Recently boring men with guitars have taken over the charts with plodding, depressing, imagination-free dirge that has been lapped up by an audience of morons. I'm thinking The Fratellis. I'm thinking Razorlight. I'm thinking Kaiser Chiefs. Recently, however, there seems to have been a slight shift back towards pop, with Pink, Girls Aloud, Katy Perry and Sugababes all scoring huge hits on the singles chart and more surprisingly on the album charts too, usually the domain of the Tesco CD buying brigade - "Oh, the new Keane album, that can play in the background at the dinner party whilst Christian and Tara talk bonds and dental plans".

Girls Aloud have just released their sixth (!) album, Out Of Control. The album features a song written for them by none other than pop uber-lords the Pet Shop Boys. Here's a picture of them in case you happen to be younger then fifteen:



Yes, they are homosexuals.

The song is called 'The Loving Kind' and is due to be the second single from the album. You may think you've heard it before and that's probably because it's not a million musical miles away from their best single, 'Call The Shots'. As with that single it's got rather sad lyrics about separation and lost love, but musically it's quite upbeat. It means there's a good chance you'll see people at weddings literally crying on the dancefloor, with small children running around and skidding on their knees in the wet patches. If for some reason you're not able to listen to it then simply imagine Girls Aloud singing a Pet Shop Boys song and you're pretty much there. Not a bad thing at all.