Headlines!

Recording information: Dean Street Studios, London, UK; Fishhead Studio, Göteborg, Sweden; Henson Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; Homesite 13, Novato, CA; Rockin' Horse Studios, London; Rokstone Studios, London; Universal Studio London.
Following an album that was chock-full of singles but found no long-term success such as "Wordshaker," the Saturdays were rushed back into the studio to record new tracks, in order to ride the momentum they still managed to have following the absence of Girls Aloud and Sugababes on the Brit-pop music scene. The result of this is Headlines!, a "mini-album" that may have taken all of three hours to record. The eight-track recording features a remix of an old album cut ("One Shot"), their two preceding singles ("Forever Is Over" and "Ego"), and only five new album cuts, giving a listener only 15 minutes of new tunes to enjoy. When all is said and done, however, Headlines! is still quite a good record, blending the best from what the Saturdays already had in their sound alongside some of their strongest recordings to date: "Missing You," the album's lead single, is their most engaging ballad yet, and "Higher" is easily one of their funkiest, spunkiest numbers. Though Headlines! may seem like a rushed, mashed-together excuse for an album, it is still thoroughly entertaining and fun: an album of this quality, if it had a few more tracks, would easily have been their strongest album yet. ~ Matthew Chisling