The Promise is the first single from Girls Aloud’s forthcoming album, Out Of Control.

But prepare to be surprised by this track, popwatchers, because after the futuristic, cutting edge pop of the last few singles, The Promise is kind of what you’d expect if Nadine and Co had nicked a fluxed-out DeLorean and gone back in time a few decades.

Alright, so this seems to be part of a trend by Xenomania to mine the remnants of 60’s pop music, as evidenced by the latest Sugababes effort. The jury’s still out as to whether we really need this particular kind of revival movement, but doubtless it’ll keep your granny and Louis Walsh happy while it all lasts.

For me, The Promise was too sharp a change in direction, and too soon. In fact, on the first few listens, the backing track in particular sounded like that bland kind of muzak they used to have in supermarket adverts in the 80’s.

However, I’ll concede that the song eventually will grow on you, despite the fact that it’s nowhere near as groundbreaking as the last album Girls Aloud released. And even though it’s currently sitting at the top of the UK pop charts, my feeling is that an album full of this type of music might just be a big snooze.