The Wanted – Lightning
If that glow’s supposed to be lightning, The Wanted will soon want a new dude-on-the-left.
[Video][Website]
[5.25]
Alfred Soto: If ever you wanted a song about a kiss to sound as grand as the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, then this British boy band got some tongue to give you. The Pro Tooled vocals could be anybody’s, though, which is not what That Special Kiss is supposed to evoke.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: Given to a better boy band than The Wanted, this is a potential [9] or even a [10]. In their hands, or at least their voices, “Lightning” is endearing but amateurish. The interplay of vocals doesn’t always work and threatens to stifle some otherwise indelible hooks (“your skin, your touch, the kiss, too much”) in the verses. The music does the heavy lifting here; its electronic waves and heartbeat pulses convey the trepidation and excitement aroused by love and lightning in ways the voices aren’t quite selling.
[8]
Brad Shoup: The metronomic synth faintly echoes the intro to Lesley Gore’s “Brink of Disaster”. It’s surely not what producer Ed Drewett was going for, but it does point to where the patterns diverge: playfulness. Propelled by an Eskelinian sense of melody, the Wanted’s track pumps rigidly, in thrall to the epic perception of the act, lighting the cigarette before the sex is done.
[4]
Anthony Easton: It’s sentimental nonsense, from the rise-against chorus and the whole 16-going-on-17 faux-experience over faux-naiveté that didn’t work in The Sound of Music but distressingly would work here. But the drums are tight, the voices are believable, and the electronic contaminates the rock and roll in ways that are professional if not radically new.
[6]
Jer Fairall: Has a haunting little Eurosynth whirl going for it, but the chorus harmonies evoke the most banal aspects of turn-of-the-century boy band pop. Also, “frightening”/”lightning?”
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: When you play with lightning, you’re burnt to a weird-news clip; when someone tells you he’s playing with lightning while he’s kissing you, your BS detector should be buzzing more than you are or else you’ll be burnt a different way; when your song rhymes “frightening” with “lightning” over what’s essentially a Taio Cruz track, it should be burnt.
[3]
Iain Mew: The second verse may feature their ropiest singing to date, and the “frightening/lightning” rhyme is just a touch clunky. Those are forgivable issues, though, when the pulsing music creates exactly the right atmosphere of fevered intensity. The stuttered beat that makes the second chorus take off in a huge way is worth a mark on its own.
[7]
Hazel Robinson: For people who look like they were the rejects from an audition for a Hollyoaks youth offender, The Wanted are surprisingly keen on us imagining what it would be like to go on holiday with them, video-wise. An odd final angle to this (Bermuda?) triangle is that this sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a Thompson holidays advert: easy to book, decent package, etc.
[5]