Scoring the Comic Relief single this year is a major coup for The Saturdays. Their choice of Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough particularly inspired, reminiscent of when Girls Aloud recycled Jump for the Love Actually soundtrack.

The Sun lauded this for being the sexiest video yet for The Saturdays, but as a red-blooded expert on all things sexy, I disagree. It’s about as sexy as Christina Aguilera back in that Lady Marmalade video – i.e. not at all. Gawd, give me Dawn French dressed up as Mel B any day!

And are we still having trouble getting the public to know (or care) what the girls’ names are?

Anyway, I can virtually hear you screaming at me to stop bellyaching. So, what of the single? Not nearly as good as Up or Issues, but you’ve got to release a cover version for Comic Relief so that all the geriatrics from the 80’s will go out and buy it in a fit of charity-based nostalgia.

Therefore, I declare it a hit. Although musically a bit of a backward step for The Saturdays if you ask me (which, by visiting this blog, you did).

Now, basque (geddit?) in the 50’s pin-up style video…

It’s going to be a cover of Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough, which will fit in well with the 80’s revival and synth-heaviness of the contemporary charts. The PJ crew confidently predict this will be the group’s first ever #1 single, which will be an act of charity in more ways that one.

While I love this band, I’m baffled on a daily basis as to why they haven’t broken through yet. It baffles me at breakfast, lunch and dinner. But hopefully the Comic Relief single will expose them to a wider audience. It seems like we’ve been waiting forever for The Saturdays to gain mainstream approval.

The news is spoiled somewhat by the revelation that there’s a second Comic Relief single:

(We are pretending there is only one Comic Relief record when in fact there are two – the second is Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones performing ‘Islands In The Stream’ although that will almost certainly be utter shit.)

Ah well. It was nice to think the BBC Gods were smiling on The Saturdays, even if just for a minute.

Let it be known, that with the release of the acoustic ballad Issues, new girlband The Saturdays may just have raised the game in their chart Jihad against the established skirt-acts like Girls Aloud and the Sugababes.

Relying on the time-honored technique of lounging around in the video and looking sultry, the girls also bring a fantastic sing-along tune to the party.

Fraser at the Radio 1 Chartblog agrees:

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.

While it isn’t quite slow enough to be a ‘proper’ ballad, it moves the girls into different territory and shows off quite a strong vocal performance to the pure-pop sound we’ve experienced to date.

If there’s one criticism I’m reading a lot of in the blogosphere, it’s that the group aren’t quite distinctive enough. I still can’t tell the members of the group apart. Maybe that’s because there’s no Saturday morning (pardon the pun) TV shows for them to get acquainted with their audience.

I’d suggest doing a video in which the girls have their names appear on screen – the Spice Girls did this with their second single, Say You’ll Be There. But have The Saturdays done that already?

Issues is released on 5th January 2009.

So…Have you heard all the buzz lately about The Saturdays? You can’t escape it. And they’ve released their first single, If This Is Love, and it’s already gone Top 10.

And since they’ve toured with that veteran pop act, Girls Aloud (veteran in pop terms anyway), you could almost take that as a sign that they’re the ‘approved’ successors once Cheryl or Nadine pull the plug on that group.

As a debut single, If This Is Love doesn’t offer much more than a jolt of pure pop. On one hand, they’ve regressed to a period of pop that pre-dates the Xenomania-infused tunes we’ve seen from Sugababes and Girls Aloud.

Wongie says “so far my reaction is kind of ‘eh’“, and that’s pretty much how we feel too. Angry Ape are similarly lukewarm in their review. The Saturdays are five stunningly good looking girls, and they fit the girl group template extremely well. However, the single itself isn’t groundbreaking enough to stand out.

Fraser over on Chartblog said it best – they’ve released a safe song and they’re going to follow up with a belter. Watch this space? What do you think?