Sunday, January 15, 2006
Crashed and Burnt
It was a year ago yesterday that Charlie Simpson decided that he'd had enough of making music that people actually liked and left Busted to make unlistenable angsty nonsense with Fightstar instead. At the time there was a lot of anger directed towards Charlie for splitting up the band, but that wasn't particularly wise as emo types thrive on negative emotions so, much like blasting Godzilla with radiation, all it serves to do is make him stronger, or at least give him enough material for a second album.
Of course, given that the Son of Dork album is, to all intents and purposes, what Busted would have released for their third album, we should perhaps be grateful to Charlie for splitting the band when he did and saving us from having their memory sullied, as it seems that - potential brilliance from Matt Willis notwithstanding - the ideas train had left the Busted station. Though given the awfulness of Thunderbirds Are Go this perhaps shouldn't have come as a surprise. Indeed, given that Son of Dork themselves are resorting to covering Thunderbirds are Go on the B-Side to latest single Eddie's Song - which is in no way about Charlie, oh no - it's safe to say that the ideas train hasn't even bothered to turn up at their particular station.
So, with Son of Dork failing to provide the goods and McFly simply being, well, shite, where do we go for our Busted-esque thrills? Annoyingly, and we do really hate ourselves for saying this, the answer may lie in the form of Lee Harding, who was a finalist in Australian Idol. Despite appearing on a TV talent show, which is as about establishment as you can get without actually being a cabinet minister, Lee seems to be labouring under the delusion that he's some sort of bonafide punk rocker, i.e. he's played around with some red hairdye and make-up and has a variety of unnecessary chains draped around his person. Think Tabby from X Factor 2004 or a solo Noise Next Door and you're on your way there. Now, as those comparisons should probably indicate, Lee Harding is not someone we should be liking. In fact, there's a million and one reasons why we should be treating his debut single, Wasabi, with the sort of contempt normally reserved for Stereophonics releases - this piece by those lovely CFB Goes Pop girls should provide a few of them - and yet we can't help but smile like a loon and bounce around like a hyperactive Tigger whenever we play it. We know it's wrong, and we're sure it's just because we're desperate to get something to fill the Busted shaped hole in our heart, but we can't help loving it. Even though it's as derivative as a calculus lesson; even though the lyrics read like someone's quite proud of knowing a dozen or so vaguely modern sounding things - and we're convinced it's only for copyright reasons that an iPod isn't name checked; even though the song is about some apparently amazing girl who'll drop everything to sleep with him, despite the fact any girl with even a modicum of sense clearly wouldn't and even though he's called the song Wasabi, which is a pungent Japanese condiment, so to use that as a pet name for a girl is a bit like saying "You stink", we still think it's great. We're sorry, we really are. Maybe we're ill. Liking this does make us feel sick in the head, anyway.
music busted son of dork fightstar lee harding
Of course, given that the Son of Dork album is, to all intents and purposes, what Busted would have released for their third album, we should perhaps be grateful to Charlie for splitting the band when he did and saving us from having their memory sullied, as it seems that - potential brilliance from Matt Willis notwithstanding - the ideas train had left the Busted station. Though given the awfulness of Thunderbirds Are Go this perhaps shouldn't have come as a surprise. Indeed, given that Son of Dork themselves are resorting to covering Thunderbirds are Go on the B-Side to latest single Eddie's Song - which is in no way about Charlie, oh no - it's safe to say that the ideas train hasn't even bothered to turn up at their particular station.
So, with Son of Dork failing to provide the goods and McFly simply being, well, shite, where do we go for our Busted-esque thrills? Annoyingly, and we do really hate ourselves for saying this, the answer may lie in the form of Lee Harding, who was a finalist in Australian Idol. Despite appearing on a TV talent show, which is as about establishment as you can get without actually being a cabinet minister, Lee seems to be labouring under the delusion that he's some sort of bonafide punk rocker, i.e. he's played around with some red hairdye and make-up and has a variety of unnecessary chains draped around his person. Think Tabby from X Factor 2004 or a solo Noise Next Door and you're on your way there. Now, as those comparisons should probably indicate, Lee Harding is not someone we should be liking. In fact, there's a million and one reasons why we should be treating his debut single, Wasabi, with the sort of contempt normally reserved for Stereophonics releases - this piece by those lovely CFB Goes Pop girls should provide a few of them - and yet we can't help but smile like a loon and bounce around like a hyperactive Tigger whenever we play it. We know it's wrong, and we're sure it's just because we're desperate to get something to fill the Busted shaped hole in our heart, but we can't help loving it. Even though it's as derivative as a calculus lesson; even though the lyrics read like someone's quite proud of knowing a dozen or so vaguely modern sounding things - and we're convinced it's only for copyright reasons that an iPod isn't name checked; even though the song is about some apparently amazing girl who'll drop everything to sleep with him, despite the fact any girl with even a modicum of sense clearly wouldn't and even though he's called the song Wasabi, which is a pungent Japanese condiment, so to use that as a pet name for a girl is a bit like saying "You stink", we still think it's great. We're sorry, we really are. Maybe we're ill. Liking this does make us feel sick in the head, anyway.
music busted son of dork fightstar lee harding
