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IIn 2018, just days before the release of the latest Little Mix album, the quartet announced the separation from Simon Cowell’s Syco company, which had guided their careers since winning The X Factor in 2011. You shouldn’t have gone too far. . understand that the split was not terribly friendly. Cowell took the tabloids, protesting the band’s lack of deference. “Why do artists think they are more important than staff members? I’m not, ”he complained, indicating precisely why artists might not want to hang around Syco for too long.
Freed from the dark lord of pop, Little Mix has begun launching its own TV talent show, The Search, a direct competitor to Cowell’s ailing X Factor. Ratings suggested audiences might be fed up with TV talent shows regardless of who is on the jury, but it couldn’t be beaten as an act of assault – the light entertainment equivalent of tanks on the lawn. Now comes their first post-Cowell album, heralded by a single that clicks: “I don’t do what Simon says”. “Be a puppet on a string”, says Not a Pop Song; “It works for you, but not for me.” The chorus, meanwhile, is designed to be bellowed en masse in arenas lit by frantically waved bright wands and ripped open with screams: “Anything is better than another pop song about falling in love, but if you want to sing along, say,” I do not care “.”
Okay, funny stuff – criticisms of the pop industry produced from within are always spicier when it comes from within – which prepares the listener for a new era in the career of Britain’s most successful female band: sparked by dark controlling influences, able to do, and indeed sing, whatever they want. The problem with Confetti is that it suggests that what Little Mix wants to do in its new unleashed state isn’t particularly different from what they did when they were, as Not a Pop Song says, “hamster.[s] on a wheel “. You’d be very pushed to differentiate it from its predecessor, except that LM5 seemed overly concerned about bolstering Little Mix’s dwindling fortunes in the US – this time around, there are no guest appearances of Nicki Minaj, and the voice seems less intent on mimicking. the mumbled birth of a mumble rapper.
Otherwise, it is as usual. The sound often feels like a ticking exercise in current pop trends: 1980s-inspired Boys of Summer synthesizers on Break-Up Song; reggaeton rhythm on Sweet Melody; post-Daft Punk home on vacation; gospel piano ballads in My Love Won’t Let You Down; the voices were filmed with Auto-Tune. It’s all very well done without ever reaching the heights of their best singles, Black Magic and Shout Out to My Ex, two spectacular examples of the songwriter craft. Sweet Melody stands out, her vaguely irritating vocal hook is overwhelmed by her dirty lyrics about fellow pop star ex-boyfriends (“She’d lie, she’d cheat on a syncopated beat”), while the Europop tune of Happiness skillfully remains the only right side of the cheese.
Little Mix: Sweet Melody – video
Still, it’s kind of weird to hear Not a Pop Song’s bold announcement that “there will be no more songs singing about breaking my heart and my lonely nights dancing in the dark” in the middle of an album full of songs about hearts. broken (“My baby you don’t love me anymore and it hurts like hell,” Breathe complains) and that literally opens with a song about a lonely night spent dancing in the dark: “I found a way to dance without you – in the middle of the crowd I forget the pain inside. “
The sense of a band eager to have their own cake and eat it is enhanced as the album’s production moves slightly into more adventurous territory. Gloves Up’s noisy rhythmic track recalls R&B experimentation of the early 2000s; A Mess (Happy 4 U) strikes the perfect balance between melodic pop and sonic invention, transforming after two minutes into a dark cloud of sampled wheezing, rumbling drums and distorted vocals. Maybe not a pop song is talking about the future, rather than the here and now: it’s not inconceivable that Little Mix, whose members have talked about issues ranging from racism to online bullying and mental health, could shift their attention as promised. , although it’s probably best not to hold your breath. As it stands, Confetti is exactly what you’d expect from the band: a solid mainstream pop album, even when it claims it’s not.
This week Alexis listened
Rheinzand: Porque
Missed at the time, spotted in a best-of-2020 online list: unclassifiable electronic pop from Belgium with violin and Spanish voice. Blessed.
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