I love Fifth Harmony. A lot. More than a teenage boy, a music "critic", or a cynical asshole like myself really should. I first heard of this group around 2 years ago when Worth It was a hit, and I could not fucking STAND that song (and I still can't). I later dived into their album Reflection which I didn't remotely enjoy, thought it was a torture of cheap production, bratty lyrics and pitchy at best vocal deliveries from all 5 of the girls. Safe to say these girls did nothing for me. People were calling them the 2nd coming of The Pussycat Dolls and I agreed.
Then the next album cycle came in.
Work From Home came out and became a top 5 hit to everyone's misfortune but mine, because I fucking LOVED it. Their next single All In My Head (Flex) was even better, both songs landed on my Best of 2016 list, and I was a certified fan. Then I heard 7/27 and loved it for it's breezy pop sounds mixed with a bit of house and electronica music, ultimately becoming one of my favourite albums of the year AND of all time. Finally, once you include watching literally HUNDRENDS of Youtube videos/interviews of them (including some rather lewd compilation videos I'd rather not mention), relistening to Reflection and learning to love and accept it for the sassy but trashy pop masterpiece it truly is, AND getting lowkey accepted into a fangirl cult out of my control, I've become a full blown stan. I love these girls with all my heart. Well, 4 of them anyways, fuck Camila Cabello and her snake ass for leaving the group, which WILL be discussed later.
I wasn't *completely* in love with the singles released before this album. I really enjoyed Down despite it being a beta Work From Home, and Angel didn't grip me like a Fifth Harmony single usually does. Now what they DID show was an evolution of the group. Upon researching the specifics of this album, everything started to add up. The vocals sounded even better than before with the absence of Camila Cabello, the girl's harmonies sounded a lot cleaner. A lot of solid producers were signed onto this project rather than the cheap bullshit Syco Records always decides to give these girls. Hell, Fifth Harmony actually broke a girl group golden rule and started WRITING their own songs! Half of this album has lyrics that came from their fingertips, which was certainly shocking. This means that they can put a lot more emotion and feeling into their songs, which will be a huge change from something like 7/27. With the knowledge given prior to it's release, this should be the best girl group album of the decade, possibly of all time. So, was it? Did it meet, maybe even defy expectations, or did it fall flat right at Camila's feet?
sigh
I have NO idea what the fuck happened.
I'll start it this way, this isn't a bad album, it really isn't. Basically whatever you thought of 7/27 is the same thoughts you'll have on this album (+/- 1-2 points depending on if you liked Camila or not). I liked a majority of these tracks, I liked the album. But this has got to be the biggest misfire I've seen on a pop album in my life. There's a weird amount of things that went wrong, and I have NO idea how.
Immediately, everyone is going to assume "Oh, so Camila WAS the reason they were any good! She was holding the group together!" Which I have to say is 110% bullshit. As I predicted, the main part of this album the girls actually improved on (MASSIVELY improved on, actually) are the vocals. These girls sound fantastic. Both in solos, and together. Their harmonies actually sound like, y'know, harmonies, opposed to a deadbeat harmony getting drowned out by Latina Helen Keller squealing offkey like it was for the first 2 albums. Ally is starting to feel more comfortable with her higher notes, which is good because it's where she sounds best, Normani and Dinah are both slipping into a Destiny's Child vein (no surprise) which is always welcome, and Lauren is still the absolute queen she's always been. This was a perfect album in terms of vocals...well, NEARLY perfect. It was so close, it really was. But, for some idiotic reason, multiple times they decided to try to sing like Camila. For NO fucking reason. Normani's prechorus on "He Like That", half of the chorus of "Sauced Up", and a few other miscellaneous places on the album (Lauren, honey, your rasp already gets chicks pregnant on the daily, there is no reason for you to try and fail to hit these high notes girl). Not sure if it was the girls idea to do this, or the rich old white dudes in suits, or whoever, but they seriously hurt this album. Sauced Up could have been perfect, with it's weird trap beat and Lauren the queen rapping, filled with killer harmonies between the girls and just enough sass in the lyrics to make it work, but then you had to cripple it. The direction on this album is just mindboggling, but this is the worst offender that's worth noting. The worst part is they didn't NEED this. They worked brilliant as a foursome, there's no need to patch a hole that didn't fucking exist in the first place.
