I know I am not a teeny bopper anymore, in fact I am 22, but who cares, I love Busted, now I know that sounds very sad, but you can send the complaints to my sister, who is actually older than me, as one day she turned to me and said have you heard this song called “Year 3000”, since then I have been hooked, I even went to see them when they recently visited the NEC in Birmingham, and they were brilliant.
For anyone who doesn’t know who Busted are, they are NOT a boy band, they are three guys called Charlie, Matt, and James, and they play their own instruments, and have a poppy rock sound, it is great music for air-guitar! Their first album entitled “Busted” (Very inventive!) was good and sold just under a million copies, but this one, called “A present for everyone” is soooo much better, and just to prove they are NOT a boy band they wrote all the songs themselves. They also won two Brit awards this year for Best Breakthrough Act and Best Pop Act
Busted, as other reviewers have noted, have grown up as the lyrics are more mature, but they still sing with a youthful enthusiasm, you can tell that the boys really enjoyed making this album. They sing about real life, and real experiences, and you warm to them for their frankness. To appeal to their younger audience they also use language that they will relate to, such as, loser, and loner, which is very hip and trendy! (Act your age!)
This
album covers everything from classroom crushes to breaking up with your girlfriend/boyfriend to teen trauma where your other half seems to be turning into you!
The album starts with the sound effect of an aeroplane and there new single “Air Hostess“ begins, it is full of heavy guitar riffs, and a lot of drums. The boys have very distinct voices, especially Charlie, (who by the way is my favourite), and they sing their parts really well. Through the whole album there are a lot of crude one-liners that may go over some of the younger peoples heads, and they don't come much better than "Air Hostess" with its less than wholesome appreciation of a girl in uniform: "I messed my pants when we flew over France"!.
“Crashed the Wedding” is next, it begins with church bells, but then kicks in with more guitar and drums, it is very rocky, and is also one of my favourites. If you have seen the video they all dress up in different costumes to create a wedding.
"Who's David?" I don’t know who David is, but from the lyrics of the song, I take it is some bloke who lives next door to one of the Busted boys girlfriends, who has been seeing her behind their back. It is a bit slower than the other songs, but I wouldn’t call it a ballad. It shows of their vocal ability, as they are not being drowned out by the drums and guitar like they are on some of the other songs.
Next on the album is “She wants to be me” the guys sing about a girl who is turning into them, with the lyrics “She’s obsessed with me, now she stands up to pee” Interesting, but maybe it was a public toilet where she had to hover because you never know what you can catch! It’s a good tune, and again it has a lot of drums and guitar, but the boys sound like they are screaming instead of singing in some parts, and some of the words you can’t understand because they are drowned out by the drums.
The next song “3am” is definitely one of my favourites, it is slower and mainly Charlie that sings it, which is good, because I feel he has the best voice, and no I am not being bias (Maybe just a little bit!). It has a more mature sound and has an acoustic guitar instead of an electric, which is a bit of light relief as the other songs seem to feature heavy drums and electric guitar quite strongly. This song also has funny one-liners, so you can still see it is the cheeky Busted singing, such as “You’re driving in your car, but you won’t get far, cause your car is shit!”
“Falling for you” begins with an electric guitar, and then the drums kick in, and you know it is going to be a traditional Busted song. I think from the lyrics he fancies a girl at school and he might be falling for her, there a few rude words in this song but they are disguised by little sound effects. It is another good song, with a very catchy chorus, typical busted.
“That thing you do” has the same sound as other tracks, lots of electric guitar, and drums. I think they want to sound older, but it sounds a bit similar to other songs on the album. It gets a bit forgotten.
“Over Now” also has a mature sound, it has a simple tune but is very catchy, it is a break-up song but he is saying “he loves her more” so it must of been her who broke it off. It is another ballad, and one of my favourites, although it sounds a bit like “Who’s David”
“Meet you there” is another ballad with just an acoustic guitar all the way through with a piano coming in at the end, are the boys getting a bit soft in their old age? It is yet another one of my favourites, it has good vocals, and a simple tune. It’s also nice to hear a Busted song without all the drums disguising their voices as they really can sing.
“Why” is not one of my favourites, in fact I have only listened to it twice, and one of those times is so I could write this op. It starts off slow, with Charlie singing how loving you could be so great. Then in the chorus it goes all rocky again with heavy drums and electric guitar, you can’t really here the words then, and he sounds like he is shouting the words rather than singing them.
“Loner in Love” is next. It is a nice song, they sing about how they are loners, and can’t find love yeah right!!!
“Nerdy” is a good song to end the album with, I like the lyrics “Just because I’m nerdy and my friends are thirty”, very catchy. I think from the lyrics, the girl they are talking about is popular at school, but she thinks he is a nerd, or something like that. The band also send out an anti smoking message in this song but in a Busted way, which is very good as young people listen to this, they use the lyrics “You and your friends were smoking it always makes me choke”.
This album is great but there are a couple of skip over tracks: “Better than this“, “fake“, and “can’t break thru”.
There are no trips to the Year 3000 on this album - but the Year 2004 and beyond should be a good ones for the boys.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: The sound is quite bouncy and fun, the vocal lines are very well sung out. Disadvantages: The music is really quite generic and contrived; it's all been done before and better.
Apr 7th, 2004
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
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