The boy band from the British Isles

Is there still room for boy bands in the charts? I say yes. And the room is large and better able to accommodate all sorts of male groups. And when I say all sorts, I really mean all sorts. There is room for Il Volo, the classical singing trio of cute boys from Italy. This one is surely a boy band edition of the three tenors. OK, make the comparison younger, the teeny-bopper version of Il Divo.

How about NKOTBSB? Sounds new? Not really. This is a union of two of the greatest boy bands of all time, the New Kids On The Block and the Back Street Boys. The two groups performed together at the American Music Awards last year. The combination clicked and within a few weeks, they had agreed to do an album and a tour together. Makes me wonder if somebody will think of adding ‘N’Sync to the package or if Take That and West Life together will be the next big thing from the UK.

Speaking of the UK, you know the Brits, creating boy bands is like second nature to them. Remember, they revolutionized pop music with the Beatles. In more recent times, they also put together Take That and Boyzone and West Life and others. And now they have come up with The Wanted, the newest, great-looking and very hot boy band from the British Isles.

The Wanted is a manufactured group. That means that the members were found in open auditions and then told that they were a boy band and should from now on stick together. The method worked with ‘N’Sync and the Spice Girls. A whole lot better than searching for ready-made groups, it has since then been commonly used to put bands together and The Wanted is considered the most successful from among the recent recruits.

The Wanted is made up of Jay McGuiness of Nottinghamshire, who has been studying dance and drama before he joined The Wanted; Nathan Sykes of Gloucester, who has been singing professionally since he was six years old; Siva Kaneswaran of Ireland, who is part Irish, part-Sri Lankan was discovered during one of his modeling jobs and asked to join the group; Max George of Manchester had to choose between professional football and music; and Tom Parker of Bolton ditched his Geography studies at Manchester for a music career.

The nice thing about The Wanted is that all of the boys can sing and they are very good. I cannot as of now tell who is who in the songs. Watching the videos should help. But even without those, I can honestly say that there is something unique about the way they sound. It is also commendable that the producers took great care to make them different from other boy groups. There is an urgent perky vibe to the songs but the vocals are soulful and arresting.

The songs are well-written and the arrangements, well-thought out, with surprising turns accomplished through the use of a lot of strings. In fact All Time Low, reminds me of Adele’s Rolling In the Deep with its pronounced beat and rolling rhythm. Given that the prime market of boy bands are starry-eyed young girls, I guess, the package would have been complete if they had included more romantic ballads. There is only one, the Jason Mraz influenced Hi & Low. But all in all, The Wanted is a very good effort. The entire CD is an enjoyable listen that smoothly segues from one track to another. Besides, whatever it lacks, I am sure will be remedied with the contents of the upcoming second album.

Take note that the tracks, one, two, three in the album are all hits. All Time Low, Lose My Mind and Heart Vacancy. That feat rarely happens even with very popular artists and I will not be surprised if No. 4, Replace Your Heart, follows suit. In the trades, the CD is what they would call an album of singles. That means one hit after another with every track as in a hit compilation. But in this case these are all new materials in one album that add up to a coherent whole. Want to know what comes next? No. 5 is the alternately epic and amusing and very well-done Let’s Get Ugly. The other songs are Say It On The Radio, Golden, Weakness, Personal Soldier, Behind Bars, Made and A Good Day For Love To Die.

The Wanted is so good. I honestly wish these boys would make it big everywhere.