Boy bands dominate this week's new releases

By Chris Lew
Daily Forty-Niner

• 2gether 2gether Again (TVT)

  The station that pioneered reality television with shows like "The Real World" and "Road Rules" now brings us the mock-documentary about the trials and tribulations of the boy band 2gether. To further expand the legitimacy of the documentary, the band has released two cds, the second not-so-cleverly titled "2gether Again" is scheduled to hit stores tomorrow.

  What sounds like a promising concept of poking fun at the current pop music scene, turns into an attempt to cash in on the scene before it completely crumbles. Unlike Spinal Tap who poked fun at the hair metal scene of the late '70s and early '80s, 2gether has apparently started taking itself seriously.   While songs like "The Hardest Part of Breaking Up (Is Getting Back Your Stuff)" and "U&U&Me" evoke a laugh by obviously mocking the current music trend, tracks like "Every Minutes, Every Hour" and "You're the Only One That's Real" sound like something the Backstreet Boys could get away with.

  Because of this, 2gether's target audience is mostly the same audience of the "real" boy groups out there and the band will probably dominate MTV's Total Request Live countdown for the next couple months. Sadly enough another brilliant concept with potential will fall victim to the collective evil known as pop music.
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• Cheap Trick The Authorized Greatest Hits (Sony Legacy)

  One of the more influential bands of the late '70s and early '80s, Cheap Trick has drawn from its massive catalog to present the world with their definitive greatest hits collection, "The Authorized Greatest Hits."

  The album boasts songs from their earlier days such as their first major hit "Surrender" to their later day hits "The Flame" (which appears as a previously unreleased live version) and a cover of Elvis' "Don't Be Cruel."

  While the legendary live album "At Budokan" remains the most essential disc to own from the band that has influenced acts such as Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana, this disc serves as a perfect synopsis of the band's studio history to this point.
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• The Scorpions Moment of Glory (EMI Classics)

  A washed-up metal band that had its biggest hits in the mid-eighties, and has seen a decline in interest in recent years has decided to record some songs (including two new ones) with an orchestra.

  No, this is not Metallica. Besides that washed-up metal band's biggest hits came in the early nineties. This band is The Scorpions who struck it big with "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Wind of Change".

  Seeing how playing with an orchestra gave Metallica a short-lived new lease on life, the Scorpions decided to give it a shot, recording 11 songs with the Berlin Philharmonic. Largely made up of songs from the 1984 album "Love at First Sting," "Moment of Glory" will most likely not receive the same accolades Metallica's "S & M" did, given the fact that the band has not been relevant since the anthemic "Wind of Change" came out in 1990.
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• Take 5 Against All Odds (Elektra)

  In what hopefully is the final wave of the insipid trend of boy bands which has taken 12-year-old-girls hearts by storm, Orlando's Take 5 makes their debut with the release "Against All Odds."

  The album's title could not be more appropriate.

  Given how over-saturated the market already is with these kinds of groups, it would take no less then divine intervention for this band, who just got off tour with Britney Spears, to succeed. If there is any doubt whether this band is just like all the rest, let it be known that they are on Trans Continental Records, the same label that gave the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync their big breaks. With absurd song titles like "Shake it Off" and "I Give," the band evokes as many laughs as 2gether. The only difference is 2gether is intentionally trying to be funny.
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Other new releases

• Amil: All Money Is Legal (Roc-a-Fella/Columbia)
• The Juliana Theory: Emotion Is Dead (Tooth & Nail)
• Teen Idols: Full Leather Jacket (Honest Don's/Fat Wreck)
• Agent Orange: This, That-N-The Other Thing (Cleopatra)
• Bim Skala Bim: Krinkle (Beatville)
• John Wesley Harding: The Confessions of St. Ace (Malt/Mammoth)
• Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks: Beatin' the Heat (Surfdog)

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