Yesterday, second single Higher, from The Saturdays’ new mini-album Headlines, premiered. The Saturdays recently shot the video in L.A. and also got chart rival Flo Rida on board to feature on the track. Getting Flo Rida to feature on the track is quite a clever move since he’s beaten The Saturdays to the number one spot on two occasions which has been a long-running story in the press. They can’t beat him, so their best move is to collaborate, which is sure to gain even more press.

The problem is, while it seems like a brilliant way to increase The Saturdays’ status, the song Flo Rida is featuring on happens to be possibly the best song of their careers so far. From the minute the album dropped, Higher has been a huge fan favourite. It has elements of everything that makes a good Saturdays song since it’s produced by the same people who gave them their big hits Up and Ego. On first listen, a lot of people were disappointed about the heavy use of autotune on the studio version but the middle 8, despite the autotune, remained on the highlights of the song.

The new version of Higher, which now features Flo Rida, sees the middle 8 completely cut in favour of Flo Rida rapping. The rap actually sounds decent but it’s not as good as the original middle 8 it replaced. The ideal thing the producers could have done, would have been to keep both the original middle 8 and add Flo Rida’s rap, as the song is only three minutes and twenty six seconds long anyway.

Another problem with Flo Rida featuring on Higher is that he didn’t record the track at the same time as The Saturdays, and possibly not with the same producers, leading to his vocals sounding considerably higher in volume in comparison to the girls’ vocals. Listening to the track, I find myself lowering the volume when Flo Rida starts rapping, not because he sounds bad, but because his vocals are much louder. It just sounds like sloppy and rushed editing, and also sounds a bit like he rapped over the track while playing karaoke. However, Flo Rida’s intro, despite his cheesy name dropping of the girls, actually sounds good and fits in well with the lyrics of the song.

Flo Rida: What you doing Saturday girl?
Vanessa: I’m doing nothing, ’cause then at least I’m doing nothing wrong

The video for Higher premieres this weekend which looks like it could be their best video yet as seen in their reality TV series The Saturdays 24/7. It looks like they spent quite a lot on the video, leaving seemingly very little of the budget for the cover artwork (seen in the video below) which is a disaster.

Higher will be released November 1st through Fascination Records.