Busted busts out into the world

Busted, a new trio that is the number one selling group in the UK, is now threatening to bust out of its Britpop origins and take on the whole world as soon as they can. In fact, teen-agers James Bourne, Charlie Simpson and Mattie Jay already see themselves as the new versions of famous celebrities like Jason Biggs of American Pie for Billy, the legendary James Dean in Charlie and Billy Mitchell of the EastEnders in Mattie. Forgive this bit of wishful thinking though. The time when other people will be able to see them the same way is still a long way off but make no mistake about it. The latest boy group from London is certainly starting to make a lot of noise and gathering lots of screaming fans in the process.

As you must have noticed with the way they compare themselves to established pop icons, the members of Busted set quite a store on their looks and image. This should not come as a surprise. Pop idols nowadays have to be seen as well as heard so it has become the practice of managers and promoters to package their talents in such a way as to be able to give fans everything they want. There is nothing contrived or packaged about them though. James and Mattie formed a group, put out an ad for a third member which netted Charlie. So they came to the label already fully formed.

Busted offers three of those choices. Eighteen-year-old James is the athletic school boy who likes pop music of the ‘Nsync and Blink 182 variety. Charlie is the looker you might one day see in a fashion spread. Though only 16, he has more esoteric music tastes and prefers the Deftones and Jimmy Eat World. Mattie, 18, is the streetwise rocker with the big mouth. Think Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, who has already been busted for one thing or another.

If you will get down to brasstacks though, the music is really all that matters. The looks, the image, the hype might help introduce a new act but after the novelty has worn off, the artist should be able to back up all that styling with the right sort of music. In the case of Busted, the sound is British pop of the young and irreverent kind. I have been trying to put my finger on what makes British pop artists come up with a sound that is so universal but is also very different from American pop. There is something young, breezy, infectious and so up-in-your face about it. Maybe it is growing up amidst a culture of superiority. Maybe it is the knowledge that you are riding on the coattails of British groups that shook the world some generations ago. I have been unable to come up with an answer. All I know right now is that I heard that easily identifiable sound again in the album Busted.

The music comes at its barest, mostly guitars with just a minimum of instrumentation souped up by lush, repetitive choruses and the boys’ enthusiastic performances. The lyrics of the songs though are something else. These guys are threading a thin line between the Beatles and Johnny Rotten and care not one bit that they might get busted. Check this one out from the first single release, What I Go to School For. "I fight my way to front of class, to get the best view of her ass/ drop a pencil on the floor, she bends down and shows me more." There is more of the same in the songs in the album which are all original materials mostly composed by the trio.

Watch out for Busted. They may sound inane and atrocious but they might still end up big and truly important in two or three years from now. Meanwhile, brace yourselves for what they say in Crash and Burn, Losing You, Year 3000, a fantasy look at how they might be a thousand years from now, Psycho Girl, All the Way, Sleeping with the Light On, Dawson’s Geek, you know what inspired this, Without You, Loser Kid an autobiographical number about what they have become and Britney, a tribute to the popular pop diva that makes use of the titles of her hit songs.