Last Friday, Little Mix released their new album ​LM5. The promo for the album was more stripped back than we're used to with Little Mix, but I absolutely loved it. It's great for the girls to show their young fans what natural beauty is like, and how you don't need gimmicks to be successful. The only problem I have however, is the name of the album. If you're a Little Mix fan on Twitter than you would understand what the album title means, but if you're not, it doesn't make much sense. When fans are speculating about their favourite artist's new record, they will often use the artist's initials and the number album it will be. Therefore, when discussing Little Mix's fifth studio album, fans would refer to it as 'LM5'. On the one hand I do actually like the fact that they named the album LM5 because it's like a tribute to the fans, however by doing this they have almost limited themselves to just Twitter, as many other people may not understand what it means.

Coming away from the title, the whole album is brilliant. This is the maturest we've seen Little Mix, with what feels like some of their most honest lyrics. I really loved their last album, Glory Days, so my expectations were very high for LM5. ​
The variety of tracks on LM5 is impressive. From Strip, to Notice to Joan of Arc, this album offers a selection of songs for everyone to enjoy. As previously mentioned, the lyrics are raw and honest, allowing fans to truly connect with the band. 

I took to Twitter to ask Little Mix fans what they thought of the new album by running a number of polls. The first poll asked if fans had listened to LM5 yet, with 195 votes, 91% voted yes. I then asked if they had already listened to LM5, what did they think about it? Again, out of 188 votes, a huge 98% said that they loved it. 

LM5 has three songs with features, therefore I asked fans what their favourite feature was out of Strip (ft. Sharaya J), Woman Like Me (ft. Nicki Minaj) and ​More Than Words (ft.Kamille). The results of this poll were a lot tighter and out of 192 votes, the overall favourite was Woman Like Me (ft. Nicki Minaj) getting 38% of the votes. Both Strip and More Than Words received 31%.
The final question asked if LM5 was their favourite Little Mix album and unsurprisingly out of 183 votes, 95% voted yes.

Overall, LM5 is my favourite Little Mix album to date. Little Mix seem to constantly improve with every album they release and there doesn't seem to be anything stopping them and their success!

If you haven't already, definitely give LM5 a listen!

Check out all the music videos from 'LM5' on YouTube so far:

On Friday Little Mix released The Platinum Edition of their hit album, Glory Days. Glory Days was one of my favourite albums released last year, so I was intrigued to know what The Platinum Edition would include. 
The album includes three new tracks, If I Get My Way, Is Your Love Enough? and Dear Lover, as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary and all of the music videos from the Glory Days ​singles. The three new songs are great, although I do think the tracks on the original Glory Days album are better. With that being said I do like the three new songs and I've had Is Your Love Enough? stuck in my head since Friday! I genuinely believe that it's impossible for Little Mix to release a bad song, obviously some are better than others, but never have any of them been bad. 
The documentary is also a really nice touch for the fans to see what their favourite band do behind-the-scenes. While I really like Little Mix, a documentary doesn't interest me as much as new music does, but for massive fans this is obviously great to feature on the album. 
If I were to design a Platinum Edition I would love there to be more than three new songs. Ideally I think at  least five tracks should be added, and I think that there should be a separate album for the documentary. This would be for people like me who aren't too interested in a documentary, but love the thought of new music. That way fans have an option about what version of the album they want to purchase/download. 
Overall I like The Platinum Edition and the response from fans has been incredible, so I decided to run a Twitter poll  to see what the fans thought. Out of 726 votes, a massive 93% voted that they love all of album, 3% voted that they only like the new songs, 3% voted that the whole album is pointless, and a mere 1% voted that they don't like any of it. @sassyjeedx tweeted saying, "The album is everything, the 3 new tracks, the documentary, it just makes me love the girls more", while @perriesstan tweeted something similar saying, "They are amazing artists, so genuine and humble. I am lucky to have them as my role models". Clearly the fans are loving the whole album, and that is really lovely to see.
Therefore for fans The Platinum Edition is definitely worth it. However, for people who only enjoy Little Mix's music, it may not necessarily be worth it for them. 

