When we interviewed The Wanted's Nathan Sykes last week, we asked him how he felt about the boyband being one of very few UK pop groups to have had so much success without finding their break on a talent show.
He said: “You know what, it’s really nice to know that we’ve done it the old school way... It sometimes is kind of strange to see people just getting thrown into the limelight, but it’s really good looking back over the last year and seeing how much we’ve grown."
And grown they have. Battleground sways the quintet in a slightly different direction to their eponymous debut, and whereas that record was more straight-forward lad-pop, this one brings them up to speed with the dancefloor-oriented sound du jour without getting caught up in the overdone David Guetta-like blandness that has plagued so many other artists. Chart-topper ‘Glad You Came’ is a cool example – its lyrics may not exude originality, but it has enough charisma and summer-friendly production to see it through.
Merge that with the slightly less club-targetted hit ‘Lightning’ and you have a pretty good idea of where the LP is going. Note especially ‘Invincible’, a radio-ready barn-stormer that would make perfect sense as a single, and ‘Last To Know’, a slightly darker midtempo affair with one of the album's best choruses. Actually, midtempo is where the boys are most successful – the Diane Warren-penned ‘Rocket’ has just the right amount of acceptable cheese, and ‘Lie To Me’ is one of the best songs on the whole disc. Lord only knows why it’s tucked away right at the end.
The ballads are where things get a bit wobbly. ‘I Want It All’ is fine, if a bit wishy-washy, and ‘I’ll Be Your Strength’ never seems to amount to anything, despite the best efforts of a random dance beat that kicks in towards the end. But the good thing is that they’re in the minority. The Wanted remain instrumental in pushing the boyband image further into the 21st Century, and with a sound that keeps them maturer than One Direction and more lads-next-door than JLS, they've certainly earned their place in the market.
The Wanted!...
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