Half Way There

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In May that year, Cobus Potgieter, who had previously stood in as drummer on Busted's 2016 tour, announced that he would be the studio drummer for the upcoming fourth album. Nineties opens the album and it’s essentially a modernised version of the music the band was making the first-time round. This was one of the tracks where the poor songwriting actually works in a really hilarious meta way, with the song concluding with the band getting back together recording the album you’ve just listened to and rocking out again and how things will be alright if you believe.

I think busted must have long had a level of self awareness that their music operates in this way though. or strips away any deeper conversation surrounding climate change or the state of the world on Race To Mars. Of course, given that Busted have never been a powerhouse band in terms of innovation or technical songcraft (because why would they be? After months of speculation Busted finally confirmed their reunion in November 2015 and hit the road with their Pigs Can Fly Tour the following year. Hell, Reunion and Shipwrecked In Atlantis might as well be respective sequels to What I Go To School For and Air Hostess with the amount the draw on similar themes and settings, but while not everything is quite that on-the-nose, this album largely feels like the case of a band stunting their own growth and evolution in an effort of Simple Plan proportions to shamelessly and transparently ape their heyday.Capturing the band’s larger-than-life personalities, the album cover was conceptualised and shot by Rankin, who also directed the video for ‘Nineties’. With a tour coming up next month, fans have a lot to get excited about and Half Way There has a good chance of restoring the band’s commercial success and propelling back to the top of the charts. The started the campaign for the new album by playing three chaotic sold-out shows in a day at the 100 Club, and then dropped a throwback video for ‘Nineties’which revived the days of Top of the Pops, Blind Date, Nirvana and white-suited boy bands.

This isn’t the band to listen to for pioneering sonic experimentation or playful lyricism: they are what they are, or rather what they were. They know their eggs so well when it comes to delivering great pop hooks and lyrics that are witty, barmy, and which occasionally touch a chord.And that really does highlight how shallow and underdeveloped Half Way There is, to the point where even the most basic of pop-rock and pop-punk that at least endeavours to bring something to the table is exponentially more worthwhile than this. Today Busted release new album Half Way There and it moves away from the cooler, synth-pop feel of Night Driver and revisits the rebellious punk-pop hybrid the band explored on their first two albums. We loved it, but I think for a fan wanting to hear Busted again, people had to readjust their mind as to what they were hearing.

Hence why it’s fitting that ‘What Happened To Your Band’, a song that James first wrote about the split over ten years ago – first for Son of Dork, then for his and Matt’s brief merge with McFly for the supergroup project McBusted in 2014 – has now found what you imagine was it’s spiritual home all along. million copies in the UK alone and their 2003 follow-up A Present for Everyone came very close to matching it. All my friends’ is another weird one, both optimistic but sneering and doesn’t reflect really well on any of the singers. Reunion’ sounds like it’s probably the single, as it also doubles as a way of letting people know the band are back together despite the songs actually being aboitba sixth form reunion. It’s a rush of melody and effervescent riffs as they blend huge arena-filling choruses with the classic pop-punk sound of Blink 182 and New Found Glory.They wrote more material than ever, much of it at Bourne’s apartment in North London where they spent so much time together back when they first started the band.