Yes, these are great pants.
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[5.25]
Scott Mildenhall: Flagrantly disregarding everything Back To The Future taught them, Little Mix envisage addressing their younger selves. Given the chance they might be advised to tell them to swear off ballads, because Salute, similar to their first album, is weighed down by a succession of them, scattered throughout. Thankfully though, while “Little Me” is a bit of a comedown after “Move”, it has a trump card in what’s made of the familiar Faure sample, and isn’t hindered by the snatch of melody from “Wild World” either, nor the conviction with which every word is sung.
[7]
Iain Mew: Little Mix’s vocal approach still isn’t a very good match for ballads, and the distance between “Little Me” and “Change Your Life” is not a big one. The changes are all for the better though. As shown by Mandisa, vague inspiro-pop is always easier to take when its directed inwards rather than outwards, even if in this case it doesn’t use “I”, but “she” and “you” via time travel. “Little Me” also uses the effect of vocals straining at the edges to great effect in its verses, especially the raw “hands on the clock only turn one way” over just ticking. Those are good, but the decisive factor is the use of Fauré’s Pavane, which I’ve found haunting ever since it had me tuning in early for World Cup ’98 matches. It’s threaded right through “Little Me” but for the most part not fucked around with. A wise approach.
[8]
Anthony Easton: This song has the line about clocks only going one way, and then there are clock sounds, I cannot take it seriously, but it is too boring to mock convincingly.
[2]
Brad Shoup: The line “you can be beautiful/wonderful” requires so much unpacking. Or maybe it’s just OK intentions crashing into a label schedule. This is debilitatingly earnest, made worse by the stuffy strings — why does a buck-up tune have to sound either grim or obliviously chipper? Didn’t Christina Aguilera show us the right way with “Beautiful”? Still: they sound awesome on the bridge. I can’t think of a current group that weaves lines so wonderfully. “Madness” was great, but all the parts came in separately. More songs that write to this remarkable strength, please.
[4]
Alfred Soto: I want to like this group but there’s trouble if I have to consult my archives to remember their singles and the scores I assigned them. Except for the melismatic melodrama of the last third, during which they out-shout a string arrangement, this sounds like more okay 1996-era En Vogue.
[6]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: It’s taking a little while for Little Mix to truly stand on their own two, but it feels like this fawn is not going to skid on the ice for much longer. Before that happens, there are almost-there attempts like “Little Me”: flipping the same “Bavane” sample that Xzibit originally pimped his career on, this is minor-key inspirapop from a group that should be skipping balladry for as long as possible. Where they snapped and slinked around “Move”, here they sound relatively leaden and over-serious. There is a big clap-along bit near the end that you may feel compelled to join with, certain that they’ve lived up to their big power ballad heart-tugging; honestly, I kinda gigglesnorted.
[6]
Crystal Leww: Motivation in the form of bland clichés, my favorite!
[4]
Mallory O’Donnell: Crackling good beat, tasty floaty interlude, but I’m finding it a bit hard to believe that any member of Little Mix has such self-confidence issues that time travel is required to solve them.
[5]