The Saturdays - Turn Myself In [Studio Version Preview]

The other day we listened back to the live version of Turn Myself In from the Headlines tour and were struck at just how good a song it was. At the time of the tour, it had felt like little more than a cute live curio, a little bonus for the fans to fill out the set and offer a taste of what the next album might hold. Of course, as things turned out, said new album (On Your Radar) went for a direction far removed from the moody, rock-centric Turn Myself In, and you can kind of understand why the song was left off the record.

Praise must be given then to the girls for finally giving the song the proper release it deserves, the studio version serving as b-side to their excellent 30 Days. As far as fan incentive b-sides go, this is up there with the Nicola solo version of Memory of You on her Yo-Yo single, which we absolutely loved.

The studio version, interestingly, goes for a harder, crunchier vibe than the live take - the beats pack a real bite to them and the vocals have a smattering of vocoder laced all over them. The result is a haunting, introspective track that offers a fascinating look at what On Your Radar might have been like if the girls hadn't gone wholeheartedly down the dance route.

Olly Murs - Don't Say Goodnight Yet

We were thinking about this earlier when we were listening to Olly Murs' new single Oh My Goodness and finding ourselves enjoying it quite a bit, but we can't help liking him. We know we shouldn't, but we do. As Star Trek's Borg say: resistance is futile.

And the thing is, the b-side Don't Say Goodnight Yet is sort of tolerable too. Sure, it's nothing to write home about, but as always with Olly, he sort of strides that borderline MOR zone where his music seeps into your subconscious and you subtly find yourself enjoying it in an 'oh this is sort of alright way'.

We're not sure how we feel about this, but what we do know is that he needs to release another track as brilliant as Heart Skips A Beat.

Marcus Collins - Break These Chains

The jury's still out on Marcus Collins' predictable cover of Seven Nation Army, but here's a thing... the single's b-side is amazing. Likely properly full-on pop scales of amazing. What we disliked most about Marcus' White Stripes cover is that it proved nothing that he hadn't already made evident on the X Factor, but in Break These Chains, he positions himself as the kind of pop artist that can actually bring the big guns to bear.

With all the bombast and pizzaz of some Erasure classic twinned with sleek Ronson-esque production, Break These Chains succeeds on every level that its a-side fails. It also poses the question, if this is a b-side, what delights can we expect on Marcus' album itself?

One Direction - I Should Have Kissed You

When it comes to boy bands, I've always been most partial to The Wanted. With their scruffy northen-ness and variably cheeky tracks, they distil the epitome of 'lad' culture into brilliant pop nuggets.

But One Direction... they're still too young for all that... Or are they? We certainly know Harry Styles can be a right naughty one when he wants to be. But musically speaking, up til now, the 1D boys haven't matched up to the high standards set by The Wanted's material.

But in new b-side I Should Have Kissed You they up the ante, firing on all cylinders as they deliver a gloriously up-tempo stormer of a track. Stabs of energetic guitar, dizzying shots of synthesiser and a chorus of positively euro-pop glory days proportions. It's like the Buggles Video Killed The Radio Star shot into the 21st century on the back of a rocket booster.

At once both echoing pure-pop of the past and standing as a stark move forward for the 1D boys from the quaintly innocent teen-romance musings of What Makes You Beautiful, the b-side shows there's proper potential in the boys yet.

I Should Have Kissed You - definitely the beginnings of something bigger and better for the band.