Busted
Half Way There

THE REVIEW

"Half Way There," the fourth album overall by Busted and second after the 2015 reunion, is such a shameless operation that it almost evokes sympathy.

The first post-reunion album, "Night Driver," turned out to be a good record but very far from what the fanbase expected: the result was not exceptional sales and a substantial part of critics and (especially) the public turning up their noses. This time the return to the origins can be considered much more determined: the British band returns to an almost completely guitar-driven approach, relegates synth-pop ambitions to just a couple of hints (the verse of "Race To Mars"), and dives headlong into a shameless revival of certain pop-rock and pop-punk styles in vogue between the late '90s and the first half of the 2000s.

It’s a terrain in which Busted finds themselves absolutely at ease, and being the clever ones they are, they choose as a producer a legend of that period, Gil Norton, who was behind many successes of the time (topping the list is Foo Fighters' "The Colour And The Shape," Welsh band Feeder's "Echo Park," not to mention the fundamental Pixies). Right from the opening with the amusing "Nineties," you can tell what kind of atmosphere is coming (when you cite Oasis, Nirvana, Goonies, Smashing Pumpkins, and Macaulay Culkin, you absolutely know where you're heading); after a brief subdued and nostalgic verse, the guitars explode in a Nirvana-esque burst, and Norton’s hand is absolutely recognizable.

The future second single "Shipwrecked In Atlantis" heavily borrows from Blink-182's "The Rock Show," "Reunion" continues by retrieving the band's pop-punk origins, the first official single "Radio" is the only oasis of tranquility in the album along with the folk-pop of "All My Friends," and "What Happened To Your Band" is a re-recording of a piece from the side project McBusted.

So is it all just rehashed material then? No, because Busted has an above-average melodic talent. In the hands of others, this "Half Way There" would have turned out to be just the work of a disguised cover band, while Simpson and company are skillful builders of immediate and catchy melodies. The feeling remains that they could do much, much more, but the band’s knack for fun and carelessness prevents this much-desired leap in quality.

For posterity, and possibly for the yellowed posters of Blink-182 as well, the daunting judgment.

Best track: Race To Mars