I have to say that I think they are all very enthusiastic about Glory Days, with all of them calling it their favourite album.

Lol how are they less excited? They've all called it their favourite album and have even said they want to perform every single song on tour. If anything their enthusiasm is the best it's ever been, they seem to be making the music they've always wanted to make. Less writing credits doesn't mean they love the material any less. And the book talked more about their lives than anything else and gave an honest insight into them as people and where they've come from. I think you're projecting just because you don't like the output

Jesy was the most excited I've ever seen her in interviews talking about SOTMX.

24 minutes ago
BRIT Awards ‏@brits
We have a Little announcement for you coming soon... 👀

Critics Choice winner! kidding I know that was announced already.

love this cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0UTS21wxGM

Jade is still definitely in NYC.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOK58mRA...=jadethirlwall

I have to agree with you on that.

I noticed that before the album came out and I was saying this a lot, they didn't have much to say about the sound of the album just that it was very honest and sassy. When the album came out, the same thing was said. I do think this is as a result of them having less involvement in the writing process as it is evident GD has the least amount of writing credits from them out of all their albums.

They need success though so maybe the success from GW and GD would allow them more creative freedom for future albums...or EARN them.

Gosh when they were promoting Move and spoke about how they came up with it, it gave me butterflies. Innovative and fresh!

Some of you haven't got over the fact that LM changed music direction. Reinventing yourself and your music is about as innovative and creative as you can get. U2 have done it 4 times at least. There is of course no reason why Little Mix won't return to some R&B style music but they never had musical roots there to begin with.

It's a long time since we had photography the quality of Anton Corbijn, Kevin Cummins, Pennie Smith etc. I don't know if there are good pop or rock photographers any more but Jonathan Mannion has done a good job with Hip Hop. http://jonathanmannion.com/projects/...collaborations

I agree with you that Little Mix are incredibly photogenic and stylish, yet this aspect of their image has been underdeveloped.

Dunno if this is made up or what..It is The Sun.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbi...in-restaurant/

Strange story, how is this a 'fan'?

It's not that. It's the clear lack of direction musically. Take Glory Days for example - Private Show sounds like something that could easily be on Salute, alongside a guitar-led pop song, 80's inspired synthpop and EDM tracks. It's not sonically cohesive. 'Salute' in 2016 is dated so I wouldn't like something like that, but at the time it was exciting and fresh.

I'm simply stating the last time I was truly excited by an album of theirs was Salute. The sales are higher but the decline in music is real and it's being stated numerous times on other forums, as well as reflecting in the reviews. The reviews are good, but not great. It's nice, catchy pop music but that is as far as it goes. The music appears stagnant. But I will not fault them for this. They've had less involvement on this album, so it's up to their A&R to hook them up with better producers. They've proved they can sell out tours and albums, but it seems as though SyCo sees them as a cash cow post-1D but will not actually put their money where their mouth is and invest in them.

No one is disputing they changed musical direction.

I'm just stating the obvious. It's also clear the label has put pressure on them to be as big as possible especially since 1D are no more and in order for them to do that, they need hitmakers. I have no doubt in my mind they'll go back to R&B.

I certainly will

It's okay but the way Leigh Ann does it looks a bit awkward. She also shuts her eyes too long which makes her go faster that the beat. I love her and applaud her progress.
My favourite is Jesy. There is something about her that really attracts me and her voice is just amazing.

Yes, we go to Epainos ministries in Mile End.

On another note I have heard neither Oops or Touch on the radio. Is there a link for this?

What does 'sonically cohesive' mean? That the whole album should sound alike?
Why shouldn't diversity be a strength? As someone else noted, don't confuse your personal view of the output with the heightened success and increasingly credible reviews of LM's work.

You don't think that the band themselves don't want to be successful? It's not all pressure from the label, I"m sure.

