[Z]

The problem with 3.0 was fundamentally down to the fact they had to start off in the middle of a 2.0 album campaign. The label did not want to just shelve the Taller In More Ways project because Mutya had quit, they needed to make money out of it. Amelle was learning on the go, then they did the Greatest Hits, that charity song with Girls Aloud and kept appearing everywhere while they figured out what to do next. In an ideal world, Mutya would have finished the campaign then quit so that Amelle could have had time to learn everything before they launched. However, because that didn't happen, it made her look amateurish compared to Mutya and nobody took her seriously because everyone was making lineup change jokes and Amelle was so very obviously new to it all.

I think Catfights and Spotlights is the second best Sugababes album. The campaign was handled brutally but the album is packed full of brilliant songs, it sounds like a real classic girl band album and it's a crying shame that people had stopped taking the band seriously by then, resulting in the unholy trend chasing mess that was the Sweet 7 album (and that's before Jade Ewen even came into the picture).

Incidentally: Three > Catfights and Spotlights > One Touch > Taller In More Ways > Change > Angels With Dirty Faces > Sweet 7