British Pop at the turn of the century was in a state. Spice Girls had been and gone, All Saints were still on top, but for the most part the focus was on personalities being used to sell the songs rather than the actual music. There was an overreliance on covers and trying to cash in on what was popular. Compared to the slinky American R&B of Destiny’s Child, TLC and Aaliyah or the Max Martin-backed confections of Britney Spears, N*Sync and The Backstreet Boys, Britain's crop sounded undeniably cheesy. But in 2002 Richard X appeared. A producer with a thing for synergising classic synth-pop with 90s R&B, and he, along with the Sugababes, a teen-girl group on the edge of collapse, revitalised British Pop with his ice-cool underground sounds. This is New British Canon and this is the story of Sugababes “Freak Like Me.”