The Saturdays. I was there when If This Is Love was first "unleashed", when they were known as "GA's support act", and they're probably the first pop band I followed from the very beginning. They're also one of the few Western acts I'm still actually updated on. I know, I know, shoot me. And besides, I never really said my piece on Missing You.
I'm rather alarmed with the growing trend in releasing EPs instead of LPs, because let's face it, EPs are a sign that labels don't have enough money to churn out full-length albums anymore, so they resort to throwing a few songs into a package and marketing one single. It's cheaper, but sells just as much as an LP, if not more.
But that aside, I have mixed feelings with a material. I know it's not an LP, but even EPs need a sense of cohesion and identity. I'll only be talking about the new material, so all the previously-released songs are excluded from the review, and the rating.
Missing You is epic, but to a certain extent it's too epic. It's a pretty song, don't get me wrong, and the chorus has it's own way of exploding, but in trying to be this gigantic-ly epic package, they overdid it a bit. Everything before the second verse is the best part of the song for me - gorgeous melody, and it sounds very "fresh", like how it's supposed to. But it's like when you get to the second verse onwards, the melody and instrumental get really boring and it feels like it just goes on and on and ooooooon.
I would like to profess my love for Higher. There, I did it. It sounds like a Sats song, but it's fresh (for them), the melody's gorgeous, and everything about this song is so.. so... brilliant. I kid you not! Everything just sounds right - together and as individual elements. The hook is a little cheesy, but it adds some character to the song. I like character. The synth loop would've been rather annoying, but for some reason it knows when to take a back seat and when to really make itself heard.
Died In Your Eyes sounds like something straight out of Wordshaker, in all it's epic-ness, but it is a gorgeous song. I got sick of it real quick, but the verses are pretty and the chorus is nice and big and all show-off-y. It's a Sats song through and through, no question.
I honestly don't know what to think of Karma. There's a part of me that likes it with its tongue-in-cheek sound and obnoxious sounding vocals, but the synths and the strange vocal treatment put me off a bit. It's sounds very American, with touches of The Sats sound, but seriously, their vocals on the chorus sound so strange - is that even them singing? To a certain extent it sounds like parts of a bunch of different songs thrown into one package and sung by the girls - the middle 8, the verses, and the hook sound so detached from each other.
Puppet wasn't my favorite song in the world when I first heard the EP, but it's slowly growing on me. I'm still a little rusty, so I can't pinpoint what song this sounds like, but it does sound like something else. Like almost every song I adore, the melody is gorgeous, and the hook really does stick, and it does sound rather American, actually. OMG IT SOUNDS LIKE AN NLT/VARSITY FANCLUB SONG. (Mel, I know you're reading!) The verses, at least. The middle 8 isn't the best thing since anything, but I did notice its existence, so that's gotta mean something.
4.2/5 - solid effort, but still lacking on some points.
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