Half Way There

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Yes, at times, the album does feel dated – a drawback of an album based on nostalgia – and yes, it can be difficult to determine where the group fits into the modern musical landscape, but Half Way There is so uniquely Busted that it doesn’t really matter. What happened to your band was originally performed with Son of Dork way back in 2007 and then appeared on McBusted's album in 2014.

In June 2017, Busted flew to Los Angeles to perform their first American gig as a reformed band at the Troubadour. To the album’s credit, it kept someone as cynical and bitter as me through to the end without cursing at it for being obnoxious, and that says a little bit about the talent handling this record. As good as Night Driver was as an album and it showed a totally different style to Busted than we was used to, Half Way there, is truly the Busted we know and love.

And that really does highlight how shallow and underdeveloped Half Way There is, to the point where even the most basic of pop-rock and pop-punk that at least endeavours to bring something to the table is exponentially more worthwhile than this. A sentiment touched upon when Simpson, Bourne and Willis wail “ We’re not old / But we’re not as young as we used to be / Half way to obscurity” in the acoustic love letter, All My Friends, to their fanbase that touches upon the band’s belief that this is where they’re meant to be. When the band Busted are mentioned it’s often hard to overlook their pop-enthused radio-friendly rock hits of the early 2000s which dominated the airwaves and captured an entire generation’s hearts.

It’s hard to really tell what the song is about, I kinda guess that it’s about how we need to all get together to move to mars and learn how to ‘get along’ with each other. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. James Bourne, Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis approached the project with a simple goal in mind: “How do we make the ultimate Busted album? A rush of melody and effervescent riffs that see the band blend huge arena-filling choruses with the classic pop-punk sound of Blink-182 and New Found Glory.The band recorded a new version featuring Simpson and without McFly for the album, as the band believed that it fit the album's themes of nostalgia, reflection, and their hearkening back to their earlier pop-punk sound due to the lyrics dealing with James Bourne's life after Busted initially broke up in 2005. It's a proper pop-punk record, so I always feel like this album is the band that Busted could have been. Going straight from Atlantis to Mars ‘race to mars’ changes the vibe a lot and is a really really weird song. Busted have grown up, that is for sure – however, the band haven’t forgot what made them relevant and ultimately, popular. Opening in low-key fashion, the track erupts into life by taking us back to the era of Smashing Pumpkins and Macaulay Culkin and the carefree “days of ditching school to watch The Goonies.

They constantly revisited each idea to make the album as strong as it could possibly be, and also had the opportunity to work with their dream producer Gil Norton, the man behind classic albums from Foo Fighters and Pixies. After all, that’s pretty much the only reason that Half Way There exists; it doesn’t push Busted forward as a band (something that Night Driver did), and it doesn’t add anything at all to the genre conversation, but as far as digging up note-perfect relics from the 2000s goes, it works like gangbusters. This alongside Radio serves as the highlights of the album for me, the perfect ode to a band of where they came from, who they were and who they are now.It’s quickly followed by the twice-previously recorded (by Bourne’s band Son of Dork and by McBusted for their self-titled album) ‘ What Happened To Your Band’ about the band’s split, which is given a new lease of life amidst this album of stylistic throwbacks and retro Busted vibes to become one of the album’s stand-out tracks.

And that’s exactly what the lads have done with this exceptional, exhilarating and at times moving album.Initially, their reunion was embraced with open arms, but then Busted released a new album… and then another. The band’s hugely successful debut album ‘Busted’ featured hit singles ‘What I Go To School For’, ‘Year 3000’, ‘You Said No’, ‘Sleeping With The Light On’ and ‘Crashed The Wedding’.