Not to put too fine a point on it, in the space of two years and two albums, the Sugababes changed the face of pop. With 2000's sultry debut single 'Overload' they asserted that girl bands didn't have to be step perfect stage school dimwits. Then, after the departure of Siobhan Donaghy (the ginger one), they returned as sneering, man-eating teen strumpets with the genius bootleg 'Freak Like Me', scored their first Number One and set-up shop as the coolest thing to rule the charts in decades.
As with all good things, others were quick to imitate. Liberty X jumped on the bootleg bandwagon and it's not hard to see where Girls Aloud got their ideas from. But none have mustered quite as much sexual tension and malevolence as Mutya, Keisha and Heidi, let alone shown their ingenuity. Sugababes have set a hard act to follow, not least for themselves.
While by pop standards their third album is another brave challenge, by their own it's a safe banker. With the playing field already slanted to their liking, it's a tour round the Sugababes' bases to consolidate their strengths and bolster their reputation as a byword for sophistication. As such, it's both their most accomplished album to date and their least exceptional.
Their ability to conjure a chart-eating tune with the minimum of effort, remains spectacular. First single and Number One 'Hole In The Head' is a relatively dull dancefloor romp, made seductive as soon as they open their mouths. 'Whatever Makes You Happy' repeats the bootleg trick, this time borrowing the stadium sized synths of Sly Fox's '80s masterpiece 'Let's Go All The Way', while 'In The Middle' is a retro hip-shake in the 'Round Round' vein. Likewise, their downtempo moments are as moody as ever. 'Too Lost In You' and 'Caught In A Moment' both remind that they handle trip-hop melancholy with the same devastating confidence as their seething club stomps.
Elsewhere, there are detours to the quirkier side of their perspective. 'Twisted' lays a sly, candy coated melody over an eccentric off kilter bounce, while the backwards beats and funk rock slink of 'We Could Have It All' make for a ghostly shimmy - although they're nice touches rather than genuine adventure.
Their core values revised, refined and reasserted, 'Three' is a faultless reminder of everything that is good about the diminutive trio. And if unlikely to change the world, as their previous albums arguably did, it confirms there's still no one to touch them.
