Released: June 9
Having dabbled in synths on their last album, McFly go back to what they do best with a bold collection of all-out guitar tunes.
Echoing classics from their catalogue like 5 Colours In Her Hair and Obviously – both of which turn 20 next year – the latest LP from the boys sees them turn up the volume and let loose on what’s undoubtedly their most authentic album yet.
“At the start of the process, we all got together and said what they wanted this new album to be. We all had this one thing in common, and it was guitars,” the group explains. “We love being on tour and playing live, and we hate this weird pressure where you don’t get played on the radio if you have guitars in your songs.
“That was always in the back of our heads, so we decided to forget all about it and that same day Tom wrote Where Did All The Guitars Go? on the way home. On every album, there’s a song which becomes a foundation, a lightbulb moment, and this was it.”
Opening the collection, it’s an ode to the pop-punk days of the early-noughties and its impact on teens like McFly, who pose: ‘Who’s gonna play for the kids with long hair when nobody cares? / How will they cope with the pain?’
Follow-up Land of the Bees is similarly self-referential as the ‘old’ McFly announce their return, while I’m Fine is bursting with ironic angst and God of Rock & Roll feeds into the themes of the LP for a classic stadium filler.
Bringing together inspirations from across the decades, the electronic verses on Forever’s Not Enough lean into a lost era of late-eighties rock and roll when synths began to infiltrate the genre, while Route 55 references the sounds of the seventies with a standout singalong chorus.
On closing track Shine On, they once again reach out with a reassuring mantra for standing proud and living life boldly and authentically – a sentiment reflected across an album that’s unashamedly McFly.
Of their mission this time around, the band says: “Guitars, honesty, energy, all these personality traits are what give us the band’s identity. We want to reach that kid with long hair, get them excited about music and make them want to pick up a guitar and jump on their bed. That’s what this record is about.”
‘Power To Play’ is out June 9 via BMG.
