The Saturdays Shine on Fourth Album

Last month The Saturdays released their fourth record and their American debut album Living for the Weekend. The group is made up of five women from England and Ireland and their infectious brand of pop music has sorely been missed since the demise of girl group greats such as Destiny's Child, Pussycat Dolls and Danity Kane.
There are so many great songs on this record but the three best were released as singles. "What About Us" is a reggae inspired song that features Sean Paul. While this version was released abroad the solo Saturdays version was released as their debut American single. The song is catchy and features lyrics pleading to give love a second chance. "Gentleman" is an R&B song about how hard it is to find a gentleman in this day and age. The song features sassy vocals by the band and it's pure fun. "Disco Love" is a disco inspired song about falling in love and features nostalgic lyrics.
"We got the disco love, so fun and colorful/ It's never winter when it's Donna Summer all year long/ You take me back in time, to 1979/ We'll be at the Bee Gees, baby everybody staying alive," The girls sing before the chorus.
The girls experiment with different genres. There's R&B cuts like "Leave a Light On," "Lease My Love" and "You Don't Have the Right." Most of the album though is straight up dance-pop cuts. "Not Giving Up" is a house inspired song about not giving up on love. "30 Days" and "Anywhere With You" are dance cuts that deal with being apart from significant others while on tour. "Problem With Love" is a fast song about the ups and downs of relationship and has a dubstep inspired breakdown. "Don't Let Me Dance Alone" is a dance song about wanting to go out dancing while their boyfriends want too stay in. The album closes with "Somebody Else's Life" which is about how sometimes life is so good, you can't believe it.
The Saturdays are a girl group to get excited about. Their American debut is great and hopefully they blow up like they deserve.

Eve Returns With First Album In 11 Years

Rapper Eve hasn't released a new album since 2002's Eve-Olution. After being pushed back several times Lip Lock has finally surfaced. The album blows both male and female rappers out of the water. Eve has brought in the big guns in terms of collaborators on this album. Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, Missy Elliott, Dawn Richard of Danity Kane fame, Snoop Dogg, Chrisette Michele and Pusha T all feature on the album as well as new or unknown artists such as Propain, Nacho, Miss Kitty and Juicy J get their moment to shine.
There are no bad songs from the uplifting first single "Make it Out this Town" which features Gabe Saporta to the future club anthem "All Night" which features Claude Kelly and Propain. Eve also shines on her solo songs where she can really brag. Promotional single "She Bad Bad," "Grind or Die" and "Forgive Me" are straight up bragging tracks. Eve gets clever with her raps. "My buzz stay strong/ Your buzz never started/ My albums are the shit/ Your career never farted," Eve raps on "Grind or Die." On the Missy Elliott and Nacho assisted track "Wanna Be" the three show haters who's boss. It's good to hear Elliott back on tracks, hopefully this means her album is going to be released soon. Newcomer Nacho holds her own next to two of raps best females.
The album's best two songs are the second single "Eve" which features Miss Kitty. The song is a dubstep-filled hip hop reggae song with just hints of Middle Eastern influences. The song is a reminder of the greatness that Eve is. The other highlight is "Keep Me From You" which features Dawn Richard. The hip-house track is a love song that could easily be on pop radio.
While the album closes with "Never Gone" which despite a great appearance from Chrisette Michele, seems out of place on the album. And the remix of "She Bad Bad" which features Pusha T and Juicy J just seems redundant and could have been another new song.
Despite these few flaws, Lip Lock is a great album and was definitely worth the 11 year wait. After hearing this album people will be saying "Nicki Minaj who?"