Syco
Pop, 2013

The ladies of Little Mix waste little time trying to fill in the shoes of Spice Girls, and that’s not a bad thing at all, as we don’t have any solid girl groups these days to balance the bombardment of boy bands in the airwaves. Salute is a grown-up version of their debut effort DNA, thanks to a bigger budget that allows for better production and purchases of better songs.

Just like how boy bands grow up by sporting goatees, tattoos, and ripped jeans, girl groups grow up by chanting about girl power and telling all the ladies in the world to dump that loser boyfriend on his rear end. Little Mix breaks no new grounds here, and their girl power messages in anthems like Salute and Little Me are appropriately superficial.

But there’s no denying that these songs are all worthy every penny spent into their production. There are some lovely harmonies evident here, no matter whether the ladies strike fierce attitudes or vulnerable melancholy. Boy starts out with some a capella harmonies that would do En Vogue and Destiny’s Child proud. Whether they are partying in tracks like Nothing Feels Like You or giving some loser the sod off in Good Enough, Little Mix sound like they are determined to graduate at the top of the class.

I wasn’t too impressed with their debut effort, but Salute has me going, “Hey, why not?” They are doing it right this time, and with style too.