Tom: No, you haven’t slipped back in time. It’s actually a new East 17 track. You might be thinking “they kept that reunion quiet”. The trouble is, it’s not a reunion. They haven’t done a Take That and disappeared properly for several years before coming back to a storm of acclaim: various members of the band have been milking the name for a while, and now the three of them that remain involved have decided to try a proper single again.
And I’ll say this: it’s not bad.
Tim: Perhaps not, but they have chosen the Laziest Method Ever™ for a music video, which always annoys me.
Tom: “East 17 Singles” would be a pretty good category for ‘Pointless’. Everyone remembers ‘Stay Another Day’, of course, but that was their only number one. Maybe a few people will remember ‘Let It Rain’. But they don’t have the big genre-spanning catalogue of Barlow’s lot – so most people will be expecting something like their Christmassy ballad.
Tim: Hmm. There was a thing about boybands on TV a couple of weeks back, with interviews with singers, managers, writers, all sorts (incidentally Terry from these guys is still bitter about being known as the Quiet One, because no-one was ever interested in him). One of the general points made (and universally agreed on) was that the worst thing that can happen to a boyband is that they decide they want to be credible, and write their own music, when instead they should realise that much as the lyricists woldn’t be good as singers, they shouldn’t do the writing. This song…somewhat justifies that.
Tom: Judged by those old boy-band standards, it’s terrible, but judged by modern pop… well, apart from the repeat ’til fade, this could be pretty much any indie-pop band. If we’re honest, it’s probably cribbing a bit from ‘Sex on Fire’, and they’ve definitely lost their best vocalist. But it’s not bad.
Tim: It’s not bad – it’s not the East 17 their fans would likely want, though, so it is good?
Tom: Depends if you’re one of their fans. I’d hazard a guess that it’s not going to absolutely light up the charts – but it’s a solid tune, and deserves a bit of attention.