’d ever had prior. The Sugababes were no longer the underdog girl group they were during the days of “Overload”. They were THE girl group. So it didn’t make sense for the entire album to be such a sombre affair when they weren’t the songs which were the hits. Three. The Sugababes’ were still just 19 years old when Three was released, and were probably 18 years old when they were recording songs for it. So there had to be a part of them which wanted to appear ‘grown’ by recording more ‘mature’ sounding songs. But also…they were still teenage girls, who were probably looking at a group like Destiny’s Child and wanting that look and that attention. Especially with the shit they were always getting over their looks and not being a more conventional girl group compared to their American contemporaries and American girl groups of old — which was absolutely crazy. Not only are the Sugababes not an American girl group, but two of the biggest British girl groups which came before them were the Spice Girl and All Saints, and they were huge because they were pretty much the antithesis of prim and proper glossy girl groups. The UK press and tabloids were absolutely fucked and they still are. But that’s a whole other post.

Three was a notable ‘era’ for the Sugababes, because of the B-sides. “Who”, “This Ain’t a Party Thing”, “Someone in My Bed”, “Down Down”, “Colder in the Rain” and “Disturbed”. All of which seemed to imply the type of album that Three was perhaps supposed to be at some point — less serious, less miserableness, more sass, more ‘cool’. I’m glad these B-sides didn’t make the album though, because they’re not quite as refined as what did make the album. And if Three went in the direction of the B-sides, it would not have felt like a big enough jump from Angels With Dirty Faces.

Three feels like an album of compromise, which realistically, so many albums often are. And when I listen to Three, I do sometimes wonder about the alternate realities where the different versions of this album exist. Because it’s apparent that the version of Three that we got wasn’t the initial vision for the album.

Sugababes – Three | Universal Island Records

Three is one of the Sugababes’ most introspective albums. The Sugababes never got the dues they deserved for some of the songwriting on this album and how personal some of the songs were, especially for 19 year old girls. And in this day and age, with us knowing what we know now about the inner workings of the music industry and how awful that can be, I can only imagine the types of mess that Keisha and Mutya in particular were having to deal with. And that’s all in addition to the general horror or being 19 years old. It’s such a weird age, where people simultaneously treat you like a child and an adult. And they pick and choose when they treat you as one or the other and there is no reasoning or rationale as to why. I absolutely hated being 19.

A third of Three has the Sugababes mulling over their perspectives on their lives as a group, individual life experiences and what they knew love to be. One Touch and Angels With Dirty Face featured songs which were slices of life. But there is a greater sense of pensiveness on Three, which is heightened by each of the members having a solo song which touches on their own personal experiences. “Whatever Makes You Happy” is Keisha’s solo song, which is all about navigating life as a pop star when everybody is telling you who and how you should be and people refusing to see you for who you are. Then turning around and saying ‘FUCK Y’ALL’. Being a pop star unfortunately subjects individuals to encountering numerous unwanted and unwarranted interactions and things being said about them by people who do not know them. But Keisha being a Black girl who wasn’t singing the type of music many wouldn’t deem ‘typical’ for a Black girl had to have come with additional nonsense, on top of regular pop star nonsense. And Keisha’s middle finger to all of this is made even sweeter by the fact that “Whatever Makes You Happy” is an obnoxiously noisy synth pop song. “Whatever Makes You Happy” has aged beautifully in an age of social media, fans having a whole new way to cross boundaries and Black girls and women still having the style of music they do be policed because they simply chose to do a style of music other than ‘Black’ music. Mess.

Mutya’s solo song “Maya” is dedicated to her younger sister who had passed away. It fittingly closes out the album and beautifully sounds like a lullaby. The song is produced by Guy Sigsworth who does an amazing job of evoking a sense of floating peacefully through space or passing through worlds. “Maya” paints such a vivid picture between the lyrics and the production style. You truly can see and feel this song when you listen to it. One of my favourites on the album.

