Girls Aloud: 'Out Of Control'

These days, it sometimes feels like everyone's a Girls Aloud fan. Arctic Monkeys came out the closet long ago, covering 'Love Machine' for a Radio 1 session, and in recent months the great and the good have been queuing up to pay their respects. Chris Martin says he's "obsessed" with them, Guns 'N Roses bassist Duff McKagan wants to back them on tour, and the Pet Shop Boys, those venerable elder statesmen of British pop, have co-written a song for their new album. With Cheryl Cole charming ten million viewers a week on The X Factor - mainly by delivering every last appraisal with life or death conviction - Girls Aloud are rapidly ascending to national treasure status.

Of course, the main reason they've managed to transcend their humble beginnings on Popstars: The Rivals is their music. Together with Xenomania, the enigmatic pop production house behind all but one of their 19 top ten singles, they've changed our perceptions of what a reality show pop group - hell, any pop group - can do. Xenomania are at the helm once again on Out of Control, the group's fifth album, and they're on typically inventive form. 'Love Is The Key' begins with the strains of a cathedral choir before lurching into a sixties-style pop strut; 'Live In The Country' closes with the sound of oinking pigs and mooing cows and 'Fix Me Up' sounds like the theme tune to a comedy sex film from 1975. In a good way.

But Out Of Control is much more than a bag of quirky production tricks. 'The Loving Kind', that Pet Shop Boys collaboration, brilliantly captures what it feels like to date someone who isn't quite convinced you're The One. "I'll do anything to change your mind", the girls sing, while Xenomania push the same sad/euphoric buttons as they did on last year's 'Call The Shots' single. 'Rolling Back The Rivers' and 'Untouchable' are just as affecting, while 'Miss You Bow Bow' is plain thrilling and current single 'The Promise' grows more charming with every listen.

Out Of Control doesn't quite escape the blight of filler - 'Love Is Pain' is probably one electrodisco romp too many, and 'Revolution In My Head' is kooky-annoying rather than kooky-fun - but mostly it's an absolute delight. The music here is smart, adventurous, emotionally resonant and often very, very catchy, making Out Of Control Girls Aloud's fourth terrific album in a row. How many groups, working in any musical genre, from any type of background, can say that?