Busted will always hold a place in people's hearts, but are we ready to accept this new sound?
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After a 12 year hiatus, Busted’s first proper single from new record Night Driver – their first release as a reunited trio – can, on first listen, be an utterly disappointing indication that they’ve lost the classic pop-punk style that everyone used to love. Yet, once I managed to accept that it’s no longer 2003, ‘On What You’re On’ began to start growing on me, with a DNCE-ish set of synthy guitars, a lovely bit of saxophone in the bridge, and, just like ‘Cake By The Ocean,’ hidden lyrical meanings.
The boys have grown beyond singing about the love for their school teacher, instead going on about drugs this time around, and the robotic vocals make ‘On What You’re On’ sound quite similar to a lot of recent chart material, but they are nothing like you’d expect from Busted. The only one of the boys whose voice sounds anything like it used to is Charlie Simpson, as James Bourne and Matt Willis have lost the nasally American sound that they used to adopt in the old days – which may actually be a good thing. Although I hope the album has a few songs with a more traditional Busted sound, the completely new side presented on ‘On What You’re On’ is a welcome evolution for the band.
‘On What You’re On’ is out now via Juno Music