Heidi’s solo song is the weakest of the bunch. “Sometimes” is basically Heidi’s bridge section from “Round Round” made into a full song. That bridge section was a great and unexpected twist in “Round Round”. And for those who really dug it, they could revel in it by listening to the alternate mix of “Round Round”, where the bridge section was longer. But to make a whole song out of it? No girl. Not that it couldn’t work. The bridge of “Round Round” bears great resemblances to James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, which Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’” basically copied and interestingly didn’t credit. So it’s not like it couldn’t have worked. It just doesn’t work here. Partly because we’ve heard Heidi do this already and largely because “Sometimes” pales so greatly in comparison to the other string laden, sombre ballads on Three. “Caught In a Moment”, “Conversation’s Over” and “Too Lost in You” are all better songs. Heidi really shines on “Caught In a Moment”. It’s a shame this wasn’t her solo song. Although it’s hard to imagine it without Mutya. Heidi not only gets the short end of the stick with her song being the weakest, but she also doesn’t sing leads across the entire song as Keisha and Mutya do on their songs. Keisha sings the bridge and Mutya’s ad-libs punch through, despite being placed really far back in the mix. Then there’s Heidi’s solo performance, which…is fine. But she just doesn’t bring the right energy to the song and her voice sounds really, really thin. Generally, Heidi’s voice is a strange one in the Sugababes, because it lacks the versatility of Mutya and Keisha’s. Mutya and Keisha’s voices and singing styles work with every style of song that the Sugababes do. Heidi’s doesn’t. Which is why she always ends up with the least mic time on songs and is the one member of the group who rarely ad-libs. So it’s kinda understandable why the producer of “Sometimes” may have stepped in and been like ‘Keisha, maybe you should do the bridge. And Mutya, you do the ad-libs.’ Heidi Range unfortunately does not have the range that Siobhan did and still has.

Sugababes – Three | Universal Island Records

The production on Three is massively elevated from Angels With Dirty Faces. Everything sounds richer and tighter. And because of Sigsworth of Frou Frou fame being brought into the mix, sometimes things get a little experimental. Where-as before there was a slight ‘rough around the edges’ type of vibe to the Sugababes’ music, everything on Three sounds far more polished. But it never takes away from the character of the songs or as though the Sugababes’ sound is trying to be changed into something it’s not. It’s still very Sugababes. It’s just the Sugababes sound, with money. Island Records coughed up a larger budget for live strings, session players, additional producers and nicer studios, and you can hear it.

The Sugababes were never really a group I thought much of when it came to vocals. The vocals for me was always Mutya, because I always liked her tone. And from the very beginning, Mutya was the one member of the group who knew her voice. It took Keisha time to really know her voice and where it sits in the group. And Heidi. Well, bless her. But when it came to harmonies and vocal arrangement, this was always something which was highlighted far more during live performances than on recordings. Three doesn’t really highlight vocal arrangements any more than Angels with Dirty Faces did. But there is definitely a greater sense of Mutya, Keisha and Heidi’s individual voices, and songs playing to each of their strengths. Because of the sombre vibe of so many of the songs on Three and also the key they happen to be in, Mutya ends up being the most dominant and prominent vocal on a lot of the songs. No complaints from me. But it does result in Three kinda being Mutya’s album. And perhaps somebody shoulda said ‘Hold up’ and put more effort into the vocal production so that there were more group vocal moments. Because there are instances on this album where entire choruses are sung by Mutya, with her doing all of the harmonies by herself and I don’t get why Keisha and Heidi weren’t allowed in the booth or why somebody muted their vocals.

I can imagine Three being quite a divisive album. Because it isn’t the kind of album with songs that really hit you immediately, in the same way “Overload”, “Freak Like You” and “Round Round” did. Three is an album which takes its time to unfurl itself, which can result in it being skipped over or deemed boring. But I do implore you to give it a chance and allow the songs time to unfurl. Three is an album which rewards your attention if you allow it to, delivering some amazing songs such as “Situation’s Heavy”, “Million Different Ways” and “Conversation’s Over”, which stand as some of the best songs in the Sugababes’ discography.

Three is a good album. Sure, it stumbles on a couple of occasions. But in retrospect, even the stumbles are vital, because they inform the approach for the follow-up album Taller in More Ways. But even looking at Three in isolation, its stumbles are easily forgivable and do not drag the entire album down, because the moments on this album which do work, REALLY fucking work.

Album highlights
▪ Whatever Makes You Happy
▪ Caught in a Moment
▪ Situation’s Heavy 🥇
▪ Million Different Ways 🏅
▪ Conversation’s Over 🏅
▪ Too Lost in You
▪ Maya 🏅