Sweet 7
Sweet 7 is the seventh studio album by British girl group the Sugababes, released on 15 March 2010, by Island Records. Production for the album began in April 2009 and was completed in January 2010. Sweet 7 is the first release since the controversial departure of Keisha Buchanan, who was replaced by 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry Jade Ewen in September 2009. As a result of the group line-up change, Sweet 7 was re-recorded to feature the vocals of new member Ewen and for the removal of former member Buchanan's vocals. In addition, this is the first album that features none of the original members.
The album was produced by and tipped for a United States release with Jay-Z's entertainment company Roc Nation, but this was later disputed by the group which claimed that Roc Nation was only signed to serve as A&R, as well as to produce Sweet 7. The involvement of Roc Nation's in-house producers gave the album a strong electro and dance-pop sound due to work from US producers and writers, mainly Fernando Garibay, Stargate and The Smeezingtons. Despite the high-profile input, Sweet 7 was negatively received by critics, which was awarded a 39 out of 100 according to aggregated reviews at Metacritic. The negative reviews stemmed to the originality of the image due to the loss of Buchanan, as well as a lack of an identifiable sound and soul from the project.