I have no idea how The Wanted ended up the most likable boy band this side of The Rubberbandits (sure, they count!) but something about this British-Irish quintet makes you do away with braindead pretty boy stereotypes and think, ‘Ah, they’re alright’. Between slagging off X-Factor contestants, trading punches with Alastair Campbell at a charity football match and stowing away in Rihanna’s van, there’s not a humdrum cell in The Wanted’s DNA.
Admittedly, they look like textbook beefcakes in their music videos, as they cannonball off yachts in Ibiza and strum flaming pianos, but if their regular mud-slinging matches with JLS are anything to go by (“Give them four glasses of champagne and they start prancing around having a dance-off!”), the chiseled fivesome are keeping a sense of humour about this whole pop star business.
If they’re finding their glossy new lifestyle absolutely hilarious, second album Warzone isn’t letting on for a minute. Ticking every possible box on the pop group hall of fame application form, Max, Jay, Tom, Nathan and Siva (that’s the Irish one) sing every note as if it’s gospel and rarely place a foot wrong.
Whether making the galaxy their playground (an actual lyric, bizarrely enough) or threatening to rock your body, The Wanted play the part of Backstreet Boys 2.0 perfectly, marrying the mainstays of classic boy band pop (key changes, manly metaphors about war and cars, weepy outpourings of the heart etc.) with cutting-edge electronic thumps and wallops.
Opener ‘Glad You Came’ is a positively cracking piece of raveworthy dance pop that’s among the catchiest songs of the year, ‘Gold Forever’ sounds just as epic for its dramatic string arrangement, and even piano ballad ‘I’ll Be Your Strength’ erupts into a club-ready ‘90s-tinged banger at the last minute. Elsewhere, ‘Lie To Me’ harks back to the golden age of hunk-led pop, ‘The Weekend’ does a great job of preparing you for same, and ‘Lightning’ boasts a positively killer chorus.
Through unstoppable hooks, melancholic synthlines and some really rather impressive vocals, The Wanted have served up the best boy band album in aeons (I say created because assorted members claim writing credits on six of the 11 tracks). Granted, there are a handful of uninspiring moments, and more than a few dodgy lyrics (sometimes it’s hard to tell – is “When your lips touch mine/ It’s the kiss of life” appalling or brilliant?), but with Battleground, we’ve got The Wanted precisely where we want them – leapfrogging around the dancefloor, singing their pretty little hearts out, and doing it all with a straight face.