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Even allowing for the fact that at no point do things get remotely weird, there are lots of little things to like about Little Mix’s third album.
Things like the way “Black Magic” opens in already breathless manner; the nice retro-sounding touches to “Love Me Like You” which bring to mind classic Shadow Morton productions; and the way that the vocal arrangements to “Grown” and “Hair” pop and crackle like the Pointer Sisters.
They’re balanced, of course, by plenty of irritations – though in the group’s defence, by far the worst is the ghastly, tremulous vibrato employed by Jason Derulo on the big ballad duet “Secret Love Song”.
But there are too many instances here of registers painfully over-reached, and uneasy compromises between emotion and arrangement.
And while it’s usually impressive to close with an acappella number, “The End” is a shapeless monstrosity, pleasure sacrificed for technique.
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