EVERYTHING changes and yet nothing changes in Sugababeworld: whatever the line-up, the number one hits roll on.

This week's cherry atop the charts, About You Now, leads off their fifth album of precision-tooled 3am girl pop, and it heralds a deceleration in tempo in Denial, Surprise, Open The Door and Undignified, all reflective fillers rather than floor fillers that mark the move from teen recklessness to mid-20s wounds, from mouthy Mutya to anonymous Amelle.

The ballads are as treacle-sweet as ever, indeed Change and Mended By You are mumsy enough for the Old Spice girls, but just enough spoonfuls of Suga elsewhere help the medicine still go down like the silkiest stocking.

Never Gonna Dance Again is the glitterball stuff of disco-Kylie, Back When is Ugly mark two and almost as pretty, and the girls peak when getting saucy and bad on the horny rush of My Love Is Pink, the boastful bedtime grind of Back Down and the bubblegum blast of the hot and bothered 3 Spoons Of Suga. Stay tart, not sweet, Sugababes.