The Saturdays - On Your Radar
The Saturdays released their highly-anticipated third album On Your Radar this week, but has it ticked the right boxes?
Unfortunately, it's not as consistent as we'd have hoped, and feels generic despite the girls' involvement in its writing.
Some of the tracks are great floor-fillers, with the likes of 'All Fired Up', 'Faster' and 'For Myself' succeeding as good club tracks.
However, the production and club-heavy influence takes away any personality The Saturdays had previously, resulting in an un-original record.
There are some nice changes of pace, the girls' power-pop collaboration with Travie McCoy ('The Way You Watch Me') standing out as an attempt to try something a little different.
Underneath the over-production, good songs are trying to power through, but The Saturdays are suffering from the same issues that JLS failed to overcome on their recent effort.
As more pop acts lean towards the more marketable club scene, it becomes easier to create guarranteed hits - but these are void of any personality.
Case in point is 'Wish I Didn't Know', which is a beautiful track when it's left to the piano, acoustic guitar and drums.
Once it reaches its climax, it's business as usual as the soul of the song is hidden beneath unnecessary production.
'Last Call' is a perfect example of how to do this properly - it's heartfelt, honest and relatively raw, stripped to its bare bones and it's all the better for it.
On this song, The Saturdays show their talent with nice harmonies and a simple, but effective, piano line.
Even the strings are used sparingly enough not to intrude - it's disappointing that the same restraint wasn't showed on the rest of the record.
On Your Radar has enough definite floor-fillers to be a success, and it will no doubt fit into the scene The Saturdays were aiming for.
However, the mess of production sometimes hides the real quality of some of these tunes, and results in a fairly generic (albeit catchy) offering.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge (Follow me on Twitter @AlistairMcG)
Tagged in The Saturdays