As one of the first acts that welcomed me to the world of British Pop (not counting the Steps and S Club 7 days), The Saturdays have always been under my radar. They've released two albums, Chasing Lights and Wordshaker, and new material wasn't expected to come until 2011 so imagine my delight when the girls announced they were to release an 8-track EP!
Headlines! opens with lead single Missing You, and if you're a regular reader here (I certainly hope so!), you'd know that I wasn't completely taken with this single choice nor the dancesteps in the accompanying video. I had 'hoped' for it to be a grower, and after I got used to the almost-abusive autotuning especially on Frankie's part, Missing You is actually quite pleasant to the ears with its summery backing.
The lead single, however, pales in comparison to Higher, which resembles Up in Chasing Lights—but even better. It's one fine slice of pop, and it includes EVERYTHING that I could ask for in a Saturdays song: it's terribly upbeat and catchy, the verses were distributed properly, and then there's THAT gorgeous Una middle eight (though the vocoder at the last bit annoyed me a little)! By the way, I'm STILL hoping this is all the dream and Higher is the lead single.
Died In Your Eyes reminds us that these girls can still kick ass at sweeping ballads. The Saturdays' cover of the Kristinia DeBarge song is heavy in terms of production, overwhelming if you put it on loop. The chorus starts to thicken after a few listens, but the delicate-sounding hook reels you back in every time.
From the track previews, I put Karma as the song to look forward to (mainly because we've all heard Higher live already). I loved the feisty sound that the preview offered (plus shouty bits), but I was taken aback when it played in its full glory. I like the fiery sarcastic verses, the soaring hook and chorus, and the heavily-autotuned middle eight individually, but when put together they don't make much sense, mainly because the sections sound foreign to each other.
I wasn't attracted to Puppet in the preview, and it's the generic track of the EP. It sounds like pop in the late 90's/early 2000's, and I have no idea what's making it sound so dated (or is it just me?). Nonetheless, Puppet is an earworm with a deadly chorus.
The three other tracks on the EP are taken from their sophomore album Wordshaker. Ego, arguably the best song on that LP, Forever is Over, and the Starsmith mix of One Shot (which doesn't really stray away from the original but it's a proper remix).
Headlines! packs enough punch to remind us that The Saturdays are still very much alive and kicking until the release of their third full-length album in 2011, but like what I've said regarding Robyn's three-part album, it fails to give full satisfaction, and the three not-so-new tracks aren't much help either.
Headlines! opens with lead single Missing You, and if you're a regular reader here (I certainly hope so!), you'd know that I wasn't completely taken with this single choice nor the dancesteps in the accompanying video. I had 'hoped' for it to be a grower, and after I got used to the almost-abusive autotuning especially on Frankie's part, Missing You is actually quite pleasant to the ears with its summery backing.
The lead single, however, pales in comparison to Higher, which resembles Up in Chasing Lights—but even better. It's one fine slice of pop, and it includes EVERYTHING that I could ask for in a Saturdays song: it's terribly upbeat and catchy, the verses were distributed properly, and then there's THAT gorgeous Una middle eight (though the vocoder at the last bit annoyed me a little)! By the way, I'm STILL hoping this is all the dream and Higher is the lead single.
Died In Your Eyes reminds us that these girls can still kick ass at sweeping ballads. The Saturdays' cover of the Kristinia DeBarge song is heavy in terms of production, overwhelming if you put it on loop. The chorus starts to thicken after a few listens, but the delicate-sounding hook reels you back in every time.
From the track previews, I put Karma as the song to look forward to (mainly because we've all heard Higher live already). I loved the feisty sound that the preview offered (plus shouty bits), but I was taken aback when it played in its full glory. I like the fiery sarcastic verses, the soaring hook and chorus, and the heavily-autotuned middle eight individually, but when put together they don't make much sense, mainly because the sections sound foreign to each other.
I wasn't attracted to Puppet in the preview, and it's the generic track of the EP. It sounds like pop in the late 90's/early 2000's, and I have no idea what's making it sound so dated (or is it just me?). Nonetheless, Puppet is an earworm with a deadly chorus.
The three other tracks on the EP are taken from their sophomore album Wordshaker. Ego, arguably the best song on that LP, Forever is Over, and the Starsmith mix of One Shot (which doesn't really stray away from the original but it's a proper remix).
Headlines! packs enough punch to remind us that The Saturdays are still very much alive and kicking until the release of their third full-length album in 2011, but like what I've said regarding Robyn's three-part album, it fails to give full satisfaction, and the three not-so-new tracks aren't much help either.
Rating:
4/5
Check out a more comprehensible review of the EP at Pop Reviews Now.4/5
Hmmm, it's a decent effort as a filler. Higher is definitely very good and should've been single number one. Puppet and Karma strike me as rejected Katy Perry demos but aren't bad either. I just expect better of the saturdays yet have never got it so don't know why i'm disappointed!! I do quite like them still though! It's a conundrum :)
I think you hit the nail on the head with "Puppet" which is probably why I love it so much -- because it has this Euro sound that IS very 2000-esque. The rest felt like filler. I wanted something like "The Fame Monster".
Oh well.