Count on it: 6 biggies from Fifth Harmony ‘7/27’
Quintet comes out swinging with swagger and sass
With Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democratic candidate and Beyoncé ruling pop music’s narrative this spring, 2016 is shaping up to be the year powerful women’s stories are heard louder than ever. Enter Fifth Harmony, a group whose narrative reads like a movie-script success. The first girl group to crack the Top 10 in a decade with their new single Work From Home, the quintet’s new album 7/27 ( eeg out of four) is out Friday, named for the date Fifth Harmony formed on the Fox reality competition, The X Factor. Work From Home, much like the group’s breakthrough 2015
single Worth It, is swaggering and sexually forward, daring critics to question their authority. Just as Beyoncé examined the cracks in her seemingly flawless exterior
on Lemonade, 7/27 examines the challenges that accompany being women in charge. Fifth Harmony invites listeners behind the curtain to show that, yes, they’re only human.
Lemonade spoke to listeners of all ages. Fifth Harmony’s five members — Ally, Normani, Dinah, Camila and Lauren — speak directly to their Harmonizers, their younger female fans who may be navigating the same issues they are.
While there’s plenty of girlpower posturing on 7/27, Fifth Harmony tempers the sexual assertiveness of Work From Home with songs about bad guys and not-quite-relationships. “I told you that I wasn’t perfect, no way,” the group sings on 7/27’ s last line, reassuring listeners that imperfection is beautiful, too.
Ready to listen? Here are the six 7/27 tracks you need to hear first.
NOT THAT KINDA GIRL
With the oldest member of 5H topping out at 22 years old, Prince’s ‘80s heyday was before their time. But the group proves they’re dedicated students of pop music history with Not That Kinda Girl, with punchy vocals shaking off a guy and a slinky synth melody that’s a dead ringer for 1999. It’s already the best song on the album by the time Missy Elliott shows up to shut it all down.
WORK FROM HOME From winking at dance hall to roping in Fetty Wap, 7/27 often feels like a survey of every pop trend we’ve heard over the past few months. Add “songs about working ” to the list, with 5H re- portedly changing the name of their lead single, to avoid confusion with Rihanna’s own Work. Bouncy synths, hand claps, a repetitive earworm of a chorus — there’s a reason this song continues to climb the charts.
DOPE The group’s take on the gray-area romances that their similarly age fans navigate, Dope sees the women of 5H playing the consummate cool girls, navigating how to express their feelings while maintaining their chill. Over breezy synths and pattering drumbeats, “I love you” turns into “I don’t know what else to say, but you’re pretty f-----dope, just so you know,” before bursting into emotion in the bridge.
I LIED 2015’s favorite pop trend, tropical house, heightens the pulse of one of 7/27’ s catchiest melodies. “I said I loved you, but I lied / ’Cause love never got me this high,” the girls sing before a huge drop, expanding their repertoire to more production-heavy tracks bound for a packed dance floor. If there’s any other song on 7/27 that deserves a Work From Homeesque dance treatment, it’s this one. ALL IN MY HEAD With reggae upstrokes, a swaggering chorus and a welcome Fetty Wap feature, All In My Head is summertime in a song. Fetty reprises his Again melody to sing about two of his favorite subjects, money and women, on a tease of a verse that’s all too short.
WRITE ON ME 5H aren’t ones for ballads, and
7/27’ s lively tempo suits their strengths just fine. But Write On
Me slows it down to an amble for a song that radiates warmth, epitomizing so much of what the group is all about — love, support and sisterhood.