The soul-pop trio lead by the fearlessly spunky Beth Ditto is back with their fifth offering as Gossip.

A Joyful Noise is a throwback album of sorts - you may find yourself trying to imagine where you’ve heard some of the tracks that are reminiscent of the 80s heavy-synth era and 90s Madonna.

The opener to the album, A Melody Emergency, has a groovy acidic grunge feel to it:
 

Get a Job is a fun anthem with the hook “I’d love to stay and party but I gotta go to work”. To be absolutely frank it does give off more of Lady Gaga vibe than that of Gossip. But is a good song nonetheless:


Perfect World is one of the best songs on the album. It will have you moving from the beginning and it shows off Dittos varied range:


Top pop producer, Brian Higgins (who is responsible for the success of UK girl-bands, Girls Aloud and Sugarbabes) is the mastermind behind the more commercial and subtle tone of Gossip. This may be a good or bad thing depending on your tastes and history with the music of the band.

If there is one thing that this album is, it’s meditative. Play this on your headphones while taking a walk or pop it on in your car and you'll have some great background music.

However, if your intention is to throw it down on the dance-floor you may want to skip this one. While Ditto is still the dominant factor in the band, her range is underutilized in this album as she competes with the over-production of the songs.

The lyrics are nothing to write home about, yet her voice is as sweet as ever and there is no doubt that she has skills.

Final thoughts: Once you get over the initial shock of the scary album cover and get into the album, it’s alright, but far from great. The album lacks the usual charisma of the band, but they may just be reaching for a subdued mass audience. And, while this might be the perfect tactic to see them on the top of the charts, it’s hard to determine if they tried too hard or they did not try hard enough.

Put it this way, if you are a fan of Flash Republic or electro-pop, you will like A Joyful Noise. But if you liked the old, gritty Gossip, it will take you a while to get into this one and you may think they have sold out.