A Ticket for Everyone
Busted!
(Universal)

Beloved by teenage girls into pop-rock, cloned by jealous record companies (see McFly et al), and mocked by serious rockers, Busted! was an odd choice of a CD purchase for me. It was one of those times that happens in a rock junky's life when I just had to get something new. The rest of the stuff on offer at Sainsburys was complete cack...not that it is a defence. I did not have very high expectations for this CD, expecting a scream & cream fest where it's impossible to hear the band. Instead, it's a well produced live CD with just enough screaming to give it validity but not enough to get in the way. Busted!'s music always struck me as a bit like 'Live at Budukan' era Cheap Trick when the band were at their height. Busted! do a similar line in dead-simple catchy as f*** pop-rock. Whether you like it or not, tracks like "What I go to School For", "Air Hostess", and "Crashed the Wedding" stick in the head. What I never knew is that Busted! lyrics deal with such oddties as sex-changes- "She wants to be me" and stalking- "3am". This lot even manage a decent version of "Teenage Kicks". To some this lot are twee teenage wallies, but for me they get some respect for writing their own songs and not being msierable wankers like Radiohead. Guess you could call this my guilty secret.

Rating: 4/5