Fed up with the restraints of their major-label contract,
McFly broke free of Island Records and founded a label of their own, Super Records, in 2008. Their fourth album and first independently released effort,
Radio:Active, finds them growing more musically ambitious than in years past, trying out several different styles of youth-oriented guitar pop/rock. It also finds them taking themselves more seriously as an album-oriented power pop band, rather than a singles-driven boy band. Their change in attitude is most clearly evident on the lead single, "One for the Radio" (as in, "Here's another song for the radio"), with its "We don't care!" singalong chant. By and large, however,
McFly play it straight on
Radio:Active. There are a few songs like "Falling in Love," one of the album's best, that are surprisingly earnest and impassioned for this former boy band. The symphonic nu-metal rocker "POV" is another example. Other songs are simply a lot of fun. "Everybody Knows" boasts a big guitar riff à la
Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," and "Do Ya" brings to mind
Cheap Trick with its "Do ya, do ya, do ya, do ya love me?" singalong chant. In the end, there are enough fun songs to balance out the ambitious ones. The fun songs tend to be the best on
Radio:Active, even if the ambitious ones are perhaps most interesting. The wide range of material here makes it one of
McFly's more well-rounded full-length efforts. The singles are here, for sure, but so are quite a few interesting album tracks on which the band tries something new. Much was made of
McFly's decision to include ten-track promotional copies of
Radio:Active in the English weekly newspaper The Main on Sunday on July 20, 2008. The retail version of the CD was released two months later and included four extra songs, most notably the new single "Lies," plus a bonus DVD and a 32-page booklet. ~ Jason Birchmeier