See below the response from the Twitter poll:

After much anticipation, Taylor Swift's latest album ​Reputation was released today. Taylor is probably one of the most talked about artists in the industry at the moment - with conversation ranging from her music, all the way to her latest celebrity feud. I did wonder if a lot of the negative press Taylor was facing would negatively impact her next album, but what Taylor decided to do instead was genius. Rather than not addressing what people were saying about her, she took her reputation of constant drama and turned it into an album. The lead single of the album Look What You Made Me Do was an extremely bold comeback, with power and sass that we hadn't previously seen in Taylor before. I do like this song, especially the music video where Taylor is dressed up as her past looks and eras. However the song in general was ruined when I saw someone tweeting about how it reminded them of Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy, so ever since then I haven't been able to listen to Look What You Made Me Do seriously! 
The next song to be released from ​Reputation was ....Ready For It?, which has been one of my favourite songs over the past few months, Since it was released I've had it playing non-stop - it's definitely one of my favourite songs by Swift! What I love so much about ...Ready For It? is the strength and power that is exerted throughout the whole song. While many people may have expected Taylor to return to music a lot more timid and careful, this song just proves that Taylor is ready to fight and not let the hate impact her or her career, and I find this quite inspiring.
What I love about this album is the fact the word 'reputation' is in the lyrics of multiple songs. This may seem like a weird thing to like about an album, but I like it when artists reference the name of the album in their songs because then it feels like one complete project all linking together. 
All of the songs on ​Reputation are a lot darker than Taylor's previous songs, but this new sound is brilliant and definitely's Taylor's best yet. Her collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Future on End Game is great. Ed and Taylor collaborated years ago, but this time Future featuring on the track brings a completely new sound and style. End Game is definitely one of my favourite songs on the album, in fact most of my favourites are on the first half of the album tracklist! I Did Something Bad I think is my ultimate favourite song on the album, as the production and lyrics are something very special. What strikes me about this album is just how great the production is, the listener literally feels like they're listening to a live show. This is definitely the best Taylor record, and I think it could also be my favourite album of 2017!
I wanted to know what people on Twitter thought, so I ran a couple of polls on the Pop Affairs Twitter page. The first question asked was, 'What do you think about Reputation?', 88% of people voted that they love it, while only 9% voted that they think it's okay and a tiny 3% voted that they don't like it. Just from the results of this poll I could already see that I wasn't alone with my love for this album! I then asked if Reputation was worth the wait, and a massive 94% voted yes! This clearly shows that no matter how hard the media try to make Taylor look bad, no one can deny her talent. 

See below the response to the Twitter poll:

Recently I discovered White Moth Black Butterfly and at first I was a bit confused about the project. After finding out that they are a team of songwriters and producers who are based worldwide I was automatically excited to give their new album Atone a listen, as I didn't know what to expect.
The first thing that I noticed when listening to this album was the production. Throughout the entire the album the production never fails to disappoint, showing the listener how talented they all are.
Rising Sun is definitely one of my favourites on Atone. The vocals are captivating (along with the production of course), and there is something about this track that makes it stand out from other songs. This may be because I can't quite pinpoint what genre this album belongs to, overall making it extremely intriguing. 
What I also find quite cool about this album is that it can cater to whatever mood you're in. The songs can come across as very calming (as demonstrated in the song The Tempest), however you can also interpret it as quite an uplifting listen if you're in a good mood. Atone therefore manages to appeal to a range of different audiences as it is able to cater to pretty much anyone!
I would definitely recommend giving this album a listen, and expect the unexpected throughout! 

Yesterday The Vamps released their latest album Night And Day. I was really excited to have a listen to this album because I really liked the previous two. As I went to download the album I saw there was Night And Day and Night And Day (Night Edition). I took a look at both albums and realised that the Night Edition had two more tracks and a concert DVD attached to it, so of course I downloaded the Night Edition. I soon felt about 90 years old though when I saw people of Twitter talking about how excited they are for the Day Edition. Not really having much of an idea what they were talking about, I went back onto iTunes to see if I had missed anything, but there was no Day Edition in sight. I decided that it was then wise to Google the album as I had absolutely no clue what was going on! After some serious researching I found out that the album is being released in two parts, Night Edition released now and Day Edition being released at the end of the year - I finally had some sort of clue what was going on! Of course releasing an album in two parts is really exciting for the fans because while they are getting new music now, they also know that they're getting new music at the end of the year too. However if you're not a massive fan and aren't as up to date on social media, then like me, this can be very confusing. 

