O-Town - 02

O-Town, short for Orlando, Florida, the cradle of teen-pop civilization, was created for the ABC reality show Making the Band. The group's debut was a frothy confection of slick dance-pop hits that sold 2 million copies. With two hard years of touring under their belts, group members have stayed together and moved into a house in Santa Monica, California, where they cowrote six of the songs on their second offering and enlisted one of rap's royalty to work with them. Nelly cowrote and produced "Favorite Girl" and adds his trademark vocals to "Make Her Say." Since leaving the world of TV, O-Town has moved away from their boy-band beginnings. Switching from hip-hop to dance to pop, they sometimes come across as a band in search of a sound. But O-Town's collective heart really seems to be in guitar-driven rock. They give Bon Jovi a run for their money on the rather overwrought "These Days," while "From the Damage" could have been lifted off a Goo Goo Dolls disc. O-Town is a band in transition, but give them credit for taking over the reins of their career. Maybe by the next album, they'll figure out what they want to be now that they've grown up. --Jaan Uhelszki Amazon.com

From the boy band era

Yes, they had a reality show. Yes, the first album was as sugery as it could get. And yes, the group has since disbanded. But, this album my folks is like none other (in the sense that it spoke volumes about the grouop as a pop act).

It gets off to a good start with the opening tracks. Nice guitars and acoustics give it an edgier feel, and sets up the album. One immediately begins to wonder if they had been wrong about this group. They continue on the same path delivering songs about love lost, love found, fun times, and their "Favority Girl."

But, what strikes me about this album is that their is an artistic air about it not found previously. As the boy band era began to decline, groups still around realized it was time to pick up the old pen and paper and come up with soings that spoke to their fans and the masses in a different way. O-town has done this with this album. On songs like "Suddenly" and "From The Damage" you get a sense of a maturing group, one who understands that crooning and dancing aren't the only way to win fans.

However, there are still remnants of that old sugar pop in songs like "Girl Like That". But, since they are in the minority this time around, you forgive them for those attempts and focus on the other songs that make you happy.

This is not the best pop album to listen to, but it isn' the worst either. May 29, 2007

More grown up than the first...

The second album from O-Town is a bit more grown up than the first...more moody and with really great songs. The standout songs on this album for me are "From The Damage", "Over Easy", "Favorite Girl", "Craving", "You Can't Lose Me", and "These Are The Days". These songs show more emotion and range. The rest of the songs are either bad or not as good as they could have been ("Make Her Say" and "I Only Dance With You"). I honestly can't really listen to the rest of the album. But it's still a good album. Those 6 songs were enough for me. January 21, 2006

disapointment

O-Town's first album was great,the lyrics were good and so was the music.On this album they tried to do an alternative rock thing,it sucks.Alternative rock and boy bands don't go together!But I do like one song from this album "I only dance with you",the george micheal remake. June 4, 2005

Now I know why they broke up.....

O-Town hmm..where do I start? Well their first album was a success, their tour an A+ but their new album "o2" didn't show anything.

In 2001 many Boybands tried to stay alive from the R&B,Rap and Punk Rock Riots but as you can tell they all failed, O-Town were the last Boyband to breakup and many wen't on to their Solo Acts but sadly again none of them went anywhere.

Today pop is gone Solo but I don't think we will ever hear that "Bubble Gum" pop sound again, sure Backstreet boyz and Maroon 5 are around but they don't have the sound like they had before.

This album was not expected, they tried to add "Today's" music with guitar,drums and Powerpop beats but it didn't live up to what we all hear now.

R.I.P. June 1, 2005

Want a real review from a music lover? Read this

I know it's easy to just toss this album aside labeling it "boy band bubble gum pop," but it's so much more than that. This group really tried their hardest here. The first CD was the result of a tv show, and their managers, abc, etc. were going for a certain kind of sound to compete with the backstreet boys and N*Sync and all of those boy bands. This CD, however, shows so much more of their personalities. They all realized they didn't want to be just another boy band. While some songs, like Favorite Girl," and "Make Her Say," still resonate gum-drop pop with lyrics like "She was my favorte girl/ she was sweet as candy", and "in the third row, cornrows, dancing slow, she's as cool as an eskimo," I still like the cd overall.
I know the CD's not winning any awards for lyrics, but that's largely due to the songs that weren't co-written by the members of the group. Plus, I didn't start listening to this cd expecting to find the meaning of life or anything. But it did have some songs that I really loved. "I Showed Her" is an incredible showcase of Dan's voice. I love the breakdown of oohs and ohhs. Adn while upon first encountering the song, "Been Around the World" you get that pop-y Otown-debut-cd feel, ("Been around the world and I, I can't find my lover... I don't know where she can be"), you realize they just might be onto something. It sounds kinda like all the touring and commercializing wasn't what they wanted ("Been around the world and I, I can't even find myself"). Good stuff.
"Craving," "Over Easy," "From the Damage," "These are the Days," and "Suddenly" have good vocals, instrument and sound. These guys aren't your Liquid-dreamers anymore. If they hadn't broken up and whatshisname hadn't gotten married, I think a 3rd cd would have shown promise. They would've maybe gotten rid of the teenage girl pinup sound altogether (since they realized they weren't making money anyway, it would've been more about them having fun playing the guitar and writing music from the heart). But that's not gonna happen, now, is it? Good luck with your day jobs, O-Town, I'll miss you. March 13, 2005

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