McFly: Universal Black Hole
By
Kellie Sixties
There is a lot to be said for the sixth album for most British bands. It either shows a tangible effort on their part, to attempt to look like the Beatles… sometimes they can be credited as doing a good job as a British band. Yet they also show a determination not to get out of the limelight with grace.
One such example of this is McFly. The first song is (of course) a badly ripped off version of The Beatles 'Tell Me why' which is instead entitled 'Why you cried.' Of course, along with it's ripped off title, it chants Tom Fletcher's most enchanting lyric: 'I don't know what to sing about any more' which truthfully I don't know why I am listening. Mostly due to my pay check but lets not go into that game… believe me after listening to this crap I need a pay rise.
This has been the reason why, outside of their (gigantic) army of teeny-bopper followers and foot-soldiers, McFly have always been considered a bit of a joke.
The pool-party lifestyle (Lindsay Lohan ring any bells?), the clothing lines and the Beatles complex never really squared with The Arctic Monkeys raw lyrics about factual stuff which is happening in Sheffield, Yorkshire… prostitutes, and not being able to get into clubs. The latter always bothering me.
Universal Black Hole is an attempt to regain the maturity they had during the 'Wonderland' Sessions and they lost after Motion In The Ocean. Take 'American Girl' a gigantic soul jam powered by acrobatic guitars, with Danny channelling Miles Davis as much as Billie Joe Armstrong. This effort is lost due to an overzealous rock guitar effort in the middle-eight… Led Zeppelin you aient.
The Song 'Underground' Is an attempt to make a transition to sex Gods in the making with innuendo such as 'I would love to get you Underground tonight.' There's only maybe one hint of trouble with this… Dougie is terrible at being sexy, his voice (treated and auto-tuned to within an inch of its life throughout) sounds simply too gravelly to be sexy…
'Glasgow in The Winter' is an all acoustic track, which features a thoughtful Tom Fletcher singing about the touring schedule, and with only an Acoustic guitar- he brings the people of Glasgow to life….
Yet this is the only song I can really claim to have enjoyed enough to be able to stomach placing on My I-Pod while the rest goes off the chart and into my recycling bin. Despite the harmony attempts and the orchestral help… McFly in this album sound nothing more than a glorified 'The Seekers'… which for a boy… oops sorry I mean 'rock' band is quite disturbing. Images spill out much too fast as the music flips and grinds direction, genre and mood.
The cold brutality is that McFly are attempting to distance themselves from that hoppy poppy stuff which they have endorsed for years. They're best album by far was their second album, which I ashamedly admit, I really enjoy. The band itself I find quite intelligent… although much can be said for their lyrics
A good attempt for an album by McFly indeed… and boys if I may make one suggestion… make sure the bleached-blonde-haired, brown eye-browed git colours his eyebrows in next time…