More bad direction comes in the sampling. I actually dig the Shaggy sample used on "Messy", Lauren rides that melody like a beast. But "He Like That" with it's inclusion of fucking Pumps and a Bump is easily the dumbest that Fifth Harmony has done. Easily. This includes (but is not limited to)
- The time they rhymed "down" with "style" in Top Down despite it not remotely rhyming
- Releasing fucking Sledgehammer as a single
- "Makin it clap/Clap clap clap clap, we don't need hands for that/that that that that" on This Is How We Roll
- Referencing Ballroom Blitz on Brave Honest Beautiful despite 98% of their audience not knowing what the fuck that song is
- Giving Kid Ink a microphone
- Giving Camila Cabello a microphone
- Giving Camila Cabello a career
- Any lyric from Them Girls Be Like
The thought of the phrase "Pumps and a bump" just makes me squirm. Yeah, I get it, she's got fire heels and a nice ass, but it's a lot less sexy when you Kidz Bop it. Ester Deen must have been fucking high when she made this shit I swear. Other than that, the song still isn't very impressive. The guitar sounds ugly and cheap, and not in the charming type of cheap that Reflection did. That album had the budget of a college student, but it had flair, which "He Like That" does not. Just some botched remake of "All In My Head (Flex)" without the Fetty Wap, catchy hook, layered production, and godly Lauren pre chorus.
Other than those 2 tracks, this was a decent album, I will admit. "Down" with Gucci Mane had to grow on me with it being a beta Work From Home and all, but it really is a grower. "Lonely Night" was a fantastic soft-pop jam that Dinah kills and Ally absolutely fucking SLAYS on the bridge, it's a very groovy, lowkey, breezy track. "Make You Mad" sounded like something you'd hear on the bottom half of 7/27, a tropical house track with crisp harmonies and a drop I probably should find more annoying than I do, but I somehow love. "Don't Say You Love Me", albeit fairly generic ("Don't say you love me unless you do" isn't very engaging to a pop listener who's heard that exact phrase dozens of times), but Fifth Harmony sound so fantastic over the stripped down acoustic production I can't help but really enjoy it. When Fifth Harmony and their crew decide not to be wild, they actually make very competent pop music.
As much as I shit on this album, I really did enjoy it. It does seem fairly transitional, like the girls just needed 1 album to settle into something more natural and in their collective lane. It's the first album they've ever really took a part in, so it isn't THAT surprising they stumbled in my eyes, but a Fifth Harmony stumble is still a solid pop record. If anything, it's barely longer than 30 minutes, so it won't hurt to check out. We'll see if Camila figures out how to endeavor on her own. She's certainly got a bar to reach, but it's kind of a shame that said bar wasn't higher.
SCORE: 7/10
BEST: Sauced Up, Lonely Night, Make You Mad, Down ft Gucci Mane, Don't Say You Love Me
WORST: He Like That
TRACK RATINGS (/10)
Sauced Up - 10
Lonely Night - 10
Make You Mad - 10
Down ft Gucci Mane - 10
Don't Say You Love Me - 8
Bridges - 7
Messy - 7
Deliver - 5
Angel - 4
He Like That - 1
sigh
I have NO idea what the fuck happened.
I'll start it this way, this isn't a bad album, it really isn't. Basically whatever you thought of 7/27 is the same thoughts you'll have on this album (+/- 1-2 points depending on if you liked Camila or not). I liked a majority of these tracks, I liked the album. But this has got to be the biggest misfire I've seen on a pop album in my life. There's a weird amount of things that went wrong, and I have NO idea how.
