It Boys!
Introduction
EMI/Century Media - out now
I WAS extremely unsurprised to learn that the It Boys! have played alongside One Direction recently.
Frankly they sound like Five, or Jedward. This is clearly for tweens - one of the lyrics is 'the crowd gets naughty' - I can't imagine an It Boys! party would be particularly naughty. No wonder American audiences seem to prefer British boy bands when the American offerings are so saccharine, a watered-down One Direction.
Having said that, I'm a good decade too old to be listening to this band. 'Spring Break-up' is the most mature sounding song on here, and its very title is word play on 'spring break'!
'Guys Don't Like Me' is painfully American and to my aged ears sounds like a parody of a boy band; they have clearly gone for The Wanted's fan base with the pounding beat.
The same is true for 'Crazy', while songs like 'Rooftops' must have been what the Backstreet Boys sounded like to my parents (feels like heresy to say that, somehow). The lyrics go: "We started kissin' and she said listen/She's in love love love/I said what what what." It's not exactly Leonard Cohen, but it's not trying to be.