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The Saturdays - 'Issues'

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Fraser McAlpine | 11:20 UK time, Monday, 5 January 2009

The SaturdaysHow I would love to have been an invisible spectator (and inaudible...and unsmellable, for that matter) when the chorus to this song was first being put together. Someone has clearly taken a shine to the expression "you've got issues", which came out of a boom in psychotherapy in the '70s, and is used to describe those mental injuries that come with extreme emotional situations, and which you just can't shift, so they become part of your personality.

So, to say you and your heart have got issues is a perfect shorthand for being massively unlucky in love, and therefore perfect for a pop song.

The trouble is it's a swine to find a decent rhyme for.

Have a listen to the song, and you'll see the problem, and the artful solutions the band's songwriters have come up with, within seconds of each other.

.

I took the liberty of consulting a rhyming dictionary, to try and find a potential fourth rhyme to jam in there. And here's what I've got:

"I'm tired of wasting money on tissues"

"My dad asked me to polish up his shoes"

"I'm off to buy some Boyzone reiusses"

"I'm going to drink a bottle of this booze"

"A bomb is very tricky to diffuse"

There were more, but some of them were starting to get a bit nonsensical, plus you can end up sounding like Gollum if you're not careful, so I decided to quit while I was...y'know...here.

Anyway, this song manages to add further momentum to the theory that the Saturdays exist to nip away at the heels of established bands like the Sugababes or Girls Aloud, so that they can raise their game. It's a classy, mid-tempo pop production, instantly memorable - largely because of the funny rhyming thing, but the melody helps too - and performed with just the right amount of unthreatening, glassy warmth.

If there's a gripe, it's that there's not much in the way of personality coming from the girls themselves, but there's plenty of time for that. Their songs are (just) quirky enough as it is.

Four starsDownload: Out now
CD Released: January 5th

(Fraser McAlpine)

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