A Present For Everyone
Yes, I Mister Mop actually own this album. The few people among you that actually know me and are aware that I usually stick to grunge, indie and thrash must be thinking ‘What is wrong with you?’ But when I moved to Switzerland and started unpacking my CD’s and putting them on my old rusty shelves I discovered this among them. I’m personally not sure how I originally acquired this sleek bunch of sickening pop punk songs but I’m guessing it was one of my brother’s friends who left it at my house or something.
Anyway, Busted originally appeared out of North London sometime in 2002 sounding like a scary mix of Blink-182 and Backstreet Boys. With their nice pop melodies, muted power chords and cheeky swear words, Busted had no problem climbing the UK charts and becoming teen sensations overnight.
The album ‘A Present For Everyone’ was the quickly made follow up to Busted’s self-titled debut. Leaving behind the more boy band influenced sound of their debut and becoming something closer to a wannabe Blink-182 was a big step for them, unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work, with the overall album just sounding like a neutered Sum 41. In the bland album opener ‘Air Hostess’, the Busted boys sing about wanting to get lucky with the hot airline employee with lines like, “Air Hostess, I like the way you dress”. Personally I think this song’s biggest achievement was being able to rhyme “I messed my pants” with “Flying over France”. Another cliché song off this album is ‘Who’s David’ where Busted attempts to write a heart break song over a girl who likes a guy called David (how’d I figure that one out?).
Anyway, before any of you start complaining about how the only description of the music on this review was just criticizing lyrics of two of the songs, I don't have to describe anymore. All of the songs have lyrics about the same subject (breaking up with girls), all of the guitar riffs sound the same (lots of power chords and palm muting) and overall the general song sturcture is just the typical pop formula of verse/chorus/verse/chorus. The only song on this album that actually stands out in anyway is 'Crashed The Wedding', however terrible this song is, it is a masterpiece compared to most of the others.
Following in the footsteps of any of America’s glossy pop punk bands, Busted really isn’t anything special. This whole album is just like something out of a Metal head’s nightmare, with Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne and Backstreet Boys all dancing around a fire watching Megadeth burn while chanting out “Oh Baby, I dreamt it all, we did it in a waterfall”.
This album will be an alright buy for you if you like neutered punk bands like Good Charlotte, Simple Plan or Sum 41. Actually, no, I think Sum 41 is too good to be associated with this (at least they managed to rhyme ‘El Niño’ with ‘Drinking in the back of an El Camino’). But if you prefer more respectable forms of music then stay far away from this. Overall this album is very poor musically and lyrically, it may be a present for everyone, but it’s a gift that you won’t enjoy.
