The Saturdays’ “Gentleman”: Hear Their Weird (But Cool) New Single

Sam Lansky | May 8, 2013 8:47 am

Well, it’s been quite a wild ride chasing The Saturdays on their E! reality show Chasing The Saturdaysand now, it seems, they’ve been chased into a very curious corner with their new single “Gentleman.” It’s weird, right? Weird in some ways that are mostly good and also potentially terrible. I’m not entirely sure yet.

First up: It’s a funky little tune, with a spoken-word bit that evokes Girls Aloud (not the first time and probably won’t be the last), built around the following largely inexplicable hook: “A gentleman is so 1995 / So hard for a girl to find / A real husband so 1999 / So hard for a girl to find.” Sonically, it has some jazzy flavor, but in a diffuse, madcap kind of way; it sounds like it belongs to a school of Mark Ronson retro-soul revivalism that already came and went a few years ago.

The best thing about it, surely, is a rap that hits toward the end of the song, which also feels like a Girls Aloud homage — but whereas their raps were frequently nonsensical, the Saturdays are going for straight thirst, listing off a litany of men who they consider gentlemen, and it’s dubious at best: Barack Obama and Ryan Gosling, sure. But Kellan LutzLudacris? Girls: I question your taste level. (They’re right about Lamar Odom, though. He is a gentleman.)

At any rate, it’s certainly an improvement upon the dreary faux-Caribbean dance-pop of “What About Us,” but after the dizzying heights of songs like “All Fired Up,” I expect more. Listen below.

The Saturdays — “Gentleman”