28 October 2016
Going by the tepid take-up for their debut solo releases in 2024-25, next on the Little Mix agenda may well be the perfunctory reunion and greatest hits tour. That’s a pity. Okay, Perrie’s tracks were safe and unmemorable chart-pop, but I liked Leigh-Anne’s dip into garage and Afrobeat, and Jade’s intriguing ‘Angel Of My Dreams’ (which uses elements of ‘Puppet On A String’ and is therefore officially co-written by the writer of ‘Ireland’s Call’) just seems to have weirded out the floating centrists. The less said about Jesy’s solo foray, the better.
‘Shout Out To My Ex’ is the last of Little Mix’s three Irish chart-toppers. If we follow convention and airbrush the unloved ‘Cannonball’, then it shares with ‘Wings’ the classic Little Mix sound of an exuberant shoutalong chorus. That said, the verses pull off the unwelcome trick of being both weak and try-hard. The chorus is clearly the moneymaker, and in fairness it does the job. The nitro boost of celebrity gossip may well be what eventually fired ‘Shout Out To My Ex’ all the way to number one in the UK and Ireland, but what harm: Zayn’s ‘Pillowtalk’ arguably did likewise earlier in 2016 at the expense of Perrie herself.
Proving yet again that I am not a hipster, when it comes to Little Mix I prefer their later stuff: the slinky 2020 singles ‘Holiday’ and ‘Sweet Melody’. I’m still open to the energetic appeal of ‘Wings’, ‘Black Magic’ and at least the chorus of ‘Shout Out To My Ex’, though, plus their 2013 single ‘Move’ was the tantalising glimpse of a parallel universe where Little Mix take up the Xenomania sword. They were the best girl group since Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, and another of the few mitigating worthwhile outputs from Britain’s TV singing competitions. Shout out to The X Factor!