But why is R&B the only genre that shows progression? There's nothing wrong with them making pop music and music that they enjoy. Just because you don't enjoy it doesn't mean they don't or that they are being forced by the label to release something they hate. They don't make music for pop forums to praise them. A pop group continuing to make pop music shouldn't be so surprising, it doesn't mean they are stagnant in their output at all. For some reason only Salute worshippers seem to have a problem with getting that

Salute was not R&B. Pop music can be great. We were told by the girls "Get Weird is 80's colourful pop" - what apart from Black Magic and Weird People represented that? It was misleading. The album had motown and again Salute-esque tracks with Lightning & Grown. If they had followed a template like Carly Rae Jepsen's EMOTION and went full out with the 80's synthpop it could've been a great album and garnered acclaim. It has a score of 66 on Metacritic (matched with Salute) so it could argued that it done well, but we should want them to better themselves on each album.

I'm all for pop music, but only when it's good. I can wholeheartedly say Black Magic is one of my favourite Little Mix songs - what sublime sugary 80's perfection. An album with similar sounds was a missed moment, heck we even got songs on Glory Days (Your Love, Nothing Else Matters) that would've been a better fit.

Side note: this featured on Carly's EMOTION Side B (tracks that didn't make that album) and was produced by TMS. What a great fit it could've been on Get Weird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hylb8KtEtaI

If it is true, what kind of a man attacks a woman? In fact, why on earth would anyone regardless of gender want to attack anyone?

Bloody scumbag - and as above , how the f**k is he a fan if he slapped her in the face?

So you wanted GW to be entirely 80s influenced? Or an 80s concept album? It could have been it wasn't, it didn't follow any template apart from being a collection of as good pop songs as they could produce - which is actually what albums have generally always been about. That doesn't stop it from being a pop gem.

The 80s was hardly renowned for one type of music anyway. 'Weird People' is definitely influenced by Prince - there's a bit of 80s colourful pop in that. 'OMG' has an 80s bass line and feel. 'SLS', 'I Love You' and 'Love Me or Leave Me' don't belong to any time.

Pop albums try to please everyone that's what makes them difficult.

No I definitely think that they also want to be successful just like other artists however a big mainstream also wants to make money and they will do what they need to do to get that money.

Take the scrapped album for instance. Part of me believes that when the label and A&R heard it (I'm assuming they probably wrote on every song), they were like "this isn't going to sell, we need hits". Hence why they had all these songs written for them, especially after Salute which didn't score them a #1. It happens to every artist.

I remember after Bionic flopped for Christina Aguilera due to her marital issues, she had vowed in the past that she isn't one to work with major hit makers. Then all of a sudden the follow up to Bionic, Lotus, had a first single that was produced by Max Martin of all people. Christina definitely wasn't a fan of the song although it was hit potential and she hasn't done a live performance of the song....not even once. Gaga is another example...I could go on.

My point is, as much as we all think artists want to be successful...success for them is being able to sing and inspire their fans with songs from their HEART. Success for the label is money, money and more money sometimes even at the cost of whatever that artist may prefer to sing about at the time.

Pissed at Leigh's story.

MayaJ

A great deal of pop music is a compromise between the commercial and the creative, that's fair enough. An artist that has come through a talent contest in the way Little Mix have will understand that better than most. However, I think LM have had more input than most artists like themselves.

Despite the lack of 'sonic cohesiveness', LM have managed to produce songs that you will immediately recognise as by Little Mix. That's the key. They have shown the ability to produce quality songs across a vast range of genres. They can harmonise, dance, write witty lyrics and stay fun and glamorous at the same time. The R&B thing wouldn't have taken them that way and they haven't abandoned it anyway.

Record labels are about making money but they are also about good product as well.

Singing from the heart....yes...always.

This absolutely. ..
I am personally very impressed with the diversity on this album - for me, the whole thing is far more interesting than Salute ever was...
Ok, Salute did showcase their vocals, but the material seemed to be dull and stuck in a repeating effort to "find" itself..imo