With an album as mind-spinningly inventive as Chemistry, the choice for singles is pretty rich. Whole Lotta History is an odd choice to be released, not least because it follows hard on the heels of another ballad - the rather uninspiring Christmas single, See The Day.

Yet, for a Girls Aloud ballad, this is pretty great. They obviously do the upbeat perfect pop better, but this is probably the best lovelorn pop song since All Saints' Never Ever. There's a terrific string arrangement, the chorus is made to be sung along to, and the girls' vocals even sound pretty good - usually the weakest part of the Girls Aloud package.

So everyone's favourite guilty pleasures go from strength to strength - although it would be nice to hear the utterly barmy Wild Horses grace the singles chart before the next album's planned.

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end of year feature musicOMH's 50 Best Albums Of 2009 From the nearly 700 albums we reviewed this year, which did our writers love the most? Introduction 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 20-11 | 10-4 | 1-3