Little Mix - Salute

It's too bad that Little Mix isn't really popular in the US. I don't understand why female soloists do so well but female groups flop...even when they're singing the same type of songs. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. This album is a lot different than their first release. Not certain which style I prefer for them.

Track #1, Salute: This song should've been a smash. Sometimes "girl power" songs come off really cheesy and ridiculous but this one is really strong. I like the military theme of it. Perfect album opener. 5/5.

Track #2, Move: Their first single from the album. I'm not sure how it did in their native UK, but I think it could've been at least a moderate hit in the US. This song sounds a lot like the direction that Fifth Harmony is going in now, pop music with some urban flavor. The song's great to dance to. 5/5.

Track #3, Little Me: The lyrics to this song are what really struck me more than anything else about it. Sure, it's sung well and the music itself is very appealing for a ballad, but the lyrics truly make the song. To me, it doesn't feel like your typical "love yourself" anthem. It hits a little deeper than that. 5/5.

Track #4, Nothing Feels Like You: You'd think with the way I've been rating this album so far it's the perfect CD. That's not the case. The first three songs are just incredibly strong. This song certainly isn't as strong as the first three, but it's still good. It takes the urban-influenced pop sound from Move but not the happy, danceable feeling. The structure of the vocals of the song are nice. I don't think that the instrumental would sound nearly as good without the way the vocals are arranged. 4/5.

Track #5, Towers: Another ballad. This one although sung very well, is kind of boring. I want to care more about it because the vocals are great and the violins in the song are pretty, but it just doesn't do anything for me. The verses really remind me of a song I've heard before too...pretty sure it was something from Disney Channel. Not sure if that's good or bad. 3/5.

Track #6, Competition: When I first was listening to this song, I got a totally different meaning out of it than the lyrics intend xD I was thinking it was about them liking the competition when the girls are actually telling him to stop being so annoying. I felt pretty stupid when I actually thought about it haha. The vocals at the end of the choruses make this one of the best songs on the album for me. Would have made a good single. 5/5.

Track #7, These Four Walls: Their vocals are nice in the song, but these type of ballads don't really do anything for me. If the chorus just picked up a little more it'd be a much more memorable song. 3/5.

Track #8, About The Boy: I had read somewhere before that Little Mix's new direction in this album was reminiscent of Destiny's Child and other late 90s to early 2000s girl groups. To me, most of the songs don't feel like that, but this one certainly does feel like an updated version of music from then. It's a nice enough song, but not really my style. Never have been a big fan of the late 90s music style beyond a few songs. 3.5/5.

Track #9, Boy: It bothers me that there are three songs on this album with the word "boy" in it. What's worse, they stuck two of them right next to each other. Now this one sounds like it would fit perfectly on a Destiny's Child album. In fact, it sounds very similar to that one song of there's that I can't remember the name of. Again, not really my type of song. It's sung nicely though. 3.5/5.

Track #10, Good Enough: As much as I have an irrational hate for ballads in general, I adore this song. The lyrics are wonderful, it's sung well, and you can really feel the emotion in their vocals. Absolutely a highlight of the album. 5/5.

Track #11, Mr. Loverboy: "Boy" part three! This is my least favorite of the three boy songs on the album. It's pretty different than the rest of the album in my mind. I think it would have fit better on DNA as it has that funky teen pop feel to it. 3/5.

Track #12, A Different Beat: The end of the standard album. Pretty much a mix of the DNA album style and Salute. It works very well as an album closer, much like Salute being the opener. 4.5/5.

Track #13, See Me Now: The first track from the deluxe version. Reminds me a lot of Stereo Soldier from their first album. It's a great song. Personally I'd replace Mr. Loverboy with this on the standard. 4/5.

Track #14, They Just Don't Know You: Oh the lyrics of this make me cringe. It sounds like one of those stereotypical teenagers in movies & TV shows that rejects everything everyone is saying about the person they "love" because they're obsessed. It bothers me. The song itself actually sounds quite nice. It's an interesting sound and I'm certain there's another song out there that sounds like it but I can't think of what it could be. 3.5/5.

Track #15, Stand Down: So I avoided listening to this song for the longest time because when I first heard it I heard the whole "Daddy said..." line as something TOTALLY different and it really bothered me. Now that I'm sitting here listening with a much better pair of headphones I feel silly for thinking what I had thought....because if it did say what I thought it did I'm positive I would have read about it somewhere xD Ignoring all of that, this song is really good. It should be on the standard definitely. Would have made a good single. 4.5/5.

Track #16: Little Me (Unplugged): Just an acoustic version.

Track #17: Une Autre Personne: This song is only on the French version of the album. So I just heard about this track's existence today from looking at the tracklist on Wikipedia to make sure I didn't miss any song. From what I can see, the song is actually by a French singer named Tal and Little Mix is only featured. I tried to find out if this was originally a Tal song or if it was done special for this album but I couldn't find that information. I know almost no French so I don't know what's being said, but the song is okay. I don't have a strong opinion either way for it. The chorus is nice, but the verses don't seem to fit with the music. It also doesn't help that when they sing "Je Suis Une Autre Personne" I hear "[French words] Pants on!" xD 3/5.

Une Autre Personne (Audio Only):

Salute album (Audio):

Personally, I believe their first album is better as a whole, while this one has stronger single tracks. I've heard that they're back in the studio recording for their third album so I'm definitely looking forward to that! 4/5.