Chemistry is the third studio album by English-Irish girl group Girls Aloud. It was released in the United Kingdom on 5 December 2005 by Polydor Records. After the success of What Will the Neighbours Say?, the album was again entirely produced by Brian Higgins and his production team Xenomania. Chemistry is a loose concept album which details celebrity lifestyle and "what it's like to be a twentysomething girl in London." A number of the songs avert the verse-chorus form typical of pop music. Chemistry was universally acclaimed by a number of contemporary music critics upon its release. Despite a relatively low chart position (peaking at 11, the lowest charting release by the group), the album yielded four top ten singles and was certified platinum in the United Kingdom and Ireland, selling over 390,000 copies. The album was followed by the Chemistry Tour, which had Girls Aloud performing in arenas for the first time. Conception After the success of What Will the Neighbours Say?, which was solely produced by Brian Higgins and Xenomania, the production team was asked to create Girls Aloud's third studio album. Chemistry was entirely produced and written by Xenomania, apart from a cover of Dee C. Lee's "See the Day." The album was recorded in 2005, following the What Will the Neighbours Say...? Tour. Parts of the process were shown in the fly on the wall documentary Girls Aloud: Home Truths. Music Style and lyrics Chemistry explores a more innovative approach to pop music, straying from the typical verse-chorus form present in most songs. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that Chemistry is "a record that dispenses with the tiresome business of verses and instead opts for songs apparently constructed by stitching eight different choruses together." BBC Music exclaimed that Girls Aloud "have resuscitated its corpse by wedding chart-friendly melodies to experimental avant-garde sounds". The album takes influences from a wide variety of sources, including "everything from French chanson to piano-pounding blues to the clipped R&B of the Small Faces". Rapping in the same vein as artists like Betty Boo and Neneh Cherry is prominent. Guitars are present for most of the album. Yahoo! Music says "there's nary a 'formula' in sight. There are as many sudden tonal and tempo switches as the tricksiest Chicago art rock band. And all but one song here gives guitars a starring role." The songs are noticeably less rooted in electronic