Thursday 21 May 2015

Little Mix - Black Magic

Little Mix - Black Magic

The '90s had the Spice Girls. The '00s had Girls Aloud. The '10s have Little Mix.

With two albums (and a third on the way), they've become the girl band of this generation. There's been some competition - Neon Jungle, G.R.L, Fifth Harmony, Stooshe (lol) to name a handful of recent examples - but Little Mix reign supreme.

The comparison with Girls Aloud is a key one: both groups formed on a reality show and have released a string of very good pop songs. For Little Mix that means DNA, Move, Salute and now Black Magic.

Where their past material has often aped the music of girl bands of the past (Destiny's Child, All Saints, En Vogue), Black Magic looks instead to the glossy pop sound of 80s female stars like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper - the beat and shimmering guitars are especially reminiscent of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

It may seem like an obvious sort of single to release, but it's something the girls do so well, combining glittering vocal harmonies with a foot stomping middle eight. Most of all it has that addictive quality of all the best pop tracks - expect this to be on repeat for much of the summer.

4/5

Listen: Black Magic is released on 10th July.