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.