British boy bands: back in style?
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Scott Mildenhall: A fitting title: at their height, JLS defied the zeitgeist as a boy band striking a chord with timeless sentimentality. They were an anachronism then and an anachronism-in-aspic now, preserving a comforting candour that becomes all the keener at a decade’s distance. Hiring Steve Mac for a warmed-over “Everybody in Love” feels just right — it’s not as impressive as “Patience”, but the kind of skilful nostalgia-bait will touch even the non-believers. In at number 71 with a bullet? Well, there’s always the tour.
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Ian Mathers: In which a boy band I have not thought about in roughly a decade come back with a song that makes me nostalgic for the boy bands of at least another decade before that. Please note: I’m not complaining. Not everything has to build a better mousetrap; they sound like they’re having fun and I’m charmed by enough of the grace notes that I am too.
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Juana Giaimo: Is my rating a product of nostalgia or am I actually enjoying the song? Sure, I wish the the vocals had a wider range when they sing together instead of resembling a block of sound, but lately I’ve been thinking that love has become too cynical in pop and sometimes I miss a cheesy silly love song about eternal love, whatever that means.
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Alfred Soto: What a hook — the only eternal love I recognize is the three-minute pop song kind. Ed Sheeran agrees.
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Nortey Dowuona: I don’t know how Ed Sheeran bought his soul back from the devil to make great music again, but he should have never sold it.
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Oliver Maier: You know that thing where some cartoons with teenage characters have an episode with a funny made-up boy band like Boys Who Cry or Sev’ral Timez or Boyz4Now with a signature song? You know how half of the time it’s really good and catchy and the other half of the time it’s clearly the product of someone chuckling to themselves about how insipid and circuitous boy band songs are? “Eternal Love” sounds like the second one.
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Mark Sinker: The right number of boys for you is four… FOREVER! (we’re back!)
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