Busted - Night Driver (November 25, 2016) Album • Page 15

There are no songs on BTDB that I love. sad.

 

Man, I love Long Road Home. Tracks like "Comets", "Emily", and "Forty Thieves" are arguably some of the strongest tracks Charlie has ever written, each for different reasons. Funnily enough, I'm not totally enamoured with "Winter Hymns" despite still really enjoying it. It would be down in my bottom three from that album.

As for Behind the Devil's Back, despite my criticisms, I do love it and I'm grateful that it exists. "Overdrive" is one of my favourite tracks in their entire discography, "Murder All Over" has that pulsating chorus that pulls me in each and every time, "Dive" is a masterful closer, and I actually really like "More Human Than Human". Maybe I'm so familiar and accustomed to Gunship-era Al that his vocals on that track aren't nearly as jarring to me.

 

I love Long Road Home too don't get me wrong, it's just more of an 8.5 for me whereas everything else from APFE to YP is easily 9+ and it doesn't really have any of my favourite songs of his. My favourite song on there is probably Would You Love Me Any Less and that really can't compare to the best of anything else he's done really.

 

"Would You Love Me Any Less?" is actually my least favourite. I've never been able to pinpoint precisely why but I think the underlying reason is the lyrics. I don't know, I can appreciate that it's trying to come across as meaningful but it's never resonated with me and I've always just seen straight through it. Vocally, melodically and harmonically it's very good, but it's the one track I've never truly gravitated towards.

All this talk of Charlie's discography is making me want to revisit it all again. I think that's what I'll do in the lead-up to Night Driver. I might even chuck in the Son Of Dork, McBusted and Matt's solo album to cover all bases, haha.

 

This is crazy to me haha. BTDB sounds like such a rushed, uninspired album whereas LRH, and "Winter Hymns" in particular, sounds like the opposite of that. You can tell that a lot of time and effort went into crafting the songs, or at least it sounds that way. "Winter Hymns", "Emily", "Comets", "Would You Love Me Any Less", "Haunted" and "Another Year" are miles ahead of anything on BTDB.

I think I remember some discussion about this on ap.net around the time it was released, but a lot of the heaviness (the screams, the riffs, etc) on BTDB sounds forced. With hindsight, and as WhosBroden? suggested, it makes me think the album was only rushed out because Charlie was rejoining Busted a few months later. The over-the-top heaviness was obviously an attempt to maintain Charlie's credibility amongst Fightstar fans because he knew there would be at least some backlash when he rejoined Busted.

 

I don't think BTDB sounds uninspired at all and I just generally like the Fightstar sound a lot more than his solo stuff. I think Charlie's melodies are better on that album and the music is way more enjoyable and interesting to me. LRH just doesn't hit me like the majority of his stuff does, the songs don't really excite me. I think most of the things he does on there were done better on YP.

I honestly think the heaviness just came from them all doing considerably less heavy stuff since Be Human. Overall there's only the odd riff here or there, like the chorus of Overdrive, that feels out of place to me and there's still a ton of melody and softness on there.

 

I love the lyrics to that song. I think it's an interesting thought and it's always been one of the more moving songs on there to me, what do you mean by seen straight through it? I also love how it builds musically.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. When did Fightstar start writing... April 2015? At that point, he must have had an idea that he at least might be rejoining Busted.

 

I'm pretty sure they started writing in 2014. They definitely had some stuff written by the Feb 2015 tour. I think he went to Philadelphia with Busted in the summer of 2015 or something like that which is when they decided they were going to get back together so I feel like it probably rushed the completion/release of the album but I don't think it had too much effect on the album itself. I could be wrong but that's the timeline as far as I can recall.

 

I seem to remember them saying that they hadn't actually had any plans to write new music before the reunion show (which I think was in December 2014).

 

True. Looking on Instagram they posted a picture of 8 demos in April of 2015 saying they were going to out a new album that year so I'm guessing they started in March since Charlie had a solo tour in Jan and Fightstar had a tour in Feb. Unless they started writing on tour, they did say they'd have new music out later that year on that tour.

Also later said they only planned on an EP but they came up with so much stuff they liked so fast that they made a full length.

 

2017 UK tour in support of Night Driver was just announced. Not arenas this time (apart from the AECC in Aberdeen, weirdly), mostly 1500-4000 capacity venues. I guess it's not been that long since their last tour, plus they want to see what the support is for their new sound. Hoping to get a ticket for the Manchester O2 Apollo gig in February myself

As far as updates on the album go, there's been some changes on the Wikipedia page - New York is possibly the next single, accompanying the album release. Also track lengths for One of a Kind and Easy? Probably speculation based on the gigs, I'd imagine.

 

Mental that I'm going to get to see fucking Busted at Rock City. I saw Fightstar there once upon a time.

 

It's terrific for their UK fans, but I'm still waiting for a few Australian dates. Hopefully next year, but I'm not holding my breath.

It's not like I can be too disappointed anyway - we're getting a new Busted album in a month. Never would've believed this could happen.

 

Bloody oath mate.
Charlie hadn't been here since 2006 which was leading into the Grand Uni album for Fighstar.
I just even want any of his 3 projects to come. It's been a decade.
McBusted supported 1D or 5SOS but I didn't bother with that

 

Seems like Easy will be released on Friday to anyone who pre-orders the album on iTunes. Sucks as I'm waiting for the CD :( But will be nice to hear the studio version anyway, I think people will more easily (ha!) be able to see the link between this band and the one that wrote Nerdy and Meet You There.

 

This got delayed by two weeks. Booooo. We're getting Easy today though.

 

Song is rad

 

Where did you hear this?

 

That is so unlive for a live version. I think it would sound a lot better live honestly. Hope the recorded version doesn't sound that polished, ha.

 

unless that is the recorded version over a live video in which case yeah I'm not a fan of the recording.

 

The slight of auto tune makes me think this might be recorded

 

I'm hoping the auto tune being so bad means they've just auto tuned a live version (which I think is stupid), plus they said on Twitter we can hear the album version at midnight.

 

Wouldn't be surprised to hear the synth more prominent...