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Positioned in an array of retro poses and looking gorgeous as always, I was intrigued by the unusual new image of the five starlets on the front cover of the Saturdays’ new album- released October 12^th through Geffen/Fascination records- and was ready to delve in and discover the new direction of their latest release.

After having seen the girls perform earlier in the year at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre (see review here).

 

 I was fortunate enough to have already sampled some of Wordshaker and was confident that I was in for another perfect pop indulgence; this, unfortunately, was not quite as stimulating as I may have hoped.

 

Before I share my opinions, I must preface them by admitting that my initial reaction upon slotting the CD into my laptop was to dance around my room and pretend to be a Saturday. With catchy, synthetic sounds and the likes of the dramatic ballad 'Here Standing' that even Vanessa (the lead singer) joked would require a “wind machine for the video”, I was in no position to resist the temptation to strut about and enjoy the urges I had to dance. Original judgements aside, I must admit that I was disappointed to find that the album lacked any new content and seemed poignantly to be a version of their debut album, Chasing Lights, slightly paraphrased or word shaken.

 

Despite some energetic and liberating tunes such as the feisty, girl-power anthem, 'One Shot', there were a number of songs that seemed to resemble other songs too closely to be able to take the album seriously. For example, Chasing Lights was home to a song called 'Lies' which featured a repetitive chorus consisting of the lyrics “All you ever told me, all you ever told me, all you ever told me lies”. In Wordshaker, the new interpretation of this song is called ‘Denial’ and features a chorus that resembles 'Lies' in both sound and content: “All that you did and all that you didn't, all that you said and all that you wouldn't, deny” and so it goes on. Reading the cover and seeing that the Saturdays only co-wrote one song from an eleven strong album lead me to believe that perhaps they have been unfortunate in not being able to have as much input as they would have liked.

 

As an ultimate Saturdays fan I am by no means trying to slate this album; I love listening to it and it definitely gets me in the mood to party, but I would only advise that if you already own their previous album then you don’t really have any need to buy this one. Hopefully album three will be a bit more daring and innovative.