The Saturdays don’t try to hide who they are. Even their name is a dead giveaway. They’re a group hell bent on making the kind of music that inspires bulging nightclub dancefloors every Saturday night. Even their own Una Healy admitted in response to  a question on the meaning of second single What About Us that she “was trying to figure out… what exactly it’s about. I could bullshit away telling you, but I really don’t know.” She continued to say that “the track was good for the summer and will get you on the dancefloor.” Yeah… eye opening. ‘Living For The Weekend’ is the pop heavyweights’ fourth studio album and they show no signs in letting up on their relentless bombarding of social hotspots with their unoriginal yet frustratingly catchy pop hits.  

Opening track, the apparently meaningless What About Us exemplifies modern pop music in just under four minutes. Vacuous lyrics, some David Guetta inspired EDM and a not so special guest appearance from Sean Paul, whose only contribution, as usual, is to remind people that his middle name is “da”. It’s also a song which became The Saturdays first number one hit. Go figure.

It’s easy to berate The Saturdays’ lack of originality but when faced with the fact that they have deliberately tried to sound that way, one has to applaud the effort. Put yourself in the mind of those who appreciate modern pop music and you’ll actually be impressed by the make-up of this record. Gentleman is awful. A lyrical travesty. But it’s a brilliant pop song. Leave A Light On offers some brief respite from the EDM overload and its chorus is probably the album’s highlight. The sense of originality was too good to be true however as they resort to blatantly ripping off Diddy Dirty Money and Skylar Grey’s Coming Home throughout.

The album’s second act symbolises what a lack of originality and personality can do to an album. The dancefloor filling tunes of the first half are a distant memory and instead we’re left with… well, nothing really. ‘Living For The Weekend’ will ultimately cement The Saturdays position in the upper echelons of the modern pop scene but ultimately Una Healy’s honesty reflects the album as a whole. It means nothing, but nothing sells.