Album Review: Little Mix – Confetti
3 min read
From female empowerment bop Break Up Song having hit streaming platforms all the way back in March, to the release of housey Holiday this summer, I hope you are all emotionally ready to sate the thirst that only the beautiful Little Mix can quench.
Yes, that’s right, folks! The long-awaited sixth studio album of the 21st century’s most influential girl-group is finally here.
This album is an eclectic mix of musical genres both past and present, and provides its audience with a warm and fuzzy feeling of nostalgic delight, with tracks evocative of 2000s pop, synth-pop, gospel music and R&B. There truly seems to be something for everyone in this musical amalgam of fabulousness.
Break Up Song, the first recording on the album, seems to act as a sequel to the Glory Days favourite Shout Out to My Ex. The track beautifully glorifies the joy and liberation that one can find in single life; a message which makes a refreshing change from an extensive genre of pop music saturated with songs about all-consuming love and wreaking with desperate co-dependence.
This idea seems to be a running theme throughout the album, and is exemplified rather explicitly in Not a Pop Song, the release’s sixth track. It’s clear from the lyrics of this song that Little Mix have tried to break away from the old and seemingly constricting creative pressures placed upon them when under the management of Simon Cowell. This recording shows that the group have no desire to remain mere “puppets on strings”, and the use of “I don’t do what Simon says” as their pre-chorus’ opening line represents a massive middle finger up to their old label. The girls are clearly enjoying their newfound freedom of artistic expression, and this tune is an impressive and uplifting product of that.
The title track, Confetti, encapsulates the feel-good tone of the album as a whole. Its clubby vibe and self-sufficient lyrics make its title a simple-yet-effective name for a work which promotes a focus on one’s individual enjoyment of life, a lack of preoccupation with men and relationships, and an appreciation for what one has right here and now. It has an infectiously positive message, and one which proves quite apt for those singletons among us who are finding lockdown life hard to deal with alone. The memo seems obvious: take this time to be grateful, find freedom in your solitude and don’t be afraid to grow and have fun (Don’t worry girls, we got it!).
For those frequently finding themselves living out their biggest and bestest bad-bitch fantasies in the face of their bedroom’s full-length mirror, Sweet Melody is the tune for you. A sizzling soup of aural sensations, and a personal favourite of mine, this banger will have any of you who are experiencing a mean case of the quarantine blues forgetting all about your isolated existences and shaking what your mama gave you with the utmost conviction. When the climactic beat of the chorus drops, well, there just isn’t anything quite like it. Disclaimer: you might want to warn the neighbours, because this song is best appreciated when blaring through speakers and on constant repeat.
In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and with a UK population enduring the first taste of winter in a second lockdown, this work could not have come at a better time. Though this is not an exhaustive account of the many wonderful songs present on Little Mix’s new release, I think my point has been adequately made.
In a phrase: this album slaps!
