McFly - 'Room on the 3rd Floor' (Island) Released 05/07/04

McFly then.  Mates of Busted.  Fresh off the boy-band-with-guitars production line.  Sent by the powers that be to show the kids what Rock'n'Roll is.  Stop the evil empire!! Stop them now!

Well no, don't.  Cos you know what? This is actually a decent album!  But then you don't need me to tell you that, look at the glowing reviews from 'serious' publications such as the Telegraph and the Times.  So what if Tom, Danny, Harry and Dougie play their instruments and write their own songs, but choose to do it in a pure-pop vein?

Where McFly differ from their stablemates is in influence.  Whilst Busted plough the Green Day furrow, adding moisturiser and hairspray as they go, this lot are 60's kids; drawing on Beach Boys, Monkees, and all that is good about West-Coast surf pop. 

Really, people who write this off as some kind of cynical marketing ploy are lying to themselves. Listen to the songs! Sure, the faux American accents do occasionally grate, and it being a pop album there's a bit of filler (hello cheesier than thou 'Met This Girl' and 'Surfer Babe'), but 'Obviously', 'Hypnotise' and title track 'Room on the 3rd Floor' are very well written, very well performed and... just bloody good songs.

If Supergrass had been stylized by some corporate bastards back in '95, they would have sounded like this. 

Considering the Tweenie generation's other options, that's no bad thing.