Gossip: A Joyful Noise – review

With their furious, anthemic Standing in the Way of Control a long six years ago, it seems strange that the word "punk" was once used to describe the Gossip, or rather the article-less Gossip as they've renamed themselves for this fifth album of glossy, smooth-edged Xenomania-produced pop. Claiming to have listened to only Abba for a year, the usually redoubtable Beth Ditto sounds less like the spirit of riot grrrl and more like a wannabe material girl – and, even more dismayingly, as bratty as Ke$ha on the half-rapped opening to the asinine Get a Job.