so hidden far into the mix

Music Yes, I know but look this is outrageous -- through the magic of YouTube we can hear what a difference a voice makes. Sugababes's next single About A Girl, firstly in its Keisha vintage (with an erroneous shot of Mutya), then the hasty Jade Ewan rerecord. Note that after reading the Siobhan interview I have generally lost interest, so this is just a scientific study:



Leaving aside that it's like trying to find strawberries in a plate of offal, I do think you can hear a quality in Keisha's voice which is missing from the other vocalists, but it's so hidden far into the mix you do have to listen a couple of times to notice. Which is good for the record company because they can say that there's continuity despite the replacement shuffle.

Except it's also indicative of how wayward the project is now. The reason the original original line-up worked so well is because it was three amazing, unusual, distinctive vocals which somehow blended together. To be honest, vocally, if About A Girl didn't have Sugababes plastered all over it you wouldn't be able to say which group had recorded it.