Putting the different albums to one side, the actual songs on the album are great. The two singles from the album All Night and Middle Of The Night have been on repeat since they were released, and the tracks on the album definitely weren't a let down. Same To You had a much maturer vibe that I wasn't expecting, from the lyrics to the style of the song, you can hear how the band has progressed and developed. Same To You is definitely one of my favourites from the album because it's unlike any of The Vamps' other songs. I really like their usual music, but I think it's really cool to hear something that you're not expecting from an act. The upbeat track Shades On is a typical feel good Vamps song and I really like it. What I really like about The Vamps is their harmless music that is always able to make you feel good, and Shades On is a perfect example of that. There isn't a single song on this album that I would want to skip, highlighting how much of a good album it is. As this is the band's third album I wasn't sure if it was going to be as good as the others, but once again they've managed to produce a brilliant album!

I decided to ask people on Twitter what they thought of the album, and everyone seemed to be in agreement. Out of 470 votes, 5% said that the album was okay and 3% said they don't like it. However a massive 92% of the people who voted said that they love it! @DoseOfTradley said "This third is a masterpiece and I'm not saying this because I support the boys, if I don't like the a song I say it with no problem. This album left me speechless, they worked so hard and they deserve the best." and @VampsCanWeDNCE said "Incredible album! The showcases were insane, can't wait for the Day Edition ​now!" The amount of love shown for the band on Twitter was incredible and truly deserved, another great album!

See below the Twitter responses to the poll:

​This week Halsey released her latest album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. I always see a lot about Halsey all over social media, and I have always wanted to like her, however after her last album Badlands I just wasn’t a fan. I had read a lot about this album and had seen a lot of hype leading up to the release, yet on the release day I saw quite a few people say that they didn’t like it as much as Badlands because it sounded too ‘pop’, and while this may be a negative to some people, it actually encouraged me to listen to it!
​ I didn’t want to rule out all of Halsey’s future music because of one not so good album, so I decided to give Hopeless Fountain Kingdom a listen.
After listening to the entire album I can honestly say that I am pleasantly surprised! I thought that I would be sat telling myself to like and enjoy it, but I genuinely do! Halsey has such a distinct voice which means that some of the songs do sound similar, but in general it really is a brilliant album. Opening the album with The Prologue feels as though Halsey is telling the listener a story, which I find really interesting. While there is nothing wrong with an artist putting out an album with random songs on it, I feel like Hopeless Fountain Kingdom is one big body of work that should be listened to all together rather than dipping in and out of it.
But of course just like any album there are songs that are better than others, and songs that are much worse than others. Altogether I have six favourites, including Eyes Closed, Heaven In Hiding and Bad At Love. From the moment I listened to the album, I have had the powerful Bad At Love stuck in my head. The incredibly raw and emotional lyrics, mixed with both the strong vocals and tone make the track enormously captivating. While Heaven In Hiding feels like Halsey is speaking directly to the listener, generating power that I didn’t know Halsey had.
However there are also songs that I don’t speak just as fondly of. The weakest song on the album is definitely Don’t Play. I’m not too sure what Halsey was thinking when she recorded this song, because to me all it sounds like is someone both trying and failing to be ‘cool’. The unnecessary swearing in the chorus in combination with the weird beat reminds me of an older person trying desperately hard to be ‘current’ with the ‘kids’, ultimately creating quite an embarrassing song. The whole album is beautifully unique and can stand alone as one of a kind, however adding this song to the track list made it seem much more generic.
The other song that I’m not as keen on is Now or Never. Each time I listen to this song it grows on me more and more, however the reason I don’t like it is because the chorus sounds too much like Needed Me by Rihanna. I love Needed Me, yet what I don’t like are rip off versions of it. I think the verses leading up to the chorus are great, but the chorus is where it really gets let down.
Overall though I really like this album, in fact I would be close to saying that I love it! I am so glad that I gave Halsey another chance, and I would definitely urge anyone reading this to go and give it a listen.