Immediately, everyone is going to assume "Oh, so Camila WAS the reason they were any good! She was holding the group together!" Which I have to say is 110% bullshit. As I predicted, the main part of this album the girls actually improved on (MASSIVELY improved on, actually) are the vocals. These girls sound fantastic. Both in solos, and together. Their harmonies actually sound like, y'know, harmonies, opposed to a deadbeat harmony getting drowned out by Latina Helen Keller squealing offkey like it was for the first 2 albums. Ally is starting to feel more comfortable with her higher notes, which is good because it's where she sounds best, Normani and Dinah are both slipping into a Destiny's Child vein (no surprise) which is always welcome, and Lauren is still the absolute queen she's always been. This was a perfect album in terms of vocals...well, NEARLY perfect. It was so close, it really was. But, for some idiotic reason, multiple times they decided to try to sing like Camila. For NO fucking reason. Normani's prechorus on "He Like That", half of the chorus of "Sauced Up", and a few other miscellaneous places on the album (Lauren, honey, your rasp already gets chicks pregnant on the daily, there is no reason for you to try and fail to hit these high notes girl). Not sure if it was the girls idea to do this, or the rich old white dudes in suits, or whoever, but they seriously hurt this album. Sauced Up could have been perfect, with it's weird trap beat and Lauren the queen rapping, filled with killer harmonies between the girls and just enough sass in the lyrics to make it work, but then you had to cripple it. The direction on this album is just mindboggling, but this is the worst offender that's worth noting. The worst part is they didn't NEED this. They worked brilliant as a foursome, there's no need to patch a hole that didn't fucking exist in the first place.
More bad direction comes in the sampling. I actually dig the Shaggy sample used on "Messy", Lauren rides that melody like a beast. But "He Like That" with it's inclusion of fucking Pumps and a Bump is easily the dumbest that Fifth Harmony has done. Easily. This includes (but is not limited to)
- The time they rhymed "down" with "style" in Top Down despite it not remotely rhyming
- Releasing fucking Sledgehammer as a single
- "Makin it clap/Clap clap clap clap, we don't need hands for that/that that that that" on This Is How We Roll
- Referencing Ballroom Blitz on Brave Honest Beautiful despite 98% of their audience not knowing what the fuck that song is
- Giving Kid Ink a microphone
- Giving Camila Cabello a microphone
- Giving Camila Cabello a career
- Any lyric from Them Girls Be Like
The thought of the phrase "Pumps and a bump" just makes me squirm. Yeah, I get it, she's got fire heels and a nice ass, but it's a lot less sexy when you Kidz Bop it. Ester Deen must have been fucking high when she made this shit I swear. Other than that, the song still isn't very impressive. The guitar sounds ugly and cheap, and not in the charming type of cheap that Reflection did. That album had the budget of a college student, but it had flair, which "He Like That" does not. Just some botched remake of "All In My Head (Flex)" without the Fetty Wap, catchy hook, layered production, and godly Lauren pre chorus.
Other than those 2 tracks, this was a decent album, I will admit. "Down" with Gucci Mane had to grow on me with it being a beta Work From Home and all, but it really is a grower. "Lonely Night" was a fantastic soft-pop jam that Dinah kills and Ally absolutely fucking SLAYS on the bridge, it's a very groovy, lowkey, breezy track. "Make You Mad" sounded like something you'd hear on the bottom half of 7/27, a tropical house track with crisp harmonies and a drop I probably should find more annoying than I do, but I somehow love. "Don't Say You Love Me", albeit fairly generic ("Don't say you love me unless you do" isn't very engaging to a pop listener who's heard that exact phrase dozens of times), but Fifth Harmony sound so fantastic over the stripped down acoustic production I can't help but really enjoy it. When Fifth Harmony and their crew decide not to be wild, they actually make very competent pop music.
As much as I shit on this album, I really did enjoy it. It does seem fairly transitional, like the girls just needed 1 album to settle into something more natural and in their collective lane. It's the first album they've ever really took a part in, so it isn't THAT surprising they stumbled in my eyes, but a Fifth Harmony stumble is still a solid pop record. If anything, it's barely longer than 30 minutes, so it won't hurt to check out. We'll see if Camila figures out how to endeavor on her own. She's certainly got a bar to reach, but it's kind of a shame that said bar wasn't higher.
SCORE: 7/10
BEST: Sauced Up, Lonely Night, Make You Mad, Down ft Gucci Mane, Don't Say You Love Me
WORST: He Like That
TRACK RATINGS (/10)
Sauced Up - 10
Lonely Night - 10
Make You Mad - 10
Down ft Gucci Mane - 10
Don't Say You Love Me - 8
Bridges - 7
Messy - 7
Deliver - 5
Angel - 4
He Like That - 1
6/10
ReplyDeleteBest: Down, DSYLM, Make You Mad
Worst: Angel, Deliver