"No Good Advice" | |||||||||||||||
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Single by Girls Aloud | |||||||||||||||
from the album Sound of the Underground | |||||||||||||||
B-side | "On a Round" | ||||||||||||||
Released | 12 May 2003 | ||||||||||||||
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Recorded | 2003 | ||||||||||||||
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Length | 3:48 | ||||||||||||||
Label | Polydor | ||||||||||||||
Writer(s) |
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Producer(s) | Xenomania | ||||||||||||||
Girls Aloud singles chronology | |||||||||||||||
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"No Good Advice" is a song by British girl group Girls Aloud, taken from their debut album Sound of the Underground (2003). The song was written by Aqua's Lene Nystrøm Rasted, Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins and his production team Xenomania, and produced by Higgins and Xenomania. It has themes of rebellion, reflecting Higgins' general mood of failure after a business partnership fell through. Following the overwhelming success of Girls Aloud's debut single "Sound of the Underground", the group waited five months until May 2003 before releasing the follow-up. "No Good Advice" cemented their success when it peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart.
The music video features Girls Aloud dressed in futuristic silver outfits and hologram effects. "No Good Advice" was promoted through various live performances and has since been performed on Girls Aloud's first three concert tours. Described as "a disco track with guitar", the song has heavy 1980s influences. The track was lauded by many contemporary music critics, who deemed it a worthy sequel to its predecessor and praised Higgins' production.
Musically, the song was labelled "a disco track with guitar - a cross between Blondie and The Bangles." The song was written in the key of Bb minor. The song consists of a verse followed by a bridge and chorus. In place of a middle 8, there is a guitar solo instead. The song ends with a spoken outro.
Originally written for Miranda Cooper under the pseudonym Moonbaby, "No Good Advice" is seemingly about a rebellious girl who doesn't need "no good advice" and does things independently. However, according to an interview for The Guardian in July 2004, Brian Higgins said that the song reflected his general mood of failure after a special deal between Xenomania and London Records fell through in 2000, and about persisting in spite of what people told him to do or not to do. The song's chorus originally began with the phrase "I don't like fried rice". "No Good Advice" was sung over a rave backing track, until different Xenomania musicians were asked to contribute new backing tracks. Higgins was inspired by indie rock. He stated, "pop music was on its backside and indie music was about to rise [...] The guitar riff on No Good Advice is very very similar to the riff on the track Michael by Franz Ferdinand."