Tim: O-Town, late of the early ’00s, when they were a typical American boyband of that era, until the split ten years ago.
Tom: “Typical” but still good — that’s a proper Boyband Ballad Track there. Listen to that pre-chorus, it’s brilliant. As for the video: did they just instruct all the audience to look starry-eyed? ‘Cos that’s not a natural expression unless someone’s dosed the air supply with carbon monoxide.
Tim: Now, 80% of the band are forming a typical early ’00s era American boyband comeback.
Tom: Oh. Crikey. I was expecting that to be a lot worse.
Tim: The music has grown up, now being apparently backed up with a full seventy piece orchestra, which may sound a little excessive on its initial description, but if it produces results like this I’m very appreciative.
Tom: That works really well: I’m a big fan of proper orchestral backing for songs like this. Those strings manage a build in a way that few other things can.
Tim: The voices have developed a bit further, with the focus seemingly now less on screaming fans and more on making powerful pop tracks like this, which is very good as far as I’m concerned. While there is the string build to it, there’s still a massive impact when the chorus pretty much comes out of nowhere, and it’s a wonderful surprise.
Tom: Like I said: those strings work wonders.
Tim: The only drawback is that it means the second verse, instrumentally almost identical to the first, sounds almost deathly quiet in comparison, but that aside I have no qualms at all about the track – it’s just great.