On Friday singer Dua Lipa released her brand new self-titled album. I've never had much of an opinion on Dua Lipa, I've liked some of her singles but I wouldn't class myself as a fan. Based on the fact that she's had some good singles, I was interested in listening to her album. Part of me wondered if all the songs would sound the same (as I feel that a few of her singles sound quite similar), or if she would do something unpredictable and have a selection of songs that all sound different. 
On my first listen of this album I was both impressed and surprised. The variety of songs on the album make an interesting listen, as you're not sure what you're about to listen to next. I was also impressed because the album as a whole made me realise what a beautiful voice Dua has, something that I had never noticed before.
Just like with every album, there are songs that you like more than others, but after writing down all of my favourites from this album I realised I had quite a few! There are 17 tracks on the deluxe edition, nine of which I class as my favourites! I love the chilled vibes with a mixture of sass in IDGAF, as well as passion and power in Bad Together. 
Overall I enjoyed this album much more than I thought I would, and I am really happy with the variety of songs that this album has to offer. The only thing that is the same with each song is Dua's beautiful vocals, and I expect bucketloads of success will be coming her way soon enough.

Before this week I had never heard of Kevin McGuire, so when I listened to his EP, Foreign Country, for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. The first song, titled Alright, Tonight!  is a brilliant song to open the EP with. The upbeat tempo creates a 'feel good' atmosphere that encourages the listener to keep listening, and definitely makes you excited to hear the rest of the EP.
My personal favourite on Foreign Country is definitely 3AM. This song seems quite different to the rest of the songs on this EP, as it seems a bit darker. The chorus is my favourite part, with the catchy lyrics and the faster pace, this song can't help but grab your attention. On my second listen of this song I had already found myself mouthing the lyrics without realising, demonstrating just how good it is! Easy Love is another great song on the EP. The beautiful piano combined with Kevin's voice captivates the listener, and adds even more diversity to the EP.
Overall the Foreign Country EP is brilliant, and I would definitely recommend anyone reading this to download it! I am so pleased that I discovered Kevin McGuire, and I expect him to become incredibly successful!

I love discovering new music and artists, and this week I was fortunate enough to discover Morganway, and today they released their latest EP, The Hurricane.
When I listened to Morganway for the first time, one of the things that really struck me was how their sound is different to the type of music I usually listen to. I find it hard to describe what genre Morganway would fit into, because while country may be their key genre, there is also a mix of alternative and what I believe to be a hint of pop too. While I do find it hard to say what genre they are, I definitely don't find it hard to say how much I like them! 
After listening to the first song on the EP, Devil's Canyon, I knew that I was already a fan. Their unique sound mixed with catchy lyrics and beautiful voices captivates the listener from the very start, and leaves you wanting more.  
My personal favourite on The Hurricane is My Love Ain't Gonna Save You. It's been stuck in my head since the second I listened to it, and it is definitely a song that I would choose to add to my regular playlist.
Morganway show their stunning vocals on every song throughout the EP, and manage to constantly harmonize beautifully together. I am so glad I found them and I would highly recommend anyone reading this to give their new EP a listen!

After a number of release date push backs, Tinie has finally released his latest album Youth. There had been a lot of hype leading up the album's release, including aYouth pop-up shop and even a Youth house party (and I was lucky enough to attend both of these events!), but was the hype really worth it?
The title track Youth opens the album with a really strong beat and captivating lyrics that appear to tell the listener a story. As soon as I heard this song I knew that this album would be his best work to date, and I definitely wasn't wrong. 
The next track on the album, Not For the Radio (feat. MNEK), is one of my personal favourites on the album. The soft start with MNEK's beautiful voice leading into Tinie's fast and catchy verse, really makes this song memorable, and I think that this pair work brilliantly together. 
The rest of the album continues to be just as excellent, with not a single song being forgettable. With so many albums there always tends to be a song that you aways skip, however on Youth I am yet to find the 'bad' song. You can tell that every track has had a lot of work and thought put into it, and it's really paid off.
Excluding the singles on Youth, to me the top five songs have to be Lightwork, Not For the Radio (feat. MNEK), Holy Moly, They Don't Know (feat. Kid Ink, Stefflon Don and AoD) and Rehab (feat. Tiggs Da Author). These songs really stand out to me for a number of reasons. If you have read any of my previous posts you would remember that I love a catchy song, which all of these are. Not only are these songs catchy, but they are all quite different from Tinie's usual work, but are still just as incredible. I believe that an artist is very talented if they are able to make a range of different songs, while still maintaining the quality of music that the fans love, and Tinie has successfully done this.
Overall the long wait for Youth has definitely been worth it! 10/10!