Since they first emerged on the pop music scene back in 2008, The Saturdays have quickly built their popularity up to become the biggest girlband in the UK. This has admittedly been through a complete and utter lack of competition. Girls Aloud are missing in actions, the Sugababes aren’t worth bothering with, and anything else can barely last a few months before being dropped. In an industry where female popstars seem to be required to have a cutting edge to them, it’s actually almost refreshing to have an act who seem to out of place and as if they’ve stumbled in from 2002 dominating the top 10. And it’s what Una, Rochelle, Vanessa, Frankie and Mollie have done. They have 10 top 10’s to their name and over two millions records sold. There’s more impressive records out there perhaps, but it’s nothing to be sniffed at either.

And this week sees the release of their third studio album in ‘On Your Radar’. And a lot is riding on this album, their sophomore attempt in 2009’s ‘Wordshaker’ underperformed, causing their 2010 release to be an EP instead in the form of ‘Headlines’. Personally I feel this is their make or break album, that will either lift them into complete and utter stardom that Girls Aloud reached at the end of their chart life, or they’ll continue to plomp along at a steady pace, before fizzling out soon enough. And with Una pregnant, Frankie having just exited rehab and the media personalities of some of them at a high, a split in the near future wouldn’t be a great surprise.

As for the music, there is a tendency to lack any sort of originality here. I hate to compare them to Girls Aloud so much, but you can’t deny that by the time they’d reached their third album a sound had been developed and was constantly progressing, to the extent that they were making pop music in the way no one else was. This just isn’t true here at all. It’s enjoyable of course, and someone who wasn’t quite as fussy wouldn’t have an issue at all, but in a stride for perfect pop, it is all very samey in places. And The Saturdays are capable of making fantastic pop music, singles like ‘Up’, ‘Ego’ and ‘Higher’ are a testimony to this.

The first single to be taken from ‘On Your Radar’ was ‘Notorious’, which is a highlight here for me. It oozes sex appeal and it’s quite the shame it underperformed a bit. ‘All Fired Up’ represents this album rather well, it’s good, but there’s nothing that makes you stand to attention about it. ‘My Heart Takes Over’ is one of the very few areas where they have the upper-hand over Girls Aloud, who could never quite succeed with slower moments. Outside the singles ‘Get Ready Get Set’ is certainly a highlight, and could actually perhaps be up there as one of their best, and Una Healy’s stunning vocals on ‘Last Call’ are also worthy of a mention.

In conclusion, I’m actually quite disappointed. I really wanted The Saturdays, a group of whom I’ve adored, to step up their game at a time in their career when it is truly needed, but in reality they’ve failed to do so and I can’t see it ending well for them. Pixie Lott’s album bombed in the charts last week, and I fear this is heading for a similar if not worse fate. There’s some good pop songs here of course, but in all honesty, I think I’d recommend listening to their first